The document analyzes the opening credits sequence of the film The Blair Witch Project through various film techniques. It summarizes that the credits are written in a messy style on forest props to fit the found footage genre and convey isolation. Shaky camerawork and transitions help set an eerie tone, while lighting grows more ominous inside near the end. Audio of rapid heartbeat-like tempo adds to suspense throughout the credits.

1. Textual Analysis:
The Blair Witch Project
By Emma Weeks

2. Basic formatting
• The way that the credits are
written onto props in the set
such as rocks and leaves fits with
the idea that this film is from the
found footage genre and takes
place predominately in the
isolation if the wild.
• The scraggly hand writing used
for the labels helps to allow the
piece to conform to the horror
genre due to the messy sprawling
font which may be associated
with the unbalanced mental
state of the writer and
subsequent danger.

3. Crediting
• Specific roles are credited
throughout the opening credits
which helps to give the film a
more personal feel.
• An example of this would be
the crediting of the films
“photography” which may not
be credited in may other films
opening credits.

4. Studio recognition
• The studio is noted here on a
rock near the beginning of the
credit sequence.

5. Film title
• The film title if featured in the
same way that roles are
credited and the studio is
referenced.

6. Barthes Semantic Code: Connotations
within the story which provide
additional meaning beyond the
denotative meaning of the action.

7. Mise en scene
• A feeling of isolation and
claustrophobia is created
throughout the text through
the use of shots of abandoned
buildings and shots of the
forest canopy.
• The lack of humans and
animals in the sequence adds
to the idea of isolation and
makes the audience uneasy.

8. Editing
• Shaken distortion and faded
transitions are combined to
convey the eerie tone of the
film to the audience and to set
the tone for the films genre of
horror.
• The writing on the forest
objects has been overlaid in
the editing process to create a
more stark and unsettling
contrast between humanity
and nature.

9. Lighting
• Natural bright lighting is used
but the shots are generally
claustrophobic due to the
constricting forest canopy.
• Near the end of the credits the
sequence moves inside which
allows for ominous spotlight
lighting which creates an air of
mystery and horror due to the
fear that the audience may
feel as they do not know what
is happening in the shot
outside of the spotlight of
light.

10. Audio
• A composition with a rapid tempo is implemented in the opening
sequence this rapid tempo creates suspense in the audience as it
somewhat mimics rapid breathing and a rapid heart beat.

11. Camera shots
• A number of shots are used
throughout the piece however
the most relevant shots to
mention are the close shots
which are employed to allow
the camera to focus on the
credit writing.
• The camera work is all shaky
in order to reference the fact
that this film is made up of
found footage.