Saturday, August 05, 2006

The Blair Witch Project

I've not seen it before. It's on TV. I've just turned it off half way through because it appears to be a bit: rubbish.

It's so blatantly not all shot in sequence with one camera. The sound continues on when the video cuts to a different angle all the way through, for a start. Yes, this can be done in the edit suite but not when there's two angles on a live conversation shot with one camera.

And am I supposed to be scared when they find a pile of rocks and some twigs tied together?

14 comments:

mountainear said...

Our front gate was like that. Once.

Unknown said...

Spooky...

Zeno Cosini said...

Dude, they have two cameras with them, until near the end when Josh disappears.

When I first saw The Blair Witch Project it scared me witless. You only had to say "the woods" in a whispery voice near me, and I'd run a mile.

Unknown said...

Oh, OK. To be honest I missed the first ten minutes so that fact slipped me by.

It's still terribly unconvincing though. Would two people honestly be videoing each other while having a conversaion in a tent if they were really scared?

The film’s a nice idea but it wasn't executed well enough. Therefore its key idea – that it's supposedly a real documentary, and not fictional – doesn't carry any weight for me.

Zeno Cosini said...

Well, in the second half of the movie they have lots of fights about precisely that - Josh turns his camera off but the way the girl deals with being scared is to have hers on all the time to distance herself and "fictionalise" what they're going through. Convenient, I know.

For me the most elegant thing about the film is the idea of having a monster movie where you never see the monster. But I think it helps to see a movie - pretty much any movie, in fact - at the cinema. I watched it fopr the second time on DVD with Sam a couple of years ago and her reaction was exactly the same - "I'm supposed to be scared by this?"

Both you and Sam have very logical brains.

Plus, you're talking to a guy who must confess to having really enjoyed Michael Mann's "Miami Vice," which I saw on Friday on, ahem, its first day of general release.

Unknown said...

Perhaps I know a bit too much about cameras and editing and set out to pick holes in it. And yes, watching it at home, on TV, having missed the first ten minutes, was probably not what the director would desribe as ‘optimal viewing’.

Maybe I'll give it another go some time when I'm not feeling so logical.

The Eyechild said...

I'm with Zeno on this one dude. I think it was a good film with a novel concept.

Which is not to say there aren't flaws if you pick at them.. it's a bit like those HP Lovecraft stories a la 'Notebook Found in a Deserted House' where it's written from the first person perspective of someone being hounded by something from outside of human experience – sometimes writing right up to the point of terminal contact with the pseudopod enriched mythos celebrity. Now that's conceptual.

Obviously you probably wouldn't do that, but then.. there wouldn't be a book to talk knowingly about in the comments section of your friends blog.

Activate your suspension of disbelief I say.!

Though I admit it's not half as scary as that Agency dot com video you forwarded me..

That really is creepy.

(and that picture of the canteen lunch on your Flickr account gave me the shivers).

Unknown said...

Well regardless of its pros and cons I didn't enjoy it the other night. I even turned off the lights. I'm all up for suspension of disbelief but less so when it's supposed to look like it's for real. Good concept thogh, yes.

That lunch sure was real though. It minged.

Zeno Cosini said...

What's YOUR favourite horror film, Gridrunner?

Troll? Paper House? Labyrinth?

Unknown said...

I'm not a big horror film fan on the whole. I've not seen either Troll or Paperhouse (though I gather they were sarcastic suggestions). I guess my favourite is probably The Shining.

The Eyechild said...

Paper House..

I seem to remember watching that round at yours Will, and that it bore the strapline "The Thinking Man's Nightmare on Elm Street"

Though "The slightly impoverished not-even-slightly- gory British Nightmare on Elm Street" would perhaps have been more if not quite truthful.

Man it's getting crowded up in this comments section Ade..

Unknown said...

The controversial posts are always the most popular. Man, I should get some advertising on here.

What shall I slag off next?

The Eyechild said...

Blogging.

Unknown said...

Now that would be postmodern.