As part of my research for our movie, I have decided to make a detailed analysis on the film The Blair Witch Project, as it is a movie that is similar to the one we are creating, because it is a horror, it involves teenage students of both genders, and the teenagers go missing, which is similar to our film “Ellipsis”.
The Blair Witch Project is an American horror film that was released in 1999. It’s presented as a documentary by the narrative pieced together from amateur footage. The film relates to three young student filmmakers who travel into the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland to create a documentary on the local legend that is known as the Blair Witch, but eventually the students end up going missing. The audience is told that the three students were never found, but their video and sound equipment was found a year later, and the recovered footage is what is presented to the audience.
The movie starts off with quite a simplistic title scheme with the black background, and just the title in a white simple font.
It then has another establishing title which informs the audience of how it became a film in general, and gives the audience an insight to what is occurring at the beginning of the film.
The first shot after this consists of an establishing shot of one of the first characters, which is the teenage girl, and the camera shots used throughout is mainly handheld cam to show the audience that it’s not completely serious, and to give that feel that it’s more of a moving documentary type of film and that it’s not taken extremely seriously by the characters that are using the camera. The girl establishes the environment by her dialogue and she talks about what they will be doing for the weekend, for their documentary and what it’s based on.
The next shot consists of a close up of the items being taken on the trip, which is symbolic to the audience, as it gives them a gist as to what the film may lead to, tells the story a little bit more. Also, some of the dialogue is kind of ironic to what may happen later in the film also to the audience.
This next shot introduces another one of the main characters in the film, starting from a medium shot to establish the new character and the car, and handheld cam is used to show the audience that they walking out to start on their journey to find out about the Blair Witch. It also shows the audience the other items of equipment that are being taken, such as another video camera for the main documentary filming. It also shows the audience the characters relations between each other which is obviously a strong friendship.
The shot after this cuts to a close up of one of the male characters having a conversation with the girl filming about details of setting off times with the trip, which once again shows the audience the bond between the two characters.
It then cuts to a medium shot of one of the other new male characters, to establish who he is to the audience, to give the audience a flavour of his character and to also show that he’s leaving for the trip from his house. There is also non diagetic music playing from the car radio. Its major tone, and is a genre for teenagers mainly.
The next shot that is cuts to is a close up using handheld camera in the car of the new male character having a conversation with the female, and then it cuts to a shot of the other male having a conversation. This shows the audience their relationships with each other and their general stereotypes.
The next shot that it cuts to is in a new environment, in the supermarket with a close up handheld cam shot of one the male characters, with conversations occurring at this point. The camera then pans down onto the food that they are going to purchase for their trip, and cuts between both characters, then the camera moves in towards the marshmallows, with the female talking at the same time.
After this, there’s an establishing shot of the new environment as they have arrived at Burkittsville, Maryland, using handheld camera, and the camera goes in towards a picture of a ghost, which is symbolic as its one of the generic conventions that may occur in a horror film, and the dialogue that she uses questions those conventions of the supernatural type, which also fits in with the genre.
The next shot cuts to a series of interviews that they take out with a series of spontaneous people to ask about the Blair Witch for their documentary, and medium camera shots are used for present this to the audience, to show the different genders, and stereotypes of the people that are interviewed on their first day. The first person that is interviewed has a very vague knowledge about the subject.
The shot is then cut to the female character in a medium shot handheld cam, which becomes a close up, as she is having a conversation with the two males, as she talks about what she wants out of this documentary and what she’s trying to avoid from it all. This shot tends to show her dominance and confidence that sort of breaks the average female stereotype to the audience.
The next shot then cuts to a medium shot using handheld cam on one of the main male characters and his equipment, but they are using the black and white film camera, which gives the film a more eerie sense to it to the audience.
It also cuts back to the female doing her lipstick within the car mirror, which shows to the audience her typical girl stereotype.
The next shot then cuts to a closing up handheld camera of one of the male characters filling in the clapperboard to prepare for their next shooting of their documentary.
It then cuts to their first documentary shot, which is a medium shot of the new location, Burkittsville, with the female doing the narrative as diagetic sound, but speaking in monologue form. the narrative gives the audience an insight about this new location and its brief history. This shot is also filmed in black and white which links in the generic conventions of a horror movie (looking quite Gothic, dark colours.)
The next shot cuts to the female stood next to a graveyard, once again being filmed in black and white at a medium, hand-held camera shot, which gives it more eerie feel to the audience. She once again narrates to the audience more history of the town and about the dead bodies in this graveyard and how it is linked to the Blair Witch.
The next shot is a medium shot of gravestones, filmed again in black and white, hand-held, with the female speaking diagetic narrative monologue about these gravestones. The gravestones are generic to the conventions of a horror film representing death and fear. its cuts to a close-up of an infants gravestone, as that is related to the females narrative, and linked in with the myths of the Blair Witch, so its very symbolic. it also cuts to a number f other infants gravestones with close up shots.
It then cuts back to the female, filmed in black and white, medium shot, hand-held camera. She is still talking diagetic narrative, and giving the audience a history and information about the Blair Witch. It then cuts back to some more gravestones, medium shot, which is symbolic to the audience representing death once again.
The next shot is a long shot, back in colour again, of the road with the female using diagetic sound of talking to inform the audience that they have managed to capture the opening cemetery scene.
It then cuts to i close up shot of an old man being interviewed by them about the Blair Witch, using hand-held camera in colour. There is diagetic dialogue from the man and the female character asking about the Blair Witch. It then cuts to a close up, black and white hand-held camera shot of the older man using diagetic dialogue telling the audience his view of the Blair Witch myth.
The next shot cuts to a new middle aged female, with her younger child, close up shot in colour. The main female character uses diagetic dialogue to ask the middle aged woman about the Blair Witch. The middle aged woman then uses diagetic narrative to answer the question with her opinion on the whole myth.
It then cuts to a new middle aged male character, close up shot in colour. He uses diagetic narrative to explain his opinion on the myth.
The next shot is back to the older aged male, close up shot, hand-held camera, filming in black and white. He uses diagetic narrative to talk more in depth about the myth of the Blair Witch.
It then cuts back to the middle aged woman and her younger child, close up, hand-held camera back in colour again. She uses diagetic narrative to carry on talking about the myth of the Blair Witch.
The next shot cuts back to the older aged male, close up, hand-held camera, back in black and white again. He uses diagetic narrative to carry on telling his opinion of the myth.
It then cuts back to the middle aged male, close up, hand-held camera, in colour. He uses diagetic narrative to carry on telling the audience his opinion and stories he's heard about the myth of the Blair Witch.
The next shot cuts back to the older aged male, close up, hand-held camera, filmed in black and white again. He uses diagetic narrative to continue telling his stories to the audience about the Blair Witch.
It then cuts back to the middle aged man, close up, hand-held camera, shot in colour. He uses diagetic narrative to continue telling the audience his views on the Blair Witch.
The next shot cuts to a new middle aged female in a cafe, medium shot, hand-held camera, filmed in colour. She uses diagetic narrative to start telling her opinion and stories on the Blair Witch myth. The main female character uses diagetic narrative also to ask the person being interviewed questions.
It then cuts to a new older aged male character, wearing glasses and a hat in the street, close up, hand-held camera, filmed in colour. The main female starts off using diagetic narrative to ask him questions about witchcraft and religion, but the man doesn't because he's a religious man. Also witchcraft and religion are generic conventions for the genre of horror.
The next shot is back to the middle aged woman ad her younger child, close up, hand-held camera, filmed in colour. She uses diagetic narrative to continue telling her stories and rumours on the Blair Witch. The main female character also uses diagetic narrative to ask her questions.
It then cuts back to the older aged male, close up, hand-held camera, filmed in black and white. He uses diagetic narrative to continue telling the tales about the Blair Witch. The main female also uses diagetic narrative to ask questions and prompt the male.
The next shot cuts to a medium shot of a new location with a house and car to establish a new place to the audience. There is also diagetic narrative of the characters talking to each other, and also establishing they they have arrived at "Mary's" house, so its introducing a new character, that is going to probably be very important and symbolic at this point to the story.
It then cuts to the characters at Mary's house trying to find her, medium shot, hand-held camera in colour. There is then a close up of her gate made of twigs, which is quite an unusual thing to see to the audience, and gives an idea of the new characters mad personality. The main female character uses diagetic narrative to talk about the gate and to show her confusion of how to actually open it.
It then cuts to the new female character known as Mary, who is holding a book, medium shot, hand-held camera, filmed in black and white. The main female character uses diagetic narrative to ask Mary relevant questions about the Blair Witch and how she had an encounter with her. Mary the replies about her encounter to the audience and goes into depth and detail about what it was like. It also cuts to another medium shot from a a different angle to show her talking. There is also a close up shot to her face, so show the audience what she properly looked like and to give the audience more of an idea about who she is actually is and to begin trying to decipher her personality as a character. It then cuts back to a medium shot to show her movements as she describes what she felt when it happened.
The next shot is back in the car with a close up shot of one of the main male characters, hand - held camera, in colour. He uses diagetic narrative and starts talking about the character of Mary and her personality and uses hints of sarcasm about her, which gives the audience more of an idea about her character. The female also uses diagetic narrative to respond to his conversation, to also talk about Mary to show more about her mad character and to show that she's not all there in the head. Both of the characters use diagetic narrative to talk about things related to the camera and filming.
It then cuts to a medium shot of one of the male characters laid on the bed in their new location, so it establishes it to the audience that they have arrived at a place to stay for the night. The female character uses diagetic narrative to ask the males how they both felt about how successful the day was. The males reply to her question with diagetic narrative.
It finally cuts to a medium shot of all the characters having a beer, hand-held camera, in colour. There is also more diagetic narrative from all the characters.
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