Official: Rotor DR1 Community Collaboration Thread

StoneKap

Executive Producer
Admin
Moderator
Mentor

www.rotordr1.com

Most of the conversation moved here:
http://rotordr1.com/forumpb

We’re embarking on an exciting new project, a sci-fi series called Rotor DR1. And with this project, we’re trying something completely different: shaping the story based on audience feedback. New Media makes this kind of interaction possible, and we’re pumped to test this unique audience engagement as a tool to create an intriguing, one-of-a-kind web series.

Here’s our plan: we’re going to release Rotor DR1 in segments, starting with a concept trailer. We’d like to see what you think about each of the elements represented in the trailer, then create the first episode based on your feedback. Our goal is for Rotor DR-1 to be an example of what New Media could look like, with an audience that is involved from the ground up. We want to make something together, something that results in a truly collaborative series.

Recently, we’ve been working on the general premise for the story. Rotor DR1 will take place in the future, after some cataclysmic event has occurred. There is no government, half the world’s people are dead or missing and the sky is full of autonomous drones. The story will focus on our hero (a 16 year old boy) trying to survive who, after learning that his father is alive, sets out to find him.

How? Well, that’s really up to you. You see, we have some ideas for key moments in the story, but we really want our audience to help get us there. That’s why your feedback is paramount in this project, so we can collaborate and tell this story together.

Words can’t express how excited we are for Rotor DR1. With your help and input, we believe we can use this project to take New Media to new heights!

This train is movin'... Please share your thoughts now!

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I will continuously update this post with new visual elements as they develop.
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DR1 Ver 01 - Prototype:
Design: John Pinkerton
DR1-IMG_2197.png

Hair and wardrobe test:
attachment.php

attachment.php


Mood Video:
(a test shoot)

BEHIND THE SCENES
BTS_MG_1310.jpg MakeupBTS-MG_1348.jpg DR1-Ver01-Maiden.png
 
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Eric Deagle

Junior Member
Sounds interesting, are these drones in your production going to be just as obnoxious and deadly as the ones in the movie Oblivion? Could have a Battlestar Galactica take on this as well! Have the drones themselves divided and on a verge of a drone civil war. one group are vicious killing machines the other wishes to help humanity and stop the violence.
 

StoneKap

Executive Producer
Admin
Moderator
Mentor
Sounds interesting, are these drones in your production going to be just as obnoxious and deadly as the ones in the movie Oblivion? Could have a Battlestar Galactica take on this as well! Have the drones themselves divided and on a verge of a drone civil war. one group are vicious killing machines the other wishes to help humanity and stop the violence.

This is awesome input! It may be a bit beyond our budget range ;)
But, keep the ideas flowing!
 

StoneKap

Executive Producer
Admin
Moderator
Mentor
Just an FYI regarding the crew...

Eric Monroe will be helping with the multirotor designs and agreed to be our pilot for the drones. His credits include: The one who introduced Bixler and myself, the Angry Swordsman and the Second Cameraman/Target. He is truly one of the best multirotor pilots I have ever met!

Eric's website:
http://www.shadowstudioshd.com/
 
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stay-fun

Helicopter addict
How about he finds this ancient drone, from the year 2014, and needs to use that to find his father? There could be some education in setting it up as well!
 

Eric Deagle

Junior Member
you got the creative gears turning! The main character could have some sort of genetic marker or something that makes the drones not attack him or gives him the power to control/manipulate them allowing the character to locate and rescue his father.

Get your project on Kickstarter, if a dude can get over $50,000 for potato salad you surely can make this work!

-E
 

StoneKap

Executive Producer
Admin
Moderator
Mentor
How about he finds this ancient drone, from the year 2014, and needs to use that to find his father? There could be some education in setting it up as well!

I like the way you think! What year do you think this all takes place?
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
I like the way you think! What year do you think this all takes place?

Interesting question . . .

Is it believeable that drones today would be smart enough to go "skynet" on us? If not how far off?

For our hero, was he alive during the war -- just born or merely younger with memories? Born long after? could have an angel on the father being involved in the chaos (casued or failed in preventing . . . oooh the posibilities!)

I have my personal answers to these . . . curious to what others might say though . . .

Chad, specifc Q for you: Are you envisioning this to be a perpetual series or a fixed-ish length story arc?
 

Tactical Ex

Senior Member
A non-key moment you might consider is explaining HOW the drones became what they are in the current day. Don't tell the audience how at the start but feed little bits in through a side arc. I'm thinking a good way to tie it in may be that the kid meets someone along the way who insists on helping him find his dad. To the protagonist this ally's motive is mutual survival and somewhat out of charity but the ally keeps a hidden motive that the audience is lead to believe is dark or evil. As the protagonist slowly bonds the ally and learns more about him/her, he also learns about the true origin of the drones which the ally has a hidden connection to. Somehow the ally's interest in finding the protagonists father should oppose whatever mission or purpose the father has so that there is tension between the ally and the protagonist nearing the climax of this particular story arc.

Just my imagination wandering on this....
 

Tactical Ex

Senior Member
I like the way you think! What year do you think this all takes place?

I'd vote for the year 2025, its close enough that modern viewers might identify more strongly with and the audience can more easily immerse themselves in but also far enough away that you can experiment with ideas about technology that don't exist yet without forcing them to consider breaking their suspension of disbelief.
 

danwennberg

Junior Member
Ancient 2014 drone

How about he finds this ancient drone, from the year 2014, and needs to use that to find his father? There could be some education in setting it up as well!

The young boy is rather quiet and shy, but always taking in everything he sees and learns. Often picked on for his dreamed up ideas. Played by Josh Scott! No one pays much attention to him, but his adventures could almost be dreamlike, as he tries numerous things to revive or alter the ancient craft. Maybe a bit of Bixler/MacGyver tricks, of some which actually work. Learning, expanding, experimenting.

Perhaps a dream that he learns that he is a descendant of Orville and Wilbur Wright, and ideas come to him through them and the dreams.

Fun project, Chad!
 

cranialrectosis

Faster than a speeding face plant!
Mentor
A non-key moment you might consider is explaining HOW the drones became what they are in the current day. Don't tell the audience how at the start but feed little bits in through a side arc.

jhitesma or dan modding a KK2 with an experimental Atmel chip and it overrode it's failsafe and just flew away to create it's own super intelligent community of renegade drones intent on destruction.

I gotta ask, because I am having a bit of a Douglas Adams scifi comedy moment, can the search be for his mother not his father? If so you could cameo Martha in the final episode as the evil drone-cyborg, KK2 implanted leader.

Something tells me the 'evil' drones should be white plastic with a HAL red eye and bear the initials CIH.
 

earthsciteach

Moderator
Moderator
Personally, I like the idea that the drones are simply machines with no agenda. Rather, they are tools of some mysterious, nefarious, self-serving, behind-the-curtain group bent on controlling the remaining population. This group has slowly and methodically introduced a certain set of "norms" in what is left of society. The ultimate goal of these norms is to control peoples' actions and beliefs to the group's benefit.

The father was one who realized the intentions of this group and rebelled. Maybe his son, at 16, has started to question the actions of the world around him, as well. In doing so, he comes in contact with people who knew or knew of his father. While no individual paints a comprehensive picture of his father, each provides some insight into his father's past.

Meanwhile, through their constant surveillance, the "group" has noticed the son making contact with the father's past acquaintances and begins tailing, even perhaps, attacking the 16 y.o. At this point, the kid, being resourceful, builds his a drone as his own means of surveillance and protection.
 

stay-fun

Helicopter addict
I like the way you think! What year do you think this all takes place?

Uhh, I hadn't thought of that. It just came across my mind :p
I think the old drone could have an interface with a newer computer (KITT-like, as in knight rider) or something. Although, then this comes to mind:

Is it believeable that drones today would be smart enough to go "skynet" on us? If not how far off?

I'm not sure Josh S wants his babies picked up by those drones (see the 'what is a drone' episode).
In other words: make sure that the (self-aware?) drones are the good guys!
 

ryanfgirard

Junior Member
Hey guys,

Just wanted to say these are all incredible ideas. I love the creativity. Chad and I will be checking the forums daily so keep em coming! Really looking forward to this project.
 

Balu

Lurker
Staff member
Admin
Moderator
SciFi lately has a lot of mystery behind it.

Perhaps the drones are still controlled by someone, somewhere and there are a few hints leading in that direction? (No, not his father, that would be too easy =).
 

themajik1

Monkey/Bear Poker
Mentor
I would think somewhere around 2020 to 2025 as well... Not too far off of where we are now.

Maybe found some episodes of FliteTest on an old computer at a FliteTesters house that is now abandoned. All the parts are there for him to build a quad or hex, GoPro 6 or 7 (3D of course), and the newest 3D Fat Sharks. (It is year 2023 or so!)

These are what is used to help him find his Father that was a Micro-Biologist that was on the verge of breakthrough in discovering the cure to the (insert disease of choice here that wiped out half the planet, preferably alien that rode a comet or meteor that started the destruction) and the 2 factions that are also trying to find him as well. One side wants to help humanity, and the other is trying to control the rest of the world. The "evil" side is wanting to only help the criminal element and is actually controlled by the alien disease.

The dark character that is secretly watching the boy, is actually a friend/partner in Micro-Biology of the father that wants to help but does not want to be found out by the other faction.

Well, that is kind of how I would start anyway, something like that...

Sounds fun and exciting to be a part of this!!!
 
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