"The Blair Witch Project"

[skillet]

this movie is a masterpiece. I was thoroughly scared when I watched this; mostly because I know Maryland well, am a camper, and am superstitious. I believe this movie was made by amateur film makers, was extremely well -marketed ( including the innovative use of the Internet), and generated one "for the little guy". No CGI, no big narcissistic Hollywood types, no elaborate set or budget. Just a good old fashioned scarefest!! thumbsup:rock

[CoonTownYT]

I can't say I agree with ya there, Skillet.

I still want my money back!

[KFCISFORNIGGERS]

I have talked to alot who liked that movie. I personally thought it was retarded. They said that only a few thousand was taken to make it where did it all go? I bet that movie took fuck all to make. I could of made it with a camcord and a case of beerthumbsup

But then again those guys are laughing all the way to the bank.

[Taylor]

I thought it was very cool too,Skillet. Maybe being an avid camper myself helped.

[Maleficarum]

They made a porn version called the bare wench project:jerk

[Taylor]

They made a porn version called the bare wench project:jerk

When I worked in a video store, we used to have a betting pool to come up with the X-rated titles of popular movies before they came out. That might be a cool off-topic forum for here. I would guess "Iron Man" might be a no-brainer, but I'm having tough time coming up with an X-rated version of "Dark Knight". "Romancing the Bone", "Splatman" and "Edward Penishands" were a few of my favorites.

[LawDawg80]

Bad thing is, I actually remember Bare Wench Project. Someone shoot me.....

[The "Hater"]

I didn't really like the movie that much...
But believe it or not, there was a drive by shooting in front of my house while I was watching that movie with my family a few years ago.
We were watching that movie one night and all of a sudden I hear gun shots outside and my dad yells for us to get down. You better believe I dropped faster than anyone! From what I can remember, I think it was a white car that did the shooting and some other colored car(to dark outside to tell) was crashed into the building in front of my house. Luckly, none of my family was shot, but the guy who was inside of the car that crashed was shot, and a person walking down the street at the time of the shooting was shot a few times. Don't worry, everyone who was injured was a nigger.
Definetely a night I'll never forget. :beware

[Massa Charlie]

I did quite a bit of research on this flick back before it ever hit the big screen. No, it wasn't an amateur film. Yes, those were all actors. The creator of the film, Dan Myrick, was an independent documentary and commercial film maker out of Florida (working indie film festivals and local advertising). Myrick already had seen some success for his innovative photography on an underground film called Technobabble, as well as for his documentary film Bolles School, about the shitty conditions in a Hungarian orphanage.

Myrick kind of single-handedly concocted The Blair Witch Project starting in 1993, later merging his talents with a little Florida production company run by Sam Barber, and they completed the original version of TBWP by late 1995 at the modest cost of $65,000. Which is, like, chump change in the film business.

But you may be thinking, Wait, he finished the film in 1995? Why did it take 4 more years to hit the big screen?

Well, it was in those 4 years that Barber/Myrick really outdid themselves in marketing preparation. In late 1995, the guys, operating under the name Haxan Films, asked the Independent Film Channel if they would consider screening a partially finished film for viewer feedback. IFC was all into screening amateur work back then, and they agreed to screen the first half of The Blair Witch Project on cable television. For free. Barber & Myrick invited the viewers to log in to the Haxan Films website and critique the movie.

The response was tremendous. Myrick's wild and loose cinematography and the mostly ad-libbed script really did look like an amateur, film school documentary. People were scared shitless that it was real.

That's when I and a bunch of other skeptics started researching Haxan Films to find out what the fuck this "project" was really about. I ended up talking to Dan Myrick directly, which is how I know all this shit.

Anyway, after IFC screened the first half of the film to a national cable audience for free, Dan Myrick went back in and custom-edited the original film to reflect viewer feedback. He changed the story somewhat, changed all the character names, and then screened the second half of the film on IFC the following year, in the spring of 1996.

Same thing, Myrick asked for viewer feedback online, and he went back to polish the film editing even more extensively. So, The Blair Witch Project appeared on cable TV three fucking years before it appeared in theatres, during which time the rumor mill — the free rumor mill — did most of Myrick's marketing for him.

By the time Barber/Myrick took The Blair Witch Project out of the indie shadows for national distribution, it already had a cult following, which accounted for it blowing the boxoffice away from the very beginning — after the cult crowd swept in, the regular crowd followed, and the goddamned film ended up grossing, I dunno, over $165 million the last time I checked, which was several years ago.

But it was a fucking sweet, sweet dream come true for a mere $65,000 outlay.

Incidentally, I don't know who wrote the Wikipedia entry for this movie, but it doesn't follow what Dan Myrick told me at all. For example, Wiki says that they started filming the movie in 1997, but that's bullshit. I have an article right here from The Orlando Business Journal (dated December, 1996) that says Barber/Myrick had already completed The Blair Witch Project by 1996 — which fits with my timeline, but not with Wikipedia.

So, fuck Wikipedia.

:hnk

[S.T.P]

It didnt cost much and made a boatload of money. Cant argue with the numbers. Not sure if any of the actors have done anything since.

[skillet]

I have to hand it to them; that movie, coupled with the "mockumentary" aired by the SciFi channel, was extremely well done, and as S.T.P. said, you can't argue with the numbers.

The thing is, I've been on weekend trips with friends in which things like what happened to the kids really did happen; maps being lost and whatnot. Also, the climate of fear can do very strange things to the imagination; especially in a wooded area at night.

To me, that's far scarier than some CGI mess with Will Smiff.

[Gallóglaigh]

I think CGI when done right works well for portraying things like spaceships or aircraft. When it's done to make a CGI person/animal/monster/creature, it looks too fake.

The technology just isn't that refined yet.

As an example compare An American Werewolf In London to An American Werewolf In Paris.

AAWIL featured an animatronic werewolf which was much more convincing than the CGI werewolves of the sequel which looked super-fake and silly.

Another example is the dragon from the film Dragonslayer. No CGI in this early 80's film - the animation was claymation with the film cleverly blurred to reduce the jerkiness often seen in claymation.


I thought The Blair Witch Project had a few good scenes but overall I thought it was annoying. 20 minutes into the film I was rooting for the witch to get those dumbasses.

[ZULU]

this movie is a masterpiece. I was thoroughly scared when I watched this; mostly because I know Maryland well, am a camper, and am superstitious. I believe this movie was made by amateur film makers, was extremely well -marketed ( including the innovative use of the Internet), and generated one "for the little guy". No CGI, no big narcissistic Hollywood types, no elaborate set or budget. Just a good old fashioned scarefest!! thumbsup:rock

sorry man gotta disagree with ya. i could have gotten the same experiance walking out in the woods during deer season.

[Taylor]

I honestly don't think I've yet seen CGI that's even remotely convincing.

I hear ya Doc, I'd rather go with Harryhausen's masterpieces or even the guy in a rubber Godzilla suit any day over CGI. But ya gotta admit, it's getting better all the time. As much as Jackson's "King Kong" sucked, I have to admit the CGI was damned good as was the CGI in the recent "War of the Worlds".

[Massa Charlie]

The thing about CGI is that they're applying it before they have it figured out. They still can't mimic gravity convincingly, they still have problems with multi-point perspective, and nobody yet can produce a believable human face in CGI.

Distorted humanoids, like Hulk and Smegel, almost work, but that's only because we humans have never seen a Hulk or a Smegel in real life before, and we're not acquainted with their anatomical physics. Same thing with the various monsters and dinosaurs you see animated — we have nothing by which to compare the animation, so our human senses sort of accept it.

But, when it comes to human hands and human faces, with which we are intimately acquainted, CGI animators can't even begin to produce a realistic sequence.

I remember I felt ripped off when the Wachowski Brothers decided to use CGI for entire fight sequences in The Matrix Reloaded -- specifically, the "Burly Brawl" between Neo and about 100 Agent Smiths. Looked like shit. I almost walked out of the fucking theatre... Well, not only because of the human CGI, but also because of all the fucking niggers in The Matrix trilogy. Somebody should have advised the Wachowski Bros that niggers aren't even going to exist in the year 2199.

Anyway, the best CGI is architectural imaging -- hard to go wrong with straight lines, basic shades, and textures. They did a great job with recreating 1930s New York City in King Kong, I think. Ape was pretty great, too.

But I'm not going to say that CGI has hit its pinnacle until they start producing new John Wayne movies that are totally believable. John Wayne, James Cagney, Gene Kelly, hot-assed Marilyn Monroe, et cetera, all CGI animated in new films. Now, I'd pay to see films like that, rather than downloading a shitty copy through a slow torrent.

:hnk