Found footage (film technique)
_%22.png)
Template:Horrorfilmlist Found footage is a cinematic technique and film genre in which all or a substantial part of the work is presented as if it were film or video recordings recorded by characters in the story, and later "found" and presented to the audience. The events on screen are typically seen through the camera of one or more of the characters involved, often accompanied by their real-time off-camera commentary. For added realism, the cinematography may be done by the actors themselves as they perform, and shaky camera work, improvisation and naturalistic acting are routinely employed. The footage may be presented as if it were "raw" and complete or as if it had been edited into a narrative by those who "found" it.
The most common use of the technique is in horror films such as The Blair Witch Project, The Last Broadcast, Cannibal Holocaust, Paranormal Activity, Diary of the Dead, Rec, Cloverfield, Trollhunter, V/H/S, Incantation, Be My Cat: A Film for Anne, As Above, So Below, Lake Mungo or Late Night with the Devil, in which the footage is purported to be the only surviving record of the events, with the participants now missing or dead. It has also been used in science fiction such as Chronicle, Project Almanac or Europa Report, drama such as Zero Day and Exhibit A, comedy such as Project X, crime mockumentary such as Trailer Park Boys, family such as Earth to Echo, experimental arthouse such as The Connection, The Outwaters or Masking Threshold and war films such as 84C MoPic.
Some pseudo-documentary films such as Lake Mungo or Noroi: The Curse, most screenlife films such as Unfriended, its sequel Dark Web, Profile or Searching, a few POV films such as Hardcore Henry or Presence, most livestream and "live TV" films such as Ghostwatch, as well as films where the footage is presented as originating from surveillance or dashboard cameras such as Taxi or Spree, are also often considered to fall under the found footage umbrella, despite the fact that technically the footage is not presented as "lost and found", but only as long as the camera is implied to be a part of the film and not a fourth wall the way it is in traditional films.[1][2]
History
As a storytelling technique, found footage has precedents in literature, particularly in the trope of found manuscript,[3] as well as epistolary novel, which typically consists of either correspondence or diary entries, purportedly written by a character central to the events. Like found footage, the epistolary technique has often been employed in horror fiction: both Dracula and Frankenstein are epistolary novels, as is The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft.
In filmmaking, the 1980 cult horror feature Cannibal Holocaust is often claimed to be the first example of found footage.[4] However, Shirley Clarke's arthouse film The Connection (1961) and the Orson Welles directed The Other Side of the Wind, a found footage movie shot in the early 1970s but released in 2018, predate Cannibal Holocaust.[5] Template:Interlanguage link (1989), segment titled “The Ferguson Case” has recently surfaced to be seen as one of the first examples to feature the found-footage style in a horror setting. Specifically its use of the footage being found in a scenario where the people who have shot it have gone missing from the circumstances at hand. This style predating films The Blair Witch Project (1999) and The Last Broadcast (1998) who popularized the genre style by nearly a decade.[6]America's Deadliest Home Video (1991), remains a potent use of the format as well as an unsung groundbreaker in the found-footage field - an ahead-of-its-time application of the vérité-video form to the horror/crime genre.[7] The device was popularised by The Blair Witch Project (1999).[8] Found footage has since been used in other commercially successful films, including Paranormal Activity (2007), Rec (2007), Cloverfield (2008), Chronicle (2012), Sinister (2012), Creep (2014) and Late Night with the Devil (2024).[9] Reviewing V/H/S for The A.V. Club, Scott Tobias notes that the genre "has since become to the '00s and '10s what slasher movies were to the '80s."[10]
The genre appeals to some film producers because of its lower cost, as it is believed the illusion of amateur documentary style allows lower production values than would be accepted on a conventional film. Other filmmakers choose it for creative reasons.
Writer-director Christopher B. Landon, who has made several found footage horror films, as well as filmmaker Adrian Țofei in his found footage manifesto, posit that the genre is likely to successfully extend outside horror in the future.[11][2]
Analysis
Found-footage films typically employ one or more of six cinematic techniques—first-person perspective, pseudo-documentary, mockumentary, news footage, surveillance footage, or screenlife—according to an analysis of 500 found-footage films conducted by Found Footage Critic.[12]
The film magazine Variety has used the term "faux found-footage" to describe the technique. Film scholar David Bordwell criticizes the usage, arguing that it sows confusion, and instead prefers the term "discovered footage" for the narrative gimmick.[13]
According to filmmaker Adrian Țofei in his found footage manifesto, a found footage film is technically a pseudo-documentary or fake documentary film, in which all or a substantial part of the picture is presented as being composed of recordings of real life events, seen through cameras that are part of the events. He defines found footage as a "filmmaking concept" with the goal of giving audiences the illusion that they're not watching a movie made by filmmakers and actors, but genuine life events recorded by people like them who were part of the events, which would allow audiences to be fully immersed in the movie experience.[2]
In a 2016 article for Cinema Journal, Cecilia Sayad explores the relationship between the found footage genre and reality. She asserts that the genre's metaphorical framing, convincing audiences that films contain true unscripted footage, and its technical framing, mimicking amateur home videos and security footage, are key to what creates fear in the audience, dissolving the traditional boundaries between what is part of the film and real life.[14]
Sayad highlights how the found footage genre invites the audience to "to anxiously scan the image for threatening presences", blurring the boundary between what is on screen and what is real. For example, The Paranormal Activity series' inclusion of the timestamps on each clip of footage "empowers the audience", encouraging watchers to analyze evidence in real time.[14] Typical found footage techniques, like shaky handheld sequences and sudden zooms, create the illusion that the camera frame is unable to contain the evil of any film's antagonist to the screen. The selective choice to not center major action sequences on camera, like during the climax of Paranormal Activity (2007), also contributes to this effect. Sayad notes that "the sense of lurking danger is enhanced as much by our fear about seeing things as by our anxiety about what we do not see".[14]
Importantly, Sayad notes that there is an important distinction between found footage horror films and other "self-aware" horror films, like 1996's Scream. She writes,
ScreamTemplate:'s pastiche of classics packages the film as artifice, keeping the relationship between movies and reality safely locked in the realm of fiction. The found-footage movie, in contrast, presents itself as real, whereas its characteristically unstable camera work suggests that the film can neither lock things in nor keep them out.[14]
Examples
Template:More citations needed
Films
The following entries are notable films in the found footage genre, though some were only partially made in that style.
TV series, made-for-TV specials and TV episodes
- Alternative 3 (1977)
- Template:Interlanguage link (1989)
- Without Warning (1994)
- Alien Autopsy: (Fact or Fiction?) (1995)
- Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County (1998) – UPN aired a 60-minute version with more interviews
- Godzilla: The Series, episode: "S.C.A.L.E." (2000). Though animated, the episode has no background music and alternates between footage from various security cameras.
- Jeopardy (2002) (BBC series)
- Ed, Edd n Eddy, episode: "An Ed is Born". In this episode where Eddy decides to make a home movie of himself to show his brother how 'grown up' he has become by using Ed's video camera. (2002)Template:Refn
- The Comeback (2003) (series)
- Flag (2006)
- Lost Tapes (2008–2010) (series)
- The River (2012) (series)
- The Simpsons, episode: Treehouse of Horror XXIII (2012). The 2nd segment "Unnormal Activity" is a parody of the Paranormal Activity franchise.
- Ultimate Spider-Man, episode: "Exclusive" (2012)Template:Refn
- Lassie Jerky, an episode of Psych that was partially filmed as found footage (2013)
- Sleep No More, the ninth episode of Doctor Who Series 9 (2015)
- American Horror Story: Roanoke (2016) (FX series)
- Steven Universe, episode: "The Big Show" (2018)Template:Refn
- Inside No. 9, episode: "Cold Comfort". A story about a call centre, told through the CCTV camera. (2018)
- Clarence, episode: "Clarence The Movie" (2018)Template:Refn
- Succession: Main title theme (2018–2023) (HBO series)
Music videos
- "Drag the Waters" by Pantera (1996)
- "Babalon A.D." by Cradle of Filth (2003)
- "Decency Defied" by Cannibal Corpse (2004)
- "Walk with Me in Hell" by Lamb of God (2006)
- "Dull Boy" by Mudvayne (2007)
- "Beauty and a Beat" by Justin Bieber ft. Nicki Minaj (2012)
- "I Need Your Love" by Calvin Harris ft. Ellie Goulding (2012)
- "Run on Love" by Tove Lo ft. Lucas Nord (2013)
- "One Last Time" by Ariana Grande (2015)
- "Photograph" by Ed Sheeran (2015)
- "Run Away with Me" by Carly Rae Jepsen (2015)
- "All Night" by The Vamps (2016)
- "All We Know" by The Chainsmokers ft. Phoebe Ryan (2016)
- "Galway Girl" by Ed Sheeran (2017)
- "What Lovers Do" Template:Small by Maroon 5 ft. SZA (2017)
- "Christmas Tree Farm" by Taylor Swift (2019)
- "Nobody's Love" by Maroon 5 (2020)
- "Glimpse of Us" by Joji (2022)
- "Past won't leave my bed by Joji (2025)
Web series
- Backrooms (2022–present)
- Ben Drowned (2010–2012; 2020)
- Gemini Home Entertainment (2019–present)
- GREYLOCK (2023–present)
- Local 58 (2015–present)
- Petscop (2017–2019)
- No Through Road (2009–2012)[24][25]
- Marble Hornets (2009–2014)
- The Mandela Catalogue (2021–present)
See also
- Analog horror
- Cinéma vérité
- Epistolary novel
- Fictional book
- Hoax
- Mockumentary
- Point-of-view cinema
- Pseudo-documentary
- Screenlife
Notes
References
External links
- Top 100 Best Found Footage Movies on Rotten Tomatoes
- The 22 Best Found Footage Movies on IndieWire
- 10 Terrifying Found Footage Films (and 5 That Should’ve Stayed Lost) on Variety
- The 25 best found footage movies of all time on Entertainment Weekly
- 10 great found-footage films at the British Film Institute
- Found Footage Horror Reviews at Category:Found footage films
This article incorporates text from the Wikipedia article "Found footage (film technique)", available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.Retrieved 2026-03-03.
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite journal
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ ‘WATCH CAREFULLY WHAT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN’: LES DOCUMENTS INTERDITS (1989-1991) AND THE INTERROGATION OF FRANCE’S CULTURAL MEMORY
- ↑ Editorial: DVD Review: America's Deadliest HomeVideo - Fangoria
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite news
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Template:Cite journal
- ↑ Template:Cite book
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite news
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web