Found Footage is a film sub-genre where the final presentation is in the form of video recordings accompanied by real-time dialogues and naturalistic acting and severely raw cinematography as done in our found footage horror film ‘Unscripted’ edited into a narrative by those who supposedly found the footage.
Belonging to the ‘Camera and lighting’ and also speaking in a perspective of a ‘screenwriter’ , ‘environmental realism’ and ‘foreshadowing’ could be brought more into the script such as having to introduce characters outside the set location of ‘Unscripted’ which takes place in a villa complex and also having the main characters have a brief conversation on the preparation of the film they wish to shoot, done so either in a café or at a friend’s place with destined foreshadowing such as the order in which they’re introduced to the audience could be the order in reverse as to who is killed off as the story progresses .These aspects are brought forth in brilliance in films like ‘Cannibal Holocaust (1980)’, ‘The Blair Witch Project(1999)’, ‘Chronicle(2012)’ ,’Cloverfield(2008)’.
In terms of camerawork and Screen structure the above mentioned films takes due importance in effectively communicating environmental aspects may it be the dangerous setting the Amazonian forest poses in the case of Cannibal Holocaust which showcases due dangers set all over the village including the wildlife such as Cheetahs, Alligators, even dangerous fish which give the audience a Labyrinthian feel of being boxed in or surrounded in-retreat. Having to visually establish this aspect such as having interviews of people who have lived in and around the Villa Complex and they themselves have a very homicidal and sadistic mannerism in their tone and their dualities, when interviewed could impress upon the audience that if something does go wrong to our heroes and heroines alike they have nowhere to go to, thus a feeling of being boxed in and also having to divert the audience to an unruly neighbor who makes surprising visits to the house could divert the audience from the supernatural and in believing that his mannerisms are volatile and his intentions truly sinister could prove wise in the final film as is done in ‘The Blair Witch Project’ which gives the audience room to believe that the murder and fate of the film’s protagonist was not that of a supernatural entity but by the two men who accompany the lead character, a woman into the middle of the forest documenting the whereabouts of a witch.
‘Chronicle’ uses amazing foreshadowing and character fates, just as simply as ‘Cloverfield ‘although they are found footage pictures, they are strongly rooted in the Sci-Fi genre which dictates foreshadowing but foreshadowing as said by Hitchcock is nothing more than giving the audience a treat on Multiple viewings. Having to litter ‘minute details’ such as a hinting a plot point in the cover art of the character’s mobile covers or to have situational foreshadowing such as having a character slip on a carpet at the beginning of the scene played for laughs and then this same character slips to his fate in a moment of heroic intervention only to face the entity himself would be of dramatic interest. Or simply having to focus the camera on props and locations for a longer duration such as a knife set in the kitchen or an empty room upstairs without having to indulge that these may actually play a role in the film would build an eerie randomness which foreshadows a certain chain in the events of the film but on multiple viewings, the audience having known the fate of these characters would sympathize further with their character arcs when looking for scattered clues.
sachins^love:_forfilm_<3 