The Blair Witch Project – Deconstruction

The Blair Witch Project is a Film made in 1999, written and directed by Daniel
Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez. It is about a group of amateur filmmakers who
venture into the woods in Burkittsville, Maryland, to make a documentary about
a local legend, The Blair Witch.

The film is made in an alternative way in comparison to most other popular titles;
where the only images shown in the whole movie are those that were captured
by the recording equipment of the main characters. In the case of TBWP, this
footage is the film from two cameras that they took with them to make the
documentary. Using this method means that there are certain shots that will not
be found as often as they would be in films made from an ‘objective’
perspective. Establishing shots, for example, are less common. There are other
types of shots which do appear very frequently. There are lots of POV shots in
TBWP, mostly in the behind the scenes style part of the film, because people are
walking around with cameras that are seeing generally what they are looking at
themselves.

The first few things that appear on screen are the logos of the film companies,
but there are no titles. To do this the Directors must have had a special licence.
The first real part of the film is a black screen with white writing which reads “In
October of 1994 three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near
Burkittsville, Maryland, while shooting a documentary...A year later their footage
was found.”

The scene is of one of the three central characters, Heather (the director of the
documentary they are shooting), standing in front of the camera, introducing the
project they are about to film, and what books she is taking, and other
informalities. It is filmed on a colour tape camcorder, which all the way through
the film is used as their ‘behind the scenes’ camera.
The next few minutes are of the three students meeting ready to go on
their weekend of filming. This means we are introduced to all of the
characters. Heather is obviously the dominant figure of the group, as she
talks the most, and tells the others what to do. The other two main
characters, Josh, and Mike, are less dominant, and have the equipment
with them. At this stage of the film, everyone is in good spirits. Up to this
point all the footage has been informal and none of it has been film to be
included in their documentary.

Shortly afterwards, the characters film their first scene for their
documentary. It is of heather introducing the legend of the Blair Witch,
and about what happened in the 1940’s, when lots of children in
Burkittsville died. The shot is filmed in a cemetery, and for the first time in
the film, pulls the viewer into the plot.