Joselyne Hernandez
Professor Charbonneau
October 29th 2015
FIL4364

The New Found Footage

In the horror genre, filmmakers often rely on special effects to feature what cannot be filmed, an actual true entity will most likely never make it in the theater screen, but the experience of suspense is what keeps the genre alive in the market. The experience a horror film delivers is one for audiences to finally experience the supernatural through storytelling, and the more they relate to the characters and the story, the more the genre achieves within the film. Writers have been doing this for centuries, and the horror genre is not new within the film industry, but with the passing of time and civilization’s evolving the way it is, it has become harder to deliver true horror and suspense in the 21st century. With such a visual venue, cinema audiences want to experience the supernatural in the most organic way possible. Therefore, a film like the Blair Witch Project could only succeed due to its ability to recreate the “archival effect”. Some skeptical audiences might not fall for the entirety of the storyline and the lie of its “foudness”, but one detail remains true, “The Blair Witch fans attest to the fact that the sense of the “found” nevertheless persists within my broadened definition of the archival document.” (49).
The 1999 horror film Blair Witch Project opens with the intro “In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, while shooting a documentary… A year later their footage was found”. The film sets up the audience to believe a true story told by found footage, without giving much backdrop to the story, the filmmakers used a strategy that could have only worked once, create a film where the characters do all of the filming themselves so that it feels as if the audience is also experimenting the haunting. In this story there is no computer animated witch, no jump scares, no special effects; it is pure suspense that keeps the audience hooked on the horror, and gives the archival effect a new purpose. The significance of the archival effect is not in its authenticity, but in its overall effect it transfers, and whether the archival is fabricated or not, its effect in its audience is the one that truly matters. The three missing students, Heather, Joshua, and Michael start filming their journey with one true purpose, to tell the story of their town’s urban legend, The Blair Witch. They all start as moderately likeable characters, young and full of life, and it is their very own eagerness to put their lives in danger in order to capture the unknown that makes them heroes in their very own way. From the very beginning, the use of two different film cameras becomes apparent. The first of two, a home video camera, had an initial purpose of capturing the everyday footage, almost like a behind the scenes reel, or commentary footage. This particular camera has a lower resolution, and was also the only camera able to shoot in color. One reason why the filmmakers decided to do this was because of the significance that the warm colors and light reflected in the forest meant to the characters. The home camera was the one they relied on the most, and whether it was to film arguments they had with each other, or the terrifyingly crafted twigs the witch was leaving outside their tent, the color camera captured the warm colors of the forest while the sun was shining, providing the characters with hope that the haunting would not happen while the sun was up. Although the sunlight became their only true sign of hope, it also gave them an opportunity for these characters to clash with one another. The arguments were happening during the day, and they only became more psychological as the days went by and nobody knew how to get out of the woods. This camera was also the only camera that could successfully film the real horror of being lost in the woods, and the feelings of loss and desperation that come from losing hope in returning home.
The use of the black and white film camera was initially intended for the actual documentary Heather, Josh and Michael were shooting. In the beginning, we see Heather speak in a storytelling tone, often trying to inflict some suspense in the viewers. The quality of the film camera is much higher than the home camera, with a better contrast and ability to focus on a subject. This camera was often used to film only important scenes which were to be included in the future documentary. For this film camera, because it only shot in black and white, there was no symbolism for hope to get out. The characters had been removed from civilization, and show to be one of the very last living species in the woods. This gives the sense that the characters are so much more isolated with the living, than with the dead. If anything, the camera symbolized their loss, and how darkness had been near them the entire time they were filming, even before they went in the woods.
The professional film camera, shooting in black and white, gave the film an aura of true suspense in its found footage; Baron states that “the “foundness” is one of the perceived qualities through which certain documents attain their “aura” and their evidentiary authority.” (49). Specially even more so in the final scene when Michael and Heather go into the abandoned cabin in search for Michael, and the two cameras switch so rapidly, that as an audience, our only job is to just sit and watch, and try not to blink for one moment, hoping the film camera catches a glimpse or a shadow that would give us a clue on the real form of the Blair Witch. Ultimately, as many people would have expected, there was no real witch caught on camera, nor do we get to see the bodies of our beloved film students petrified right in front of our eyes. The closest we, as an audience, get to full closure is when we are shown the body of Michael facing the corner of a wall, just standing. The movie ends there, with no other resolution or way for the audience to truly know what happened. According to the intro, the film was just found, and we are not given any more information on where it was found, whether the students’ remains were nearby, or who in fact found the reel. From the very beginning, the message was problematic and it gave no consistent backstory. The audience is left with the question of was all of it even real? Are these “film students” just actors? Then reality hits, The Blair Witch Project was all fabricated. The true genius remains in the way the directors, Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick, recreated the found footage effect, and made it believable to the masses. According to Baron, “When we are told – directly or through implication – that certain documents were found or discovered rather than newly produced for an appropriation film, we may be tricked into experiencing the archive effect” (49).
Some people might argue that the filmmakers lied to their audiences by providing false information to profit from a film that might not have done so otherwise, if it wasn’t for its archival effect. I would like to argue that while the “foundness” of Blair Witch Project was absolutely fabricated to bring horror fans to the cinema, its genius exists in the way the film was marketed as found footage horror, and not just non fiction. The effect its “foundness” provides can only be achieved by creating an emotional connection to Heather, Josh and Michael. The most powerful scene, is perhaps when Josh corners Heather after being lost in the woods for hours, and gives her a powerful statement that leaves her in tears, “OK, here's your motivation. You're lost, you're angry in the woods, and no one is here to help you. There's a witch and she keeps leaving stuff outside your door. There's no one here to help you! She left little trinkets, you took one of them, she ran after us. There's no one here to help you! We walked for 15 hours today, we ended up in the same place! There's no one here to help you, THAT'S your motivation! THAT'S YOUR MOTIVATION!” This very own powerful statement summarizes the entire film. The horror was never in the whether or not the witch was going to pop up on screen; it was the fact that we as an audience were also experiencing the loss and distress they were feeling. This very own special connection with the characters is what makes Blair Witch Project so memorable. The suspense is felt in the audience as if we were there ourselves. It is an effect that could’ve not been achieved if it wasn’t for the archival effect achieved by the use of the home video camera, and the black and white film camera.
The Blair Witch Project kick started the found footage phenomenon in the horror genre nobody could’ve expected. By creating the false archival effect, Blair Witch Project relied on the suspense of the unknown and the backstory of missing film students to translate its message. At the end of the film, it doesn’t matter weather or not the events were fabricated, all that matters is the effect the film had on its audience. If the filmmakers could successfully convey true suspense and translate that into the film screen, then the archival effect has been successfully achieved and delivered.

Works Cited

Baron, Jaimie. "The Archive Effect: Archival Footage as an Experience of Reception." Projections: The Journal for Movies and Mind 6.2 (2012): 102-20. Web.

The Blair Witch Project. Dir. Daniel Myrick. 1999. Film.