The Blair Witch Project (1999)

INTRODUCTION:

The very first films (pre-1900’s) were called "actuality films" because they captured short snippets of real "actual" events, such as a boat pulling up to the dock or workers leaving a factory. So in essence, the first movies ever made were documentaries, also called newsreels. In 1926, the first recorded mention of the term "documentary" (by Scottish-born filmmaker John Grierson) to describe a non-fiction film. In 1960’s to 1990’s, television becomes an important outlet for documentary film making, putting more of an emphasis on journalistic and educational programs. 

THEORY DISCUSSION:

As proposed by Bill Nichols, we should look at documentaries via the particular techniques selected by filmmakers when they record/ shape the events such as the way they represent the documentary. Nichols suggested 6 modes of representation which are poetic, expository, observational, interactive, reflexive and performative. 

SYNOPSIS:

Found video footage tells the tale of three film students (Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, Michael C. Williams) who've traveled to a small town to collect documentary footage about the Blair Witch, a legendary local murderer. Over the course of several days, the students interview townspeople and gather clues to support the tale's veracity. But the project takes a frightening turn when the students lose their way in the woods and begin hearing horrific noises.

ANALYSIS:

Basically this film used three modes of representation which are the reflexive, interactive and also the performative. Overall of this film was used the performative representation as it use the documentary techniques to shoot by interactive and reflexive. 

 

As the above pictures shown, it's the first few scenes where this team was gathered together and having a preparation to start their journey which is to shoot the documentary about the Blair Witch Project. In this whole film, it actually shown the flow where from beginning, this team was gathered up to shoot the documentary, after all they encountered a few problems in the forest and they started to blame and fight each other. At the end, all the members in the team were died. 

In addition, the next mode of representation is the reflexive. This representation focuses on film properties and film making process, reminding and informing audience, besides the represented issues, that they are also watching a film that is attempting to represent reality. Overall effect of this mode is lack of objectivity which does not necessarily compromise the impact of documentary but instead,provide more valuable views of the issue at hand. As the above pictures shown, it's the example of few scenes where the members of the team show the shots of equipment use and also the handheld camera was used to create the shaky scene as to remind the audience that they watching a film or movie. 

Lastly, the interactive representation mode was used. Interactive representation mode is allow the filmmaker's presence to be felt by the audience via interviews, posing questions on/ off screen as mediator for interviewees and audience. The overall effect of this mode exposes the process by which the documentary is made, instead of hiding it. As the pictures shown above, it's the examples of the scenes which obviously shown this mode. 

CONCLUSION:

As a conclusion, The Blair Witch Project is a film which actually make the fake story seems real to the audiences. To be honest, I thought this film is real but at the end I get shocked when someone told me that this film was actually a fake story but just seemed real.