Not sure if anyone saw this, but I recently came across a segment of the 8Days magazine that mentioned about a 1999 American psychological horror film, entitled The Blair Witch Project. Thought this film was quite interesting on several counts, which i'd like to raise and share with the class.
Image Credit: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blair_Witch_Project.jpg)
The Blair Witch Project was an independent film written and directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez in 1999. Taking the lazy man's way of borrowing what wikipedia has (quite nicely) summed up, The Blair Witch Project film was essentially a film that appears to be "pieced together from amateur footage and relates the story of three student filmmakers (Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams) who disappeared while hiking in the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland in 1994 to film a documentary about a local legend known as the Blair Witch. The viewers are told the three were never seen or heard from again, although their video and sound equipment (along with most of the footage they shot) were discovered a year later". You could read more about it in detail by googling it or something if you like. What was particularly distinct about this film was the debate that it stirred up among the audience and viewers who were speculating on the authenticity of the film - whether or not this film was a work of fiction or was it really based on an actual event. Of course, as we know it later, it was merely an advertising gimmick used by the producers to draw the attention of a wider audience.
This film was one the most profitable films in history when it was measured by its return on the initial investment; starting with a low budget of $50,000, the film ended grossing over $100 million in US theatrical-box-office alone. Astounding figures aside, what drew my attention to this film was the use of media deception and manipulation to garner audience interest in the film. This film was successfully marketed by publicizing the film on the internet a year before actual release in cinemas; on the website, they uploaded additional material such as footage presented as outtakes from "discovered" film reels, police reports, the "back story" on the missing film students, and a history or mythology of the Blair Witch legend, to create a false impression that this film might just be a "true" story to confirm the viewers' suspicions, and to create a feeling of suspension among viewers to keep them incited by the film. Additionally, they also cleverly omitted any explicit admission or demarcation of the promotional material as fiction or as promotional advertising to leave the audience to question the authenticity of this "mockumentary". What made the advertising of this film all the more effective was the official Blair Witch Project Website, unofficial Websites and fan pages that elaborated the film's mythology and offered original narratives, in which case we can see how audiences are manipulated by the producers/advertisers to generate buzz with regard to the promotion of this film.
Furthermore, what was even more interesting to me was to see the role of the Internet in the film's commercial success, in effectively blurring the boundaries between actual and fictional nature of the film, as seen in the incessant buzz among the viewers that were created on online forums after the film was promoted via the internet - which caused some to actually believe that this film is a real event up till today!! (Something I thought was quite hilarious!) In an article that I came across while researching more on this film, it was mentioned that this film actually instigated a paradigmatic panic among some Hollywood executives (a.k.a. the Culture Industry at large that we often like to refer to) due to the important role of the Internet in this film's commercial success. The Blair Witch Project used the Web as its central medium or primary text for the film's narrative and its reception, as well as its marketing or "franchising" more than a year before the film's major cinematic distribution. This caused the Hollywood executives, who saw themselves as being in the mainstream film industry, to fear the potential shift in using the Web, which it considers to be supplementary to established media outlets (such as mainstream TV advertisements, billboard advertisements etc.), as the main mode of publicity for films. This is quite a logical fear on the part of the Hollywood executives, who's profits from the films they produce hinges largely upon the profits generated from advertisements that accompany the films. Again, this draws us back to the profiteering-nature and tendencies of media as an Industry.
To conclude, I just thought that through this Blair Witch Project film, we could draw some analysis and insights pertaining to this whole notion of Media as a Culture Industry in the modern day context (although not quite "modern" and up-to-date anymore since this film was released 12 years ago). Hope this was an interesting read for some of you, and got you to find out more about it just as I did!
Interestingly, while researching, I found that Singapore had an independent production released in 2010, entitled Haunted Changi, running along a similar vein as The Blair Witch Project. It also tries to use Web-based mediums to facilitate buzz and publicity for this horror documentary. Maybe somebody who knows about this might like to share more about this here, since we are encouraged to bring in some non-Western context in this module.
Matilda
Nice example. I feel that instead of haunted changi, Paranormal activity highlights your point about how 'true story' can be marketable. Look at how many sequels (or prequel as 2 was the story before 1) does paranormal activity has?
ReplyDeleteIt is so successful that it earned Paramount Pictures, one of the independent picture houses to trail closely behind the media giants, the success of nearly $108 million at the U.S. box office and $194 million worldwide.
Each of the series has an alternative ending in order to cater to the global audience.
And now on January 2, 2012, Paramount Pictures announced that Paranormal Activity 4 was being produced.
This is so popular as a reality-horror genre that the culture industry just keep churning out these templates ( because the moments where you are likely to be scared can so easily be predicted by you) to reap in all the profits it can get.