Found footage (genre)

Found footage is an approach to film making in which all or a substantial part of a fictional film is presented as if it were discovered film or video recordings. The events on screen are typically seen through the camera of one or more of the characters involved, often accompanied by their real-time off-camera commentary. For verisimilitude, the cinematography may be done by the actors themselves as they perform, and shaky camera work and naturalistic acting are routinely employed. The footage may be presented as if it were "raw" and complete, or as if it had been edited into a narrative by those who "found" it.

The most common use of the technique is in horror films, where the footage is purported to be the only surviving record of the events, with the participants now missing or dead. It has also been used in comedy (e.g., Babysitting, Project X), and science-fiction (e.g., Project Almanac, Europa Report).

History

The technique has precedents in literature, particularly in the epistolary novel, which typically consists of either correspondence or diary entries, purportedly written by a character central to the events.

In filmmaking, it dates back at least as far as 1980's Cannibal Holocaust, but was popularised by The Blair Witch Project (1999), and subsequently used in well-known films such as Paranormal Activity (2007), REC (2007), Quarantine (2008), Cloverfield (2008), and Chronicle (2012).^[1]

Examples

Films

The following films are in the found footage category, though some were only partially made in that style. Also listed are the films' directors, production company and release date.

TV series and made for TV specials

• Alternative 3 (1977)
• Alien Autopsy: (Fact or Fiction?) (1995)
• Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County (1998) – UPN aired a 60 minute version with more interviews
• The Comeback (2005, 2014) (HBO series)
• Jeopardy (2002) (BBC series)
• Lost Tapes (2009) (series)
• Marble Hornets (2009–2014) (YouTube series)
• The River (2012) (series)
• Lassie Jerky, an episode of Psych was partially filmed as found footage (2013)

Music Video

• One Last Time by Ariana Grande (2015)

See also

• Mockumentary
• Cinéma vérité
• Epistolary novel
• Hoax

References