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One of the first screenplays I ever wrote was found footage. Back in the old VHS days when such ideas were still edgy. The first few were a lot of fun. Then it became a thing and I hated it, but I try to delve into trends, especially with horror films, so I embraced it. I've always found the trends of horror films to very telling of the generations they're made for. And for a while, from a filmmaking point of view, it was a lot fun to see the competition between the films, and who pulled off the gimmick the best. And then.... they just didn't stop! They kept coming! And now I won't even watch a movie if it's found footage. I'm done with that crap. They can never keep it up realistically for a 90 minute film, and things becoming increasingly ludicrous just to accommodate the shooting and exposition to move the story along. For the record, most 1st person writing has the exact same problem. Both mediums should be down in the "short" version only. Quarantine is probably my favourite film of the genre.
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The first found footage segment was used in Cannibal Holocaust (1980) long before Blair Witch Project. This technique was so unusual at the time that the director was accused of killing several actors (those who died in a found footage segment) and faced a prison sentence. Actors later had to appear in court before the judge to prove they are alive, and only then was he cleared. I always found that story amusing. 😋
shareThat might have been the first segment use of found footage but The Last Broadcast was the first movie to consist of it for its entirety (More or less).
Ah, good to know. So Blair Witch Project wasn't the first. I was also wondering about that.
shareApparently there was some contention between The Blair Witch project and The Last Broadcast as the latter seemed to think the former stole their idea and ran with it using better distributors. I don't know the outcome of any legal proceedings but it was big news on the internet at the time.
shareTLB was dynamite and came before BW.
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Yeah, my story was when the videos the skateboard kids were making were taking off and becoming a big thing and getting traded around school. A group of kids start making a skateboard video, but get killed by this guy who steals their gear and becomes fascinated by the notion of making your own movie, and begins killing people and recruiting a cult and documenting it all. This was before the Columbine massacre and everything became a disturbing reality. One of the problems with the movie is it's a real found footage movie. It doesn't have ending. It ends with them all sitting around and planning the "big event" and then saying to the camera, "You'll see the rest in the news." So it was half fake documentary, half Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. More of a deconstructed psychological thriller than anything else.
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