Found footage (film technique)  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Found footage is a genre of filmmaking, especially horror, in which all or a substantial part of a film is presented as an edit of recovered footage, often left behind by missing or dead protagonists. The events onscreen are seen through the camera of one or more of the characters involved, who often speaks offscreen. Filming is often done by the actors themselves as they recite their lines, and shaky camerawork is also often used to maintain realism. While it dates back at least as far as 1980's Cannibal Holocaust, the genre was firmly established after the release of such films as The Blair Witch Project (1999), Paranormal Activity (2007) and Cloverfield (2008). The technique has also been used in science fiction, such as 1997's The McPherson Tape and Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County.

Examples of found footage films

(listed alphabetically within year of theatrical or home video release)

• Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
• 84C MoPic (1989)
• Man Bites Dog (1992)
• Little Sister (1995)
• The Last Broadcast (1998)
• The Blair Witch Project (1999)
• August Underground's Mordum (2003)
• The Last Horror Movie (2003)
• Zero Day (2003)
• September Tapes (2004)
• The Curse (2005)
• The Zombie Diaries (2006)
• Diary of the Dead (2007)
• Head Case (2007)
• Paranormal Activity (2007)
• The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007)
• REC (2007)
• Death of a Ghost Hunter (2007)
• Redacted (2007)
• Cloverfield (2008)
• Home Movie (2008)
• Lake Mungo (2008)
• Monster (2008)
• Quarantine (2008)
• Evil Things (2009)
• Paranormal Entity (2009)
• REC 2 (2009)
• The Ritual (2009)
• Trash Humpers (2009)
• Eyes in the Dark (2010)
• The Last Exorcism (2010)
• Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)
• The Troll Hunter (2010)
• Love Sex aur Dhokha (2010)
• 8213: Gacy House (2011)
• Apollo 18 (2011)
• Area 51 (2011)
• REC Genesis (2011)
• Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)
• REC Apocalypse (2012)

Examples of found footage TV series and made for TV specials

• Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County (1997) (mockumentary)
• Lost Tapes (2009) (series)

Examples of found footage video games

• Michigan: Report from Hell (2005)