The Blair Witch Project is an independent horror film written, directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez. It follows three student film makers who go to a forest to find a local legend known as the Blair Witch. This film is filmed in a way that makes it appear to be recovered footage from an actual event. At the time of the film's release, 1999, this was viewed as something quite alternative in terms of film making. The poster here uses this same style to create an image that looks very amateur and like it was captured in real life. Using this style not only adds an interesting spin on the horror genre, but it also gives the film a heightened sense of realism and danger.
This film is a good example of evolving and finding ways to get around the barriers encountered by indie film makers. If you can't afford a professional production, then don't try to mask the fact that it isn't but embrace it and tell people that it is not.
In terms of marketing, tis film is an interesting case of modern era film marketing, even though the film itself came out almost twenty years ago. We constantly see films now with marketing that tries to enhance the buzz around a film in unorthodox ways. We see panels for films at conventions, we see twitter campaigns, multitudes of YouTube videos (things like the Wired 'Autocomplete Interview' and then there are also the more conventional forms of marketing, such as interviews, toys, etc. Blair Witch Project subverted expectations of movie marketing campaign by creating one that really complimented the tone and premise of the film. This campaign pretended that the film was genuine found footage and that the whole thing actually happened. This is a brilliant way to intrigue and further immerse its audience. An innovative idea like this will always interest a wide audience. Even if this idea had been most popular with the counter-culture, it would have most likely crossed over into the mainstream, as the mainstream often adopts a mob mentality and takes the counter-culture's biggest trends or interests.
This film's marketing campaign set the bar for all future marketing campaigns. In the 2000s in particular
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