FSM HOME MESSAGE BOARD FSM CDs FSM ONLINE RESOURCES FUN STUFF ABOUT US  SEARCH FSM

LOG IN Forgot Login? Register General Discussion • Trading Post • Non-Film Score Discussion  Profile • Preferences • Community Rules • Help/Contact • Search Board Search Terms:  Search Within:  topics posts since 2019 2018 posts 2017 posts 2016 posts 2015 posts 2014 posts 2013 posts 2012 posts 2011 posts 2010 posts 2009 posts 2008 posts 2007 posts 2006 posts 2005 posts 2004 posts 2003 posts 2002 posts 2001 posts 2000 posts users  search tips  You must log in or register to post.   Go to page:  1      Non-Film Score Discussion: Blair Witch marketing   Last Post   Posted:   Nov 11, 2020 - 4:33 PM     By:   Moonlit   (Member) I rewatch some of these reviews from time to time to rekindle my love for it. It was definitely lightning in a bottle aided by the infancy of the internet. What wonderful foresight though. Creating the website and the mythology. The "Curse" documentary before the film's release. Choosing to give the actors the camera. One producer, with a military background, had the idea to give the actors less food each day during production to make it as real as possible. Little snippets each day of filming plot instead of telling them the whole storyline. There was found footage before, but nowhere as influential. There's more I'm sure I'm forgetting. Because it was made as real as possible it meant its replay value isn't very good. There is no "style" to it like production filming. But it will live on forever in marketing textbooks. Arguably the greatest film marketing example. In my years anyway. Unreal. (Yeah YOU can say you weren't fooled, but it did many others. College kids.) Edit: putting on the IMDB website the actors were "missing." Asking them to lay low during the film's release.    Posted:   Nov 11, 2020 - 5:06 PM     By:   OnyaBirri   (Member) I saw it at the time and thought it was really scary. I have never watched it since. I wasn't really aware of the marketing.    Posted:   Nov 11, 2020 - 5:28 PM     By:   Moonlit   (Member) I saw it at the time and thought it was really scary. I have never watched it since. I wasn't really aware of the marketing. A favorite scene of mine is when they return to the same wood log they'd presumably traveled in the opposite direction of. Like WTF! That was chilling.    Posted:   Nov 11, 2020 - 6:15 PM     By:   Moonlit   (Member) Another thought is sure you can spend $100-200 million on The Force Awakens and that film will gross $2 billion. But its big time marketing. I've thought of the Blair Witch as the "un" of marketing. It's doing so but it's not trying to do so. You have two college filmmakers who have to borrow $30K from family to get this project off the ground. There's this new thing called "the internet," and though it's tempting to give it the credit, it's as much in the thoughtful details the filmmakers marketed. Blair Witch is thought to be the first big "viral" marketing on the internet. Well film I imagine. I get the vibe "Paranormal Activity" was trying to, but it was far too late for that. I smile and have a tear in my eyes. Because you can't really replicate it. You'd have to turn back the clock. I'd loved what "Halloween" accomplished, but with Blair Witch it isn't even close. It has to come from outta nowhere. Which is the beauty of the free market.    Posted:   Nov 11, 2020 - 6:28 PM     By:   Moonlit   (Member) Gotta give A LOT of credit to the filmmakers. They gave the camera to the actors. Between ego and control I'd have said fuck that! They understood though it would be more believable. Artisan bought the film rights and invested about $1 million in marketing, which wasn't that much. They had the infrastructure to mass market the film while maintaining the film's documentary feel. It was heavily marketed in the mid-Atlantic and "missing" signs were posted I believe in college campuses as well.    Posted:   Nov 11, 2020 - 6:50 PM     By:   OnyaBirri   (Member) I wonder if Blair Witch was inspired by Twin Peaks in its use of multi-media tie-ins. The Twin Peaks TV series was complemented by the Laura Palmer diaries in print, and the Special Agent Cooper recordings on cassette.    Posted:   Nov 12, 2020 - 1:35 AM     By:   Moonlit   (Member) I wonder if Blair Witch was inspired by Twin Peaks in its use of multi-media tie-ins. The Twin Peaks TV series was complemented by the Laura Palmer diaries in print, and the Special Agent Cooper recordings on cassette. I dunno. I know "Last Broadcast" was made in around 1997 and predated Blair and the found footage era. Cannibal Holocaust way earlier (which I have no desire to see LOL). One of the actors made a good point: you either loved the film, or hated it. It was that dichotomy that drove people to go see it.    Posted:   Nov 12, 2020 - 1:03 PM     By:   TominAtl   (Member) I loved it upon it's initial release and found it unnerving and scary at the same time. My friend though got sick from the hand held camera work. However I never bought in to the "found footage" in thinking it was real. BUT I thought it LOOKED real and the actors were phenomenal. The scenes that scared me were the children's hands hitting the tent at night and then the screams of their missing friend. brilliant concept and well executed. Unfortunately it became of victim of it's own success as the faults and naysayers began to outweigh and become louder than those who like me did enjoy it.    Posted:   Nov 17, 2020 - 4:41 PM     By:   Moonlit   (Member) A few more tidbits. The cast were down to a powerbar and a banana every two days towards the end. They felt that would make their performances more believable if they were irritable. Guerilla filmmaking. The two or so production people following them around wore camo and had red infra for night vision. Notes for the actors were left in film cannisters for the actors to see. So often they would know *something* would happen but not what. 20 hours of footage was edited down to 90 minutes. Not an easy or fun job. The ending was reshot, but they decided on the original as it was more scary. Speaking of which. It really isn't scary so much as spooky since you never *see* anything. Less is more. Heather's "WTF IS THAT!" was her seeing a something pale white off in the distance. It was a production person in long johns, but her camera never catches it. Them approaching the stick figures I remember thinking WTF is going on here. The ending where Mike's standing in the corner presumably possessed or taken over by the witch. I think that idea came from the myth but it was retold by the creepy old lady in the beginning of the film. Beyond filming it was the website that was the biggest help to the film's success. Again, not something that has a lot of replay value. Like a review said, I wish I could turn back the clock to 1999 when the internet and social media weren't what they are today. Endlessly fascinating for me.    Posted:   Nov 17, 2020 - 5:12 PM     By:   Moonlit   (Member) This is a terrific 101 how to and horror in general. It's so simply explained I'd say your gonna get more mileage out of this than most classes dare I say.    Posted:   Nov 28, 2020 - 7:04 AM     By:   Moonlit   (Member) I got bored with 2016 cause it seemed to followed the original mostly dot for dot. This one goes over Book of Shadows and it's problems/what worked.    Posted:   Nov 28, 2020 - 7:30 AM     By:   villagardens553   (Member) I saw it when it came out. I knew it wasn't real, but after seeing it, I wanted it to be. I thought it was legitimately scary, one of the few horror films I've seen that I can say that about. If we had seen the witch at the end the film would have been ruined for me. Although I think about the film from time to time, I've never re-watched it. Not sure why.    Posted:   Nov 30, 2020 - 1:19 AM     By:   Moonlit   (Member) I saw it when it came out. I knew it wasn't real, but after seeing it, I wanted it to be. I thought it was legitimately scary, one of the few horror films I've seen that I can say that about. If we had seen the witch at the end the film would have been ruined for me. Although I think about the film from time to time, I've never re-watched it. Not sure why. I think it's because it was made as real as possible and it doesn't have a "style." To me it has more a docu feel than a film.    Posted:   Apr 30, 2021 - 3:22 AM     By:   NervHQ   (Member) Well, I have to agree that, this kind of promotion for a film is really amazing actually. I am also wondering if Blair Witch was inspired by Twin Peaks, as there are a lot of similarities between their use of multi-media tie-ins. This film is one of the best examples which proves that we are living in the marketing era, and most of the times, people do not even care about the quality of the products. However, I actually think that we have to pay special attention to the quality of the products. I am working on my own website right now, and I do understand the importance of the marketing aspect, that is exactly why I am working that much on the HTML Sitemaps, and I really hope that everything is going fine. I have even called for the services of https://www.sitecentre.com.au/blog/html-sitemap-vs-xml-sitemap as they are the best specialists in this domain.    Posted:   Apr 30, 2021 - 7:46 AM     By:   Solium   (Member) Is this the movie that made shakey cam a thing? Never saw it.     Non-Film Score Discussion: Blair Witch marketing    < 1  >   Go to page:  1   First Post    General Discussion • Trading Post • Non-Film Score Discussion  Profile • Preferences • Community Rules • Help/Contact • Search Board You must log in or register to post.   Go to page:  1

© 2024 Film Score Monthly. All Rights Reserved. Website maintained and powered by Veraprise and Matrimont.