In my previous Blog entry I spoke of the War of the Worlds broadcast and how it was in fact a precursor to the Found Footage Genre.
In today’s industry you constantly find a Found Footage
picture being released and I have to say there is a simple reason for this. Now
many of you want to complain and say that it is because it is cheap and easy
and I can tell you something it is not cheap and easy.
Take it from someone that makes Found Footage films, especially
if you are using special visual effects.
The real reason for the popularity of these films is simply
because it is the society that we live in.
One of the many gripes that I hear about the subgenre is
that the cameraman would clearly cut at some point and I have to say as a
documentary filmmaker myself we are taught not to cut.
When I say that this is the time that we live in I mean it
and on a personal note when my home was destroyed in the fire back in December
I can’t tell you how many people while we were running and evacuating from the
fire were filming the events with their phones much similar to the films in
this subgenre.
The first actual film of its kind is Cannibal Holocaust but
the film that was the most influential is definitely the Blair Witch
Project.
I have to admit that this film is one of my favorites not
just because of the film itself but the marketing that the film utilized that
is now standard in today’s market.
Going into production in late 1997 with a budget of $25,000
the film was directed by Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick and stars Heather
Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams as three student filmmakers
who venture into the woods to shoot a documentary of the spirit of a witch in
the woods of Maryland and are never seen again. The film is the “Found Footage”
that was located in the woods.
The poster for the film featured inverted color shot of the
woods and the words “in October 1994 three filmmaking students disappeared in
the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary. A year
later, their footage was found” being the only details given in the film.
Sánchez and Myrick camped in a trailer while the actors
filmed their own footage while being given direction by the filmmakers who
would stage events at night to scare the cast giving them actual reactions to
the events climaxing with the actors ending in an old house and the cameras
falling till the film runs out.
The Blair Witch Project premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film
Festival and was instantly picked up by Artisan Entertainment to be released in
the summer becoming the sleeper hit.
The Summer of 1999 saw the release of Star Wars: Episode 1,
The Mummy, and Deep Blue Sea. However it was the summer of the Blair Witch.
Everywhere you looked you saw the Blair Witch. As a matter
of fact that Halloween when the Blair Witch was released on VHS and DVD you saw
all of the parodies.
I have to mention the original XXX Parodies were released
around that time. There were two as a matter of fact.
The Jim Wynorski directed Bare Wench Project starring Nikki
Fritz and the late Lorissa McComas and Seduction Cinema’s Erotic Witch Project with Laurie Wallace and Darian Crane.
You also had the Scooby Doo Project on Cartoon Network to
promote the marathon for Halloween.
My personal favorite Blair Witch Parody was that Halloween
Eve on Monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs was the Nair Witch Project in which
Joe Bob, Rusty and Summer were lost in the Hollywood Hills searching for the
ghost of the Nair Witch.
Also in the winter of that season saw the release of the
Three volume Blair Witch PC Games all working as prequels to the film.
My personal favorite was the Rustin Parr Volume that was a
sequel to Nocturne which was one of the best games of it’s kind made at the
time.
As I said the Blair Witch was all the rage.
I think that the reason was because of the marketing of the
film.
Now at first they did in fact try to market the film as a
true story with the missing posters of
the three students circulating around the internet for months before the
release of the film.
I think that someone
may have remembered what happened with Cannibal Holocaust.
In 1980 the director of the film was put on trial for making
a snuff film and had to have the actors that were “killed in the film” appear
before a judge to prove that they were still alive.
The Producers of the Blair Witch Project I think seceded not
to go that far and they had Leonard, Williams and Donahue also doing press for the film.
The marketing added to the film. The Website never aluded to
the fact that the film was in fact fiction giving audiences more detail into
the legend of the Blair Witch.
The Sci-Fi Channel aired a special documentary The Curse of
the Blair Witch to promote the film, the special is a bonus feature on the
Blair Witch DVD and even saw a VHS release.
The Curse of the Blair Witch I feel is as freaky as the film
that it is marketing for. Seeking further into the stories that are mostly
alluded to in the film giving more details into Rustin Parr and Coffin Rock and
adding to the mythology with the story of a ghostly white hand that kills a
little girl during a community picnic as well as giving coverage to the
disappearance of the young filmmakers.
The part of the film that stands out the most is the Mystic
Occurrences segments that were made to look like they were filmed in the 1970s
for UHF Stations.
There was also a book published that also gave more details
of the Witch and featured Heather’s Journal talking more about the characters
and their lives and some of the other details that weren’t discussed in the
movie such as Heather’s boyfriend that was never mentioned in the film.
The film is also much more personal for me because I was
like that when I was younger if you see the scenes where the college students
are filming everything that moved.
We did those things when we were young and had a camera to
film, and the segments remind me of the shoots that I went on when I was
younger and working with a small crew that we all would stay in one room in the
evenings.
I also like the film’s interview subjects that became
characters in themselves. Characters like the mother and her baby daughter
Ingrid that is scared of the stories that are told.
My favorites are the Father and Son-in-Law that are fishing
in the stream arguing about the truth of the legend.
Now the Blair Witch Project did have a brief Controversy.
The film The Last Broadcast which was produced first however
was released after tried to claim that Blair Witch was a rip-off of their film
and while there were similarties the film featured much of it’s own original
sgements and a far different ending and is highly recommended for Found Footage
fans.
The film is highly dated but It still has the appeal and it
even changed the way that we market out films today.
Naturally a sequel was inevitable.
Now here is where the Blair Witch lost it’s thunder and to
be quite honest with you the sequel was not that bad and is a true example of
how much damage a studio can do to a film.
Now someone recently pointed out that in reality no studio executive wants to destroy a film they are just
trying to make the film more marketable and they infact have the best
intentions but you know what they say about the Road to Hell.
Directed by Joe Berlinger who was hot off of Paradise Lost 1 and 2 and the effect of those films are definitely seen in the film.
First off the format on the film is far different than it's predecessor. Where the Blair Witch Project had the found footage format Blair Witch 2 was narrative following a small group of Blair Witch enthusiasts who venture out into the woods on a tour led by a pre Burn Notice Jeffrey Donovan and fall victim to the witch.
While I am a defender of the film because I know the truth behind it.
In reality the studio re edited the film and shot additional scenes which destroyed the narrative and the direction that the director wanted to go.
Book of Shadows also featured a game inside the movie called
The Secret of Esrever which was hidden messages in the movie intended for home
video usage to solve the mystery and the ones that cracked the code would go to
the Blair Witch Website and would access a deleted scene from the film.
The film also utilized a add campaign similiar to the one
used to promote the original film, even featuring a Sci-Fi Channel similar to the Curse of the Blair Witch
titled Shadow of the Blair Witch and also the use of a book and theaters even
featured a cardboard stand telling the history of the Blair Witch made to look
like a museum display.
Where The Blair Witch Project was all the rage, Book of
Shadows Blair Witch 2 was universally panned and despised and was accused of
franchise milking and served to devalue the original film.
Granted I feel that is unfair because the film was good in
it's own right but that is around the time that audiences began to turn on the
film.
Haxan films went on to produce the short lived Blair Witch
inspired television show FreakyLinks which can be seen on the Chiller Channel.
While the hype had died down the Legacy of the Blair Witch
remains in the Found Footage genre as well as the use of the internet to
promote films.
The film also reminds me of the time that it was made and my
college days and is why it is included on my list of Halloween picks.
UPDATE Halloween 2014
I was privileged to film the QnA at the 2014 Texas Frightmare Weekend where James Wallace maderated with Heather Donahue, Michael Williams, and Joshua Leonard
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