Blair Witch Project Analysis

The beginning of found footage films can be traced back to the 1980's with Cannibal Holocaust, it used both a staged filmmaking style and introduced a lost footage, then recovered and shown to the public style of filmmaking. While Cannibal Holocaust was one of the first films, The Blair Witch Project (1999) gave a new life to the genre which has been kept afloat by the likes of Cloverfield (2008) and the Paranormal Activity series. Found footage films are feature length movies, shorts, or webseries made to look and to have the feel of real life filmed events that were lost and subsequently discovered and made available to the public. “It can also accommodate horror movies filmed diegetic hand held cameras, surveillance cameras or both” (Heller-Nicholas
Still, there’s no denying that it was 1999’s The Blair Witch Project was a huge came changer for the genre. “The film itself grossed nearly $250 million worldwide total remains the highest box office tally ever for a found-footage film.” (Box Office Mojo) The Blair Witch Project is a story of three documentary film students that head off to investigate the legends of the Blair Witch. Heather, Joshua, and Michael enter the woods around Burkittsville, Maryland, with two cameras. Heather wants to document everything in as straightforward way as possible and keeps the viewer engaged with the story. Being a mockumentary, The Blair Witch Project primarily draws on all the elements of the documentary genre to achieve its effects. Additionally, the film had a brilliant marketing campaign that used the internet in a way that had not really been done before, causing many potential viewers to question whether or not the story behind the film was fictional. This was a crucial part of the film’s appeal, and the viral marketing campaign both helped get word out about the film and left people questioning its authenticity. As in most found footage films, we begin the film by knowing the fate of the characters due to the fact that the film is formatted as found footage that has been discovered in their absence which can contribute to the narrative because we know these characters are
Cloverfield was a found footage film but also steps into the subgenre of monster film. Shot with a home camcorder, follows six young New York City residents fleeing from a gigantic monster and various other smaller creatures that attack the city. The film was shot and edited in a way that shows us the footage from the night of the attack but also cuts in with other home video footage. One criticism found footage films face is why does the main character keep filming even during these horrific events? Cloverfield deals with this criticism due to the fact that our main camera man, Hud, keeps the camera plugged to his eye even while he’s running through the destruction of his city, debris flying around, trying to cross a fast-collapsing bridge and witnessing friends melt down, bleed out and even die. The characters do have a discussion as to why they are still filming. Hud, states “People need to see this, you know? It's gonna be important. People are going to watch this.”(Cloverfield 2008) His character feels the need to capture everything so that he is able to show everyone else later on. Although it does seem unrealistic at times for Hud to keep filming as his friends are climbing through half destroyed, attacked, and die, an interesting point of the constant filming is that we never really get a good look at the monster attacking New York City. Anytime we come close to the monster, our view point is