It has been a few years since M. Night Shyamalan has released what the public would call a quality film (I thought that the Devil was a great little horror film). Most of us thought that the next film from him would be a sequel to Unbreakable. Instead he has made a low budget horror film. Costing less than five million to make and by his and Hollywood standards this is low budget. I have been waiting a few months to see the Visit trailer. Being located in Philly I have heard from those who know the director rumors about the film. Who would have thought that the new movie would turn out to be a Footage film if not an actual Found footage film. I would like to share the trailer with you today. If this genre is going to grow and expand it is going to take film makers with the talent of a M. Night to do this. I hope this film is as good as the trailer. The title of the film is The Visit.
Thank you for visiting and if any of you are interested in making your own found footage film take the time to check out my book on how to do it and please take a moment to share this post with a friend.
After almost two decades the first guide dedicated solely to the making of a found-footage film has arrived. In this book you will be offered clear advice on how to write, direct and produce a quality found footage film. Advice coming from over half a dozen young film makers who are in post production of their films as this book is being published.On Making a Found Footage Film is more than a how to guide it is a call to refocus and redesign a genre of film making. To take if from a sub genre of horror films into comedy, action, suspense and straight drama. There is no limit to what the found-footage film can become in the hands of inventive new film-makers. This is actually the first book that covers the basics of shooting a found footage film from beginning to end.
It features interviews with a number of young film makers who are about to release their found footage films. Below are a few of the trailers. First The Pigman Murders
Next Found Footage 3D.
Next the complete Night of the Vampire short film.
If you would learn how to make your own found footage film from the ones who have actually done it then my book, On Making a Found Footage Film maybe for you. This is perhaps the most under investigated area of the low budget film making world. My book is the first of its kind and I hope that it will aid many beginning film makers to make quality found footage films. Now I would like to leave you with my favorite of the short form films that I saw while working on the book. The title is Jessie's Girl. The film maker is one of the best that I have ever encountered.
Shortly after finish my book on micro budget film making I got challenged by a friend to do a book on Found Footage film making. Like most people I did not believe that there was much to be discussed about this topic, but a challenge is a challenge and I began the process of reviewing as many of these films as I could find. One year and over two hundred films later I have finished the book and now have a greater respect for the genre. This blog is dedicated to the found footage film. Both classic and new. Understand that this will not be your standard review site. I am a film maker, I will approach most films from that view point. I will try to explain why some films worked and why others failed. There are reasons why movies connect and do not connect with an audience. I will try to point these reasons out why listing these films.
The first film that I will look at is the Cannibal Holocaust. There were a few films that could be considered found footage before this one, but I believe that this is the one that set the standard. The first thing that I love about this film is that it tries to come across as a pure documentary with behind the scenes choices that the film makers make that are shocking. You must see the film to understand what I am taking about. Secondly this movie was banded in many counties for decades because of the acts of animal cruelty on display in this film. If you are an animal lover and watching them being mercilessly butchered on camera would sicken you then do not watch this film. The movie is populated by characters that have no interest in being liked by you the viewing audience. They are a-holes and never for a second show another side of their personalities, because there is not other side. While one of their little film crew is being raped and murder by the natives their only goal is to make sure that they get it on camera. I will not spoil the ending except to say that everyone gets what is coming to them. Well except for a certain native tribe who I hope got small pox and died after the filming of this one.
As a film this movie does a few things extremely well. It sticks to the subject. There are no subplots and unless you are making a thriller most film makers should avoid them. Secondly, the style of film making sets the standard for every found footage film to follow. Slowly and steadily the walls between subject and camera break down until the ones behind the camera invade the world that they are recording and then are invaded by that world. It is pure found footage. There was no way for this to turn out any other way and this does not at all feel forced. So many found footage films have their characters go brain dead in act three so that they will end up laying dead beside their cameras. How it ends feels nature and that it could have turned out no other way. Cannibal Holocaust is not a great film, but in its genre, found footage, it may be the best film.
In closing I would ask that you book make this site. Stumble it on stumbleupon and share a post with a friend. I would also like to announce that I am a few weeks from the release of my book on how to make a found footage film. No one has tackled this subject before and I believe that I have done a good job. The book will also feature interviews with film makers who have shoot found footage films. I believe that the best way to learn about a subject is to go to those who are actually doing the work. I believe film making is learned best by actually doing it rather than in a classroom. Thank you for visiting and have a nice day.
