The document discusses the cinematography techniques used in the Blair Witch Project that contributed to its success. It used an experimental "gonzo filmmaking" style where the actors were sent into the woods with cameras and had to improvise their reactions, leading to very raw and authentic footage. This helped audiences believe the events were real. Some key techniques included amateur footage to give a first-person view, diegetic sounds from the video camera to make it believable found footage, and lack of traditional screenplay/dialogue to make the acting feel real. This unconventional style was pioneering for the time and led many audiences to think the actors were truly in danger.

1. Existing
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2. • This movie was shot in the same style to the Blair
Witch Project which uses the found footage style
horror including shock horror and panic-causing
shaky camera footage to propel substance-less
characters through a whirlwind of increasing
frightening this-isn’t-happening scares.
How is this relevant to my project
REC uses a found footage style to give the movie a more
personal film as if you are experiencing it with the
protagonist, it also gives a more immersive relationship
between the viewer and the movie as it gives the feel of the
protagonist bringing the viewer along with them, it also
mixes a unique mix of amateur shaky camera shots and
professional camera angles which gives off a good variety of
a well thought out horror movie with varied camera angles
and shots and a horror experience for the viewer that is less
professional shots which is either close ups or a first person
view to again have the viewer experience this as if they are
there in that situation for themselves, the close ups of the
protagonist holding the camera gives the audience a more
sympathetic feeling towards the protagonist as the found
footage shows the events have already happened and not
ongoing meaning that nothing can be done to help the
scared and doomed to the fate the protagonist has already
succumbed to.

3. Paranormal Activity
This movie is said to be truly scary due to its unconventional start
and finish as it begins without a traditional opening credits or title
card and finishes without credits and using raw looking security
camera footage to give an unsettling and chilling ‘true story’ feel
to the movie and giving the viewer an immersive and investing
experience as it can make them really believe that what they are
seeing could really happen or has happened which draws the
viewer in and sticks in their minds as they wonder whether or not
it is real making it one of the most memorable, unique and
revolutionising found footage horror movies of all time and its one
of the few movies you think of when you think of horror, meaning
that the found footage genre of horror if done right can leave its
mark and be the most memorable genres of all-time
How is Paranormal Activity relevant to my project
This is relevant as again it uses a sort of found footage
cctv style footage to make its impact, mixing the
professional shots to show the narration and the story
of the movie while switching to the high up shots of
the security camera, this is effective as it uses the
singular fixed camera angle to give the audience a
feeling of powerlessness as all they can do is watch
from this angle unable to see any of the ongoings
happening outside of the room the camera is setup in,
if there were something to happen outside the room all
that would be captured would be the audio meaning
that the audience is left guessing what happened until
shown to them when the camera style is the cctv
footage that is restricted to the room

4. Blair Witch Project
• Blair Witch Project is a psychological thriller, it’s a documentary style
film that’s said to be a benchmark for films like paranormal activity,
the first of its time, Blair witch project focuses on the psychological
horror rather than the slasher gore horror such as SAW or Friday the
13th its said to be intelligent, thought provoking and arguably more
scary than most other horror movies, it uses an amateur footage to
give a first person view, the footage is similar to a documentary's
footage in a way as it documents the things that happened leading
up to the turning point in the movie where things start to go wrong,
this movie uses simple costuming and lack of makeup to make it
differ from the usual horror movie trope of it looking over produced to
make it look like a fictional horror movie, instead this movie goes in
the opposite direction and makes it look somewhat poor or amateur
to make it look as real and believable movie as possible to make it
really seem like this was a real life event documented and found. The
uses of close ups and eye level camera shots used in some scenes
bring attention to the protagonist of the film’s facial expressions to
display their fear and distress. This film also uses a lot of diegetic
sounds such as the conversations between the characters and the
wind and sounds of footsteps as they walk through the movies forest
setting, the lack of use of non-diegetic sounds again makes this
movie stand-out from the usual horror movie as the sound picked up
from the video camera used to document the events seen on screen.
The use of the raw footage and diegetic sounds make this film as
believable of a product for a found footage film as possible is great
despite the films infamous lacklustre ending.

5. Blair Witch Project Cinematography
• The cinematography used in Blair Witch Project was something unique for the
time, an experimental form of filming/cinematography style called gonzo
filmmaking was used, it is seen and highly regarded as the most unique and
experimental form of filmmaking for its time. Directors Eduardo Sanchez and
Daniel Myrick sent three unknown actors into the woods with video camera
essentially having them improvise their own movie, the reason Blair Witch Project
was as successful as it was, was because the actors weren’t given a traditional
screenplay or diaglogue, because the film was heavily improvised, the ‘acting’
was so authentic and the footage was so raw it lead some audiences to believe
the actors thought it was real and that they were in real danger
• Gonzo filmmaking uses unique visual designs, mixed with a normally realistic
subject. It can be any sort of movie that involves absurd yet in the context of the
movie, realistic to the plot elements