The Art of Blair Witch

The Blair Witch Project is a 1999 horror film directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. The film received many positive reviews from critics and was given the Global Film Critics award for Best Screenplay. It grossed over $150 million in the U.S and had the highest ratio of box office sales to production cost in the American filmmaking history. I personally believe that much of the film’s success had to do with clever marketing and the appeals of hyperrealism.

It is mentioned in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction that when spectators are replaced by a camera, the aura, which emanates from the actor, and thus the character, would be lost. Though I believe this to be somewhat valid, it can’t be argued that The Blair Witch Project made many attempts at recapturing this aura, both in terms of the way the film was shot and the way that it was presented.

The film utilized many documentary conventions to establish its realism. It has been mentioned in interviews that, during pre-production stages, information of the myth in regards to the witch and the students were spread on the Internet to bring about confusion of the film’s ontological status. This not only helped create a market for the film, but also constructed it as a true story. As the aforementioned “aura” refers to something that is tied to the presence of a particular actor, the film was able to deliver an element of the aura by manufacturing characters whom some believed to be real.

In terms of filming, the actors were encouraged to stay in character, and were deprived of food and sleep. Much of the dialogue was improvised, and the events shown in the film evoked genuine emotions from the actors, who were also unaware of those proceedings. All this was done during the shoot to emphasize the idea that camera can capture reality as it is when it unfolds. All of this is clearly another attempt at recapturing the aura, executed in the notion that if what is shot is real, it will be perceived as such.

Another quote mentioned in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction uses an artist/cameraman analogy to illustrate the significance of the form of reality brought forth by film. To some extent, The Blair Witch Project was able to offer a reality that is rarely seen in even documentaries, and all this is done through cinematography.

The actors in the film utilized two cameras, which allowed for two different interpretations. The 16mm was used to record objective documentary footage while the camcorder was used to capture the characters’ experiences, emotions and intimate events. The shaky frame, loss of focus and arbitrary juxtaposition were all used to demonstrate a feeling of intimacy. In a way, the audience is being given access to personal moments through an almost voyeuristic perspective. Many close-ups were shown through the camcorder, and every display of emotion shortened the distance between the film’s reality and our own, and made us feel as if we were actually there. The camcorder allows the audience engage the film in such a way that they are brought inward, and this can definitely be considered as an assertive attempt at cutting into reality.