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The Blair Witch Project

6 years, 9 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

We all know it as that found footage film that every aspiring horror filmmaker includes in their investor pack, but I just realised its' approaching 25 years old, many shooters weren't even born, let alone over 18 to watch it in cinemas. Has everyone actually seen it? Even if not first time around in the cinema?

I'm currently in a hotel room in the Middle East, and it came on TV. I've not seen it in decades, so watched. It's still a good film, still carries a lot of lessons for aspiring filmmakers. As opposed to shying away from making a film whilst waiting for the million dollar investment, they got creative.

What's scarier than getting lost in the woods? Such a simple premise, but creatively got around having no studio. They shot largely with available light or camera mounted lights. They shot in the rain. They used a tiny cast. They created the witch entirely through suggestion and a bit of art department magic. They had real budgetary constraints, but didn't let that stop them, they let it steer the production instead, cutting their cloth to their means. There's no music, there's very limited grade, the sound mix is actually pretty good considering, but again inexpensive. It's a pretty inspiring little film even all this time later.

Of course what it did have that we don't is 50x the production budget going on promotion during the early days of the internet when all bets were off and Google didn't exist. The campaign went viral before viral was a word. They caught an upbreeze and got lucky in the right place at the right time, no question. The environment was perfect and nobody could have guessed it would be. I remember the promotion even included a custom web browser that played audio clips from the film (at a time of the Wild West internet)! That's where I first heard about the film in fact, a browser skin!

Am I suggesting everyone goes out to make the same film and hope to get lucky? Well probably not, it's unlikely to happen, but it was just as unlikely in the mid-90's at the time. The point is that they got creative to get around problems and still make a film. To anyone procrastinating, just get started. Get the ball rolling. Don't allow a lack of money/cast/studio/kit to stop you - the lack of those things made the film have to work harder, and that caught the imagination.

If you do, will it make you rich? Lots of people reference the film as a case of small production budget with huge revenue, yet the stars who were in an equity share didn't get to retire. Perhaps the company that paid for the promotion took the lion's share of a huge, huge hit. But that's how it goes, most films lose money for investors!

If you get a chance and haven't seen it, or if you last saw it decades ago, it's worth watching from a filmmakers position. Maybe you won't get a million bucks and custom browser for promotion, but it's still inspirational what you can do being creative to solve problems!

Everyone seen it?!

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