Blair Witch marketing

[Dude#1279435]

Unreal to this day what they accomplished. Reports range from $22-35K budget and grossed $248 million. Obviously the infancy of the internet was huge. Roughly 190 million were online at that time. Targeted college kids and the social buzz of the original website, leaflets, etc. There were no pre-screening till Sundance. $1 million was spent by Artisan on marketing. They never marketed the movie so much as stepping into forums with pseudonyms and stirring debate over whether or not it was real. The suspension of disbelief. Artisan's marketing wasn't on the movie but the 21 million who visited the website, which was 11% of all onliners. Website was about the mythology and police investigation evidence like lost film and cameras etc. When polled some 40% believed the film was real. To this day it's the greatest marketing ever. Because it was gorilla filmed to produce the most realistic reactions from the cast. The producers never met the cast during filming and instead eves dropped and tried to create havoc. They'd have to sleep in tents and towards the end food was scarce. The film doesn't really hold up well today because it was created without any style. It was all first person handheld. But that was the point. You'd have to think of how it was created then. I personally think it's the King of less is more in horror. Mind you I don't consider it scary but creepy. Artisan intentionally didn't release it wider on its opening week to produce pent up eagerness to see it. Some 27 screens its first week. 31 the second. Salon casted doubts on these "fan sites" as there were many similarities between them and the original website.

"The movie was an extension of the web site, not the other way around. That’s what was new.”

My favorite scene is when they return to the log they had clearly been walking in the other direction from. But you can't go to wrong with I chucked that fucking map in the river!

PS- feels like I posted this somewhere before, but oh well.

 

[Dude#1279435]

“‘Blair Witch’ is the must attend social event for plugged-in America”

A very apt way of describing its marketing.

 

[Dude#1279435]

I should have said no pre-screening to critics. They did pre-screen a longer cut. Speaking of which, they had over 20 hours of footage and realized then they had a movie in there which was edited down to 82 minutes. A lot of this was simply lightning in a bottle. There was found footage before like Cannibal Holocaust and Last Broadcast, but Blair Witch continues to be the quintessential example.

 

[pepe0008]

I haven't seen it. And I remember everybody talking about it.

So their great marketing did not work with me.

 

[Dude#1279435]

I haven't seen it. And I remember everybody talking about it.

So their great marketing did not work with me.

You're one person though. I'm talking about the millions that did go see it.

 

[Dude#1279435]

In one sense Book of Shadows is a mess, but at the same time I think it takes a really good angle on the mythology. Although it's difficult to decipher, I think the idea was to have Christine possessed by the Blair Witch and reek havoc on the cast. (She's seen doing some type of ritual at the place where the cameras are set up.) It's a commentary on the lines being blurred between reality and media. The review states to the effect Film lies but video doesn't which to me is hinting at, the evidence (video) was part of the possession. The cast didn't really commit those murders, or the curse made them which is fucked up. The actor who has tears saying like, This is bullshit. It didn't happen this way, makes me think so. I'd love to see a director's cut, but I don't think that will ever happen. Or something that pieces together his original vision. I watched part of BW 2 but turned it off feeling like it was too samey as the original. The new ripples in mythology were good but overall I couldn't get through it. Btw, Book of Shadows is an exceptional review. Recommended.

 

[Dude#1279435]

Book of Shadows- also the blackout. Sure they were drinking, but then waking up hours later and there research evidence is shredded to the point it looks like snow outside. The hallucinations. That would've never happened without the curse.

The time loop stuff. The original and can't get out of the forest. Returning to the log after using the compass to head in the opposite direction. Very good stuff.

 

[shadyJ]

Blair Witches' marketing gimmickry was also used to a lesser but still hugely successful extent in the movie Paranormal Activity, of course. They just kept on making those Paranormal Activity movies, understandable since they are so cheap to make that they are guaranteed a profit. There are some good "boo" moments in them, but they are relatively lazy cash grabs otherwise. The whole found footage thing was really driven into the ground by hundreds, literally hundreds, of bad imitations. There are just so many; sift through Amazon Prime's horror section for abundant evidence of this. There are some found footage movies that I liked, though. Some of the ones I have seen that I enjoyed:

• Grave Encounters
• Diary of a Ghosthunter
• [Rec] -(its American remake "Quarantine" is pretty good also")
• Hanger 10
• As Above, So Below
• The Last Exorcism
• Host
• Chronicle

The V/H/S series is a mixed bag, as all anthologies tend to be, but there are some great entries in there, especially in VHS 2 which is terrific. The first Hell House LLC is fun, although the sequels are just awful.

The problem is, for every interesting or watchable one, there are 90 terrible movies of this type. There is just so much garbage in this genre. Any idiot who owns a handheld camera made a found footage movie, and that is exactly what they did. One zero budget found footage horror movie that I found on Youtube that I thought was watchable is this one, Rorschach. It doesn't overdo itself like so many bad horror movies are prone to, and it's pretty restrained which is what these types of movies always should be but rarely are.

 

[Dude#1279435]

Blair Witches' marketing gimmickry was also used to a lesser but still hugely successful extent in the movie Paranormal Activity, of course. They just kept on making those Paranormal Activity movies, understandable since they are so cheap to make that they are guaranteed a profit. There are some good "boo" moments in them, but they are relatively lazy cash grabs otherwise. The whole found footage thing was really driven into the ground by hundreds, literally hundreds, of bad imitations. There are just so many; sift through Amazon Prime's horror section for abundant evidence of this. There are some found footage movies that I liked, though. Some of the ones I have seen that I enjoyed:

• Grave Encounters
• Diary of a Ghosthunter
• [Rec] -(its American remake "Quarantine" is pretty good also")
• Hanger 10
• As Above, So Below
• The Last Exorcism
• Host
• Chronicle

The V/H/S series is a mixed bag, as all anthologies tend to be, but there are some great entries in there, especially in VHS 2 which is terrific. The first Hell House LLC is fun, although the sequels are just awful.

The problem is, for every interesting or watchable one, there are 90 terrible movies of this type. There is just so much garbage in this genre. Any idiot who owns a handheld camera made a found footage movie, and that is exactly what they did. One zero budget found footage horror movie that I found on Youtube that I thought was watchable is this one, Rorschach. It doesn't overdo itself like so many bad horror movies are prone to, and it's pretty restrained which is what these types of movies always should be but rarely are.

I like PA 3, but then I might not had I watched more of them.....
Rec was great and really the definitive one after BW me thinks.
The genre has a very small window overall, but like you said has many many many bad ones. I'll have to take a look at VHS2.

 

[Dude#1279435]

VHS2- WTF was that about??? It tells different stories within the story with different directors. LOL moments when the two zombies are doing doggystyle. Or the ramhead creature. Hahaha, can't make that up.
That might've been a goat head LOL

 

[zurinefalling]

I remember when everyone was hyping over The Blair Witch. But I didn't watch the movie even though I love horror. And that could be called the film's failure indication. Moviemakers cast unknown actors who wanted to debut in this horror movie. I don't know much about publicity, promotion and so on. So I trust the experts. But these movie makers really failed. My close friend owns an online sporting goods store. As far as I know, he studied all kinds of marketing strategies and chose Ecommerce Integrations to promote his site. And even his campaign was more successful than The Blair Witch movie. Lol. That's funny to compare.

 

[justindickens]

One of the few ad campaigns I've enjoyed in the last couple of years. Not comparable to Dying Light and their set for a lot of money, but not bad either.

 

[EsmeraldaMelton]

Wow, the Blair Witch marketing strategy was indeed groundbreaking! The way they utilized the internet's infancy and targeted college kids was genius. It's fascinating how they stirred debates in forums rather than traditional marketing.

 

[davidscott]

I haven't seen it. And I remember everybody talking about it.

So their great marketing did not work with me.

I watched it about halfway through then tuned out. I guess I just didn't get (or like) it.