The Cutting Edge - The Blair Witch Project

Fig 1.

The Blair Witch Project.

Directors -  Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez.

Three budding film makers go out to investigate the urban legend of the Blair Witch in a woodland near Maryland U.S.A. and document on film their findings on film. During their stay in the woodland they get lost never to be seen again. All that is left behind is what has been documented on camera and discovered in the woodland one year later.

 Fig 2.

The immediately successful aspect of this film that leaps out is the acting ability that comes from non actors. There is a feeling a sincerity that you rarely get even from the Hollywood a lister. Partly this could be down to the methods in which it was filmed, Film 4 give an interesting analogy "The dialogue between the three characters, whether scripted or improvised, is blandly life-like." The conversation is as everyday and uninteresting as the average conversations that go on day to day. This makes the whole episode feel like you really are watching a documentary and not a bunch of amateur actors. Even Time Out agree that "The actors never put a foot wrong".

Fig 3.

Unfortunately the acting isn't enough to make this film a masterpiece, although it was ground breaking in many aspects, from the way in which it was filmed with the excess of shaky cam and the manner in which it was marketed, in the end it just seemed to be over hyped. The shaky cam documentary feel ending up in making the film one of the most nauseating experiences put to film.

Image Bibliography

Fig 1. The Blair Witch Project, DVD cover, 1999. http://www.gamexchanger.co.uk/images/B00004S8GT/main.jpg

Fig 2. The Blair Witch Project, Movie Still, 1999. http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowldc/files/2010/11/blair-witch-project-photo2.jpg

Fig 3. The Blair Witch Project, Movie Still, 1999. http://gordonandthewhale.com/the-blair-witch-project-ten-years-later/

 Bibliography

The Blair Witch Project (1998), Film 4, [Online] avaliable at  http://www.film4.com/reviews/1998/the-blair-witch-project  [Accessed 21 February 2011]

The Blair Witch Project (1999), Time Out, [Online] avaliable at  http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/67979/the_blair_witch_project.html  [Accessed 01 March 2011]