the humanities project

blair witch project

for my film comparison i chose to do the last movie i watched, the blair witch project! i watched it at a friend’s house during a sleep over, so i chose to re-watch it without screaming and talking over the film.
 compared to citizen Kane, the filming seems quite messy, only in the first scene in the grave yard has any real filming techniques, with wide panning shots and close camera framing the grave stones. but in the planning and the concept of the film i think they are more alike. the directors never where on set on the blair witch. the left boxes in the woods for the actors, and planted some people in the town to tell the actors stories about the witch. they really wanted the actors to show fear in a real way.

for effects, the entire film is a gimmick. two cameras in color and in black and white. stands where almost never used, making the whole film look like a home movie. if anything the effects are the story telling. you never see the monster, or any violence shown on camera. suspense through the whole film the shoe never drops.

the suspense in psycho is different from the blair witch. in Blair witch the actors go looking for trouble, wandering into a woods they know is cursed,with little food and a bd map. and the way it is filmed makes it feel like you are going along with them, the camera held at a person hight, and it moves like your head. psycho is “normal”. setting aside the inn keep with creepy birds and mommy issues this is a normal motel stop.during the slasher scene the actress remains unaware until she attacks her. but we can see him creep up on her and we can easily replace our selves in this scene. I shower and someone could sneak up on me!

the blair witch project was made in the 90’s and it kinda showed how collage students live. before they leave they all make jokes and take shots and act like “adults”. but later in the film the behave like children, yelling at each other, and crying for their parents. the end scene has one of the actors standing in the corner of a room like a child, waiting for death. so i think this film is a twisted coming of age film. the actors try to act like adults when on the camera for the documentary, lowering their voices and changing their clothes a little, but swear and make dirty jokes in the next shot. showing the weird melding of a 20-something year old.


i think the future in film will be leaps and bounds toward computer generation, but also a back to basics. Pacific Rim was shot with a lot of models and fully built sets and props and made the film seem a lot more real. or with directors like wes anderson, models and color pallet can make films iconic to that director, while still being engaging and other worldly.