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Method Filmmaking: An Interview with Daniel Myrick, Co-Director of the Blair Witch Project

2001; University of Illinois Press; Volume: 53; Linguagem: Inglês

1934-6018

Scott Dixon McDowell, Daniel Myrick,

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In January 1999, a low-budget horror film called The Blair Witch Project stunned the audience at the Sundance Film Festival. As a result it landed a distribution contract with Artisan Entertainment, which released The Blair Witch Project theatrically in a step pattern supported by an aggressive internet marketing plan. The film opened July 16, 1999 on only 27 screens in Los Angeles and New York. It earned $1.5 million the first week, averaging an unprecedented $56,000 per screen (Pandya, 19 July 1999). Its distribution was then expanded to major cities across the country, where it continued to draw strong audience support. By August 1999 it was playing in more than 2,000 theaters, amassing over $138 million in domestic box office gross by the end of September (Pandya, 27 September 1999). To capitalize on the film's popularity, the video was rushed into release to coincide with Halloween. Blair Witch then entered the international marketplace, where it continued to open to strong numbers world wide. To date it has earned more than $200 million (Myrick). The Blair Witch Project, immediately polarized opinion. For some it was a bold new take on the horror film. Others saw only a haphazard improvisation by amateur filmmakers. The fact that it was made for around $40,000 was at once an inspiration to low-budget filmmakers, a slap in the face to big-budget producers, and fodder for critics. The film's marketing strategy, especially the use of the Internet, provided startling evidence of the power of this relatively new medium to build an audience for a film. Upon first viewing The Blair Witch Project, it left me with a divided opinion. Its kinetic camera work and often incomprehensible images were at once off-putting and intriguing. It was only on subsequent viewings that I was able to identify the source of much of my misgiving about the film and come to see The Blair Witch Project as more cinematically challenging than cinematically challenged. As with other films that purport to represent student film work, Blair Witch offended me by equating student filmmaking with haphazard camera movement and inconsistent focus. As a teacher of film production for over a decade, I have never seen a student production as technically flawed as the images in Blair Witch. As a result, much of my initial negative reaction to the film was a reaction to the negative stereo-type of student filmmaking it presented. Once I realized the source of my bias, I watched the film again. I saw behind the erratic camera work an intriguing premise, a savvy understanding of the power of offscreen space, and interesting variations on standard horror motifs. The ingenious premise of Blair Witch is perhaps its greatest strength. The improvisational acting, loose script, and the use of pseudodocumentary style all undergird the premise that we are watching the found footage of a lost film crew. The premise explains the rough quality of the material and the looseness of the story line, and at the same time invites the maximum suspension of disbelief. The Blair Witch Project also demonstrates a keen understanding of off-screen space. While the shaky, poorly framed, and erratically focused images frustrated many viewers, the implication that there is something just off camera moving too quickly for the camera operator to catch is very strong. I can think of no other film that prompts the viewer to anxiously search the periphery of the screen for a glimpse of something that is simply not there. Even the awkward framing of Heather's confession maintains the importance of off-screen space. Her face is cut off, implying that her horrific reality cannot fully be contained within the limits of the screen. The Blair Witch Project, for all its unconventionality, is clearly informed by standard horror film conventions. The narrative is a straightforward witch tale. As with Hansel and Gretel, the young film crew goes into the woods, gets lost, and falls prey to a wicked witch. …