The Bluebird Project: Uses and Components of the Found Footage genre in the short film ‘Blue’
by Massimiliano Folgheraiter
The primary purpose of the found footage genre is to persuade who is watching that the events depicted in the film are not fictionalised but really occurred. ‘Found footage horror [, in fact,] seeks… to create a space where spectators can enjoy having their boundaries pushed, where our confidence that we know where the lines between fact and fiction lie are directly challenged’ (Heller-Nicholas 2014, p. 4).
The purpose of this essay is to analyse the elements that characterise the found footage genre, also known as discovered footage, in relation to Blue (2018), a short film about a fragile girl who falls victim of a self-harm challenge that leads the players to commit suicide. In this essay, I am going to contrast and compare Blue (2018) with the feature film The Blair Witch Project (Myrick and Sánchez 1999), highlighting the influence the latter had in the making of the short film. Moreover, I am going to analyse specific scenes from both films to explain how Blue maybe observes and subverts the conventions of the found footage genre.
As argued by author Scott Meslow in his article 12 Years After 'Blair Witch’, When Will the Found-Footage Horror Fad End?, ‘the found-footage genre is built on the conceit that the movie was filmed not by a traditional, omniscient director, but by a character that exists within the film's world’ (2012). In other words, the genre aims to deceive the spectator, making them believe that the footage shown on the screen is real and ’was discovered sometime after the events of the film’ (Meslow 2012).
However, the term ‘found footage’ is not only used to refer to fictional films but also to identify films which consist in the montage of real footage, recovered from existing sources. Accordingly, film critic David Bordwell coined the term “discovered footage” in his article Return to Paranormalcy (2012), to specifically indicate fictional films which make use of this style.
After discussing the origin and meaning of the term 'found footage', it is worth underlining that some scholars tend to refer to this genre also as mockumentary or fake documentary (Heller-Nicholas 2014). In fact, there are undoubtedly many commonalities between the documentary form and the fictional mockumentary structure, especially in the use of talking heads and voiceovers. However, the discovered footage is better understood as a horror sub-genre, since it has generated ‘its own distinct set of codes and conventions’ (Heller-Nicholas 2014, p. 16) that do not necessarily relate to the documentary but can make use of security footage, as well as video diaries or blogs as in the case of Blue (2018).
It is worth considering that one element that contributed to the emergence of this genre is the foundation of the broadcasting website YouTube in 2004. As underlined by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas in her book Found Footage Horror Films: Fear and the Appearance of Reality, in fact, ‘found footage horror responded [to the introduction of YouTube] with a dramatic spike that reflected this growth in acceptance of amateur filmmaking’ (2014, p. 9). Furthermore, Heller-Nicholas discusses how the influence of this website helped this genre gaining popularity and becoming mainstream.
Although the first example of a found footage film is considered to be Cannibal Holocaust (Deodato 1980), that is, an Italian horror film about a documentary crew who unleashes the bloodlust of two cannibalistic tribes, the film who made this genre emerge ‘as a real force in contemporary horror cinema’ (Meslow 2012) is The Blair Witch Project (Myrick and Sánchez 1999). This movie, which was released when the discovered footage style was not considered a genre unto itself yet, it ‘grossed almost $250 million worldwide on a budget of less than $60,000’, turning this approach to film into the ‘realm of low-budget’ (Meslow 2012) filmmaking. It can, therefore, be argued that The Blair Witch Project (1999) represents the ideal comparison to Blue (2018), since they share many similarities and they both include elements that characterise this genre.
The first component of the found footage genre can be encountered at the beginning of both films. Both films, in fact, open with an explanatory note, also known as disclaimer, which serves to reveal to the audience that the following images are real and have been discovered an indefinite time after the events that will be shown in the film. However, the purpose of the disclaimer in the two films is slightly different. In The Blair Witch Project (1999) the explanatory note only informs the audience that three students went missing five years before the release of the film and that the footage was found after their disappearing. Contrarily, in Blue (2018), the disclaimer also aims to provide the viewer with the background which led to the events of the film, namely a social media phenomenon known as the “Bluebird Challenge”. Taking part in this game, the young players had to complete several tasks, sending video proofs to the administrators of the game over a 50-day period and dragging themselves into a spiral of self-harm and violence that led them to commit suicide on the final day of the challenge.
To make the style and content of the films genuine and more believable, several scenes are deliberately out of focus. This characteristic can be seen, for instance, in the opening scene of The Blair Witch Project (1999), as well as in the scene in which Veronica Cartwright, portrayed by Eleonora Matrisciano, sits on the bed to listen to hardcore music at the minute 1:45 of Blue (2018). This expedient, which is repeated several times in the short film, gives both The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Blue (2018) an amateurish style, leading the spectator to believe in the veracity of the footage.
It is interesting to note how the proceeding of time represents a fundamental aspect in the found footage genre. To take the narrative forwards both The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Blue (2018) rely on deliberate gaps in time as the cameras are switched off. The manipulation of time is also used in the final scene of the short film where the story goes back to the beginning through a rewind sequence, to show the audience the background to the film.
Contrarily to The Blair Witch Project (1999), which simply presents the footage to the spectator without any evident manipulation of the latter, Blue (2018) displays a fake date and time in which the specific scenes were shot in order to give a time orientation to the viewer and underline the constant passage of time. This technique, not used in the 1999 film, is conventional in the found footage genre and can be particularly encountered in films that fake security footage, such as Paranormal Activity (Oren Peli 2007) and Grave Encounters (The Vicious Brothers 2011).
The Blair Witch Project (1999), on its part, can be considered more as an example of the mockumentary. The aim of the characters is, in fact, to realise a documentary about the Blair Witch and, for this reason, the film also includes interviews with local residents in the form of documentary talking heads. Even if Blue (2018) does not make use of this expedient, it presents a scene at the minute 5:26 that could be related to the talking heads. At that point, Veronica has a brief video chat with the administrator but, since the audience does not see the interlocutor, the resulting shot can be compared to the one which is typical of interviews. Furthermore, this scene creates another connection between the short film and The Blair Witch Project (1999). At the minute 70:14 of the latter, in fact, Heather Donahue, who plays herself in the film like the other characters, decides to record a goodbye tape for her family. The two scenes have a very similar purpose, since both characters realise that there is no escape from the woods in the case of Heater, and from the game in the one of Veronica, and that they are close to their death. However, while Heater’s speech remains unanswered, the video recorded by Veronica turns into a dialogue between her and the administrator, who pushes her to carry on with the challenge and commit suicide.
Continuing on the figure of the administrator, another similarity between the two films becomes evident. The character of the administrator is never presented to the public and its presence remains purely implicit, precisely as the one of the Blair Witch. Their quasi-omniscent existence in the story world is severely sensed both by the protagonists and the viewer, giving the latter a heavy sense of unease.
It can, therefore, be argued that the main purpose of Blue (2018) is to evoke the previously mentioned sense of discomfort in the audience, in order to make them empathise with the protagonist and better understand the regression of her character into a spiral of madness that increases as the film reaches the final day of the challenge. The sequence in which the character's mental breakdown goes off starts with the vomiting scene at the minute 3:44 until it reaches its peak as Veronica is forced to loudly repeat for several times the day in which she will die. This scene is representative of the entire journey of the character. At the beginning Veronica, in fact, repeats the date slowly and calmly, but moments later her look and hysterical laugh let on the madness, and the scene ends with a desperate cry. This specific regression has a similar counterpart in The Blair Witch Project (1999), in which, at the minute 40:10 of this latter, the character of Michael C. Williams has a nervous breakdown and, crying and hysterically laughing, he admits to have cricked the map into a creek, making the other characters realise their inability to get out of the woods.
The Blair Witch Project (1999) had a significant influence in the making of Blue (2018), especially in its visual and aesthetic component. The latter makes extensive use of the conventions firstly established by the 1999 film, with particular regard to the implementation of the shaky camera technique and the amateurish style that distinguishes this genre from the conventional fictional horror form. Moreover, The Blair Witch Project (1999) had a primary impact in the development of the fake story world in which the first part of Blue (2018) takes place, especially in relation to the regression of the character throughout the film, as well as the use of the sound effects that characterise the film in the place of a proper score.
It is also worth considering the role that the camera plays in the discovered footage genre. In the found footage films, the camera is often treated as a vehicle for the subjective POV, through the use of the hand-held camera technique. A clear example of this use can be identified in the scene at the minute 5:05 of Blue (2018), in which Veronica holds the camera while she goes out on the balcony, showing the audience the height above the ground from her perspective. Moreover, it can be argued that, especially in this genre, there is a personification of the object which promptly takes on the role of a character. For instance in Blue (2018), the camera embodies the role of the administrator inside the story world, since Veronica addresses it directly. Furthermore, it often represents the scapegoat for the anger of the protagonists as in both films the characters give the finger to the camera, almost treating it as a real person.
Nevertheless, the primary difference between The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Blue (2018) lies in the way the latter subverts the conventions of the found footage genre in the ending. While The Blair Witch Project does not reveal that the footage was deliberately realised for fictional purposes until the credits, Blue uncovers the truth immediately before the closing scene. During the sequence at the minute 7:22, in fact, the film shows Veronica walking on a rooftop when suddenly her body fades from the frame for a few seconds revealing the technical issues of the shot. This expedient is intentionally used to shock the audience and make them understand the falsity of the footage shown. Shortly after, the image of the skyline is removed completely from the green screen, revealing that the events of the short film have been staged to gain views on the internet by creating a viral video. This ploy has the aim of breaking the tension generated in the viewers during the previous scenes. Alongside the green screen revelation, a non-diegetic musical score is introduced in the film, accompanying the spectator throughout the opening sequence and the credits.
Although not distinctive of the discovered footage genre, the plot twist that characterises the last sequence of Blue (2018) could be compared with the ending of Peter Weir's hybrid film The Truman Show (1998), which merges satire, drama and science fiction. The film tells the story of Truman Burbank, portrayed by Jim Carrey, who lives under the dome of a television studio unaware of being the star of a reality program that follows every aspect of his life since his birth. In the ending of the film, while sailing away from the island in which he has lived his entire life, the sailboat bumps into the edge of the dome, unveiling he had been living on a television set, constructed as an artificial world. The sudden breakthrough highlights many similarities with the one used in the ending of Blue (2018). However, its impact on the viewers is quite different, or even the opposite. While in The Truman Show (1998) the audience discovers the truth long before Truman does, the protagonist of Blue (2018) was already aware of the situation before the beginning of the film, making the spectator the only one to be in the dark about what is happening.
In conclusion, the found footage is a genre that emerged at the end of the last century following the success of the film The Blair Witch Project (1999) and the creation of YouTube in 2004. Consequently, this genre became popular primarily as a sub-genre of the horror film, on the account of its easy application in low-budget fiction filmmaking. However, ‘the aesthetics of found footage horror are now commonly understood by audiences not as markers of factuality but as a recognizable cinematic style’ (Heller-Nicholas 2014, pp. 7-8). It could, therefore, be argued that the appeal of films such as The Blair Witch Project (1999), whose audience was not familiar with this genre’s conventions, was greater compared to the one of today’s found footage films, whose audience is more accustomed to their style.
In this essay, it has been argued that the short film Blue (2018) presents several similarities with The Blair Witch Project (1999), observing many of the conventions of the found footage genre, such as the initial explanatory note, the hand-held shaky camera technique, the amateurish style, the belief about the veracity of the events, the manipulation of time, and the replacement of the omniscient director with the diegetic inclusion of the camera in the story world. However, the film also subverts the rules of this genre, notably in the ending scene, revealing the audience that the footage was staged in order to produce a viral video and gain views on the internet. In doing so, the film breaks the previously built tension, abandoning the rules of the discovered footage genre and exposing the story within the story.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bordwell, D. (2012). Return to Paranormalcy. Observation on Film Art [Online]. Available from: http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2012/11/13/return-to-paranormalcy/. [Accessed 8 December 2018].
Heller-Nicholas, A. (2014). Found Footage Horror Films: Fear and the Appearance of Reality. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.
Meslow, S. (2012). 12 Years After 'Blair Witch’, When Will the Found-Footage Horror Fad End?. The Atlantic [Online]. Available from: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/01/12-years-after-blair-witch-when-will-the-found-footage-horror-fad-end/250950/.[Accessed 8 December 2018].
FILMOGRAPHY
Deodato, R. (1980). Cannibal Holocaust. [Film]. United Artists Europa.
Myrick, D. and Sánchez E. (1999). The Blair Witch Project. [Film]. Artisan Entertainment.
Peli, O. (2007). Paranormal Activity. [Film]. Paramount Pictures.
The Vicious Brothers. (2011). Grave Encounters. [Film]. Tribeca Film.
Weir, P. (1998). The Truman Show. [Film]. Paramount Pictures.