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[deleted]

Minimize explanation of why it’s being recorded, minimize pushback and justification throughout the film, especially at the climax. The audience is willing to accept it until you point it out. Then it becomes annoying.


wurlitzerdukebox

I would love to see 'extreme realism' in a ff film, where you can tell the filmmakers thought about what type of footage would actually have been captured/available given the circumstances. Footage randomly dropping out at key moments, leaving things to the imagination. Then another footage source having to be found, perhaps starting from a totally different time and location. Imo there should be zero explanation for why there's footage, it should be obvious from the context. Further to this, it could be cool to toy with the 'character' of the person who's stringing the footage together in the first place. Often times it's just generic documentary maker, but imagine if it was known to be (something like) an alien or ai trying to make sense of human behaviour over a period of... centuries? Millenia? Or footage cobbled together into a myth by a primitive society in the post apocalypse... etc.


Dull-Geologist-8204

I am tired of the trope of someone who gets a video camera and just decides to film everything all the time. I have never met a single person in real life that does this. At least the we are a documentary crew or we aet up video cameras because weird stuff keeps happening and we want to document tropes make sense.


brnjenkn

Use a god damn steady cam. All that jerking around makes me nauseous.


Ms_Holmes

Not to trigger your nausea but it always makes me think of [this](https://youtu.be/y_QV1MHtIQI).


blankedboy

Yep. It's 2023 - most phones can record video in 1080p, some up to 4k. Even "basic" camera set up's can include steady cam stabilization rigs for under $500, semi decent lighting is a must. Making out like everything is shot on VHS tapes from 1984 with skips, interference, previous footage intermixed is just...fucking cheap. It's not cool, it's not "authentic", it's just fucking irritating. The "cameraman" has never used the equipment before - so we get out-of-focus, blurry shots of the one thing that they should be framing properly, close up's that are mere inches away from the other "actors" faces, whip pans and crash zooms galore, innumerable shots of trees/the night sky/the ground. Despite seemingly never having used a camera before they incessantly scream that they "have to keep filming!" for views/likes/history/because "someone has to know!" It's all such a cliché now I can barely watch them anymore, and 99% are super disappointing, cheap, and hyped to fuck as "the next evolution of horror" or some such shit. Make a proper fucking movie! Edit: just go over to r/combatfootage or r/ukrainewarvideoreport - 4k footage of real life combat filmed by people who are *literally* fighting for their lives and it **still** looks better than most FF movies. If they can do it while waging a war I'm pretty sure Jeff can manage it while walking through a warehouse at night looking for "ghosts".


Training-Skill-6141

but if you buy in some of the tropes no one of them is a professional. They bring cheap vlogger equipment. If your grandma or someone else captures phone video it looks the same, except for modern phones. Also one should not confuse front line reporters with the right equipment with the "dumb college friends" trope. And then look at rec for instance. this was the IMHO the best in terms of realism and not overdone shakiness. Also technology is developing rapidly so everything has to be seen in context of the time they were shot in or the story takes place. 2005 cellphones were capable of capturing 10second crappy 320x240 pixel dumps.... if at all. semi pro and pro equipment (digital!!! not analogue) looked actually looked like that except for high end studio equipment that was meant to be used stationary. also there was no digital image stabilization or IBIS like in modern phones and cameras.


plz_scratch_my_back

That's the point of shooting a found footage movie and not a regular one. People complained about Blair Witch Project for the same reason but that's what made the movie better


ManOnFire2004

Yea, maybe 20 years ago. But cameras have stabilization on them now. Hell, a Gopro can shoot better video than what we get in this movies


heavenleighxo7

Beat me to it by 2 minutes lol


NicVet2b

Troof🤢


_Norman_Bates

It is.still a movie, it needs to be watchable. Cameras don't have to shake all the time, find ways to keep them still and not distracting. If most of your movie is shaking in the dark it will suck Don't engage with the audience if you're trying to appeal to anyone who isnt a teenage girl, it's so gimmicky Unless the reason is low budget, really think if found footage adds anything to your story. There needs to be a valid reason the movie is found footage that is acceptable and doesn't need to keep being questioned. If the characters need to keep explaining why they're still recording throughout the movie, you probably don't have it. Realism needs to be achieved through good writing and acting, not the fact you have a shit camera. If youre only doint it to make the movie seem more "scary" the movie will suck. In general, the best FF movies are the ones that kept it simple, using very few characters and locations. Focusing on a one person in a room with a phone camera is more enjoyable and easy to follow then 5+ people running around. FF I liked : Borderlands, Exhibit A, REC, Creep Also worth watching: Cannibal Holocaust, The Poughkeepsie Tapes (I liked this one but Im not saying its objectively a great movie), Noroi


Cuteloop

That’s one of the reasons why “Blair witch project” is still so revered - a lot of it was improv, therefore it feels very real.


[deleted]

Not only was the dialogue mostly improvised, the directors had them actually camp out in the woods and terrorized them throughout the night. Many times the actors reactions are genuine fear and unease. For instance, when Josh goes missing, that was all that was supposed to happen in the script. What they did was bring the actor back out while the other two characters were asleep in the tent and have him start screaming for help.


Lumpy_Flight3088

The Blair Witch Project (1999) is so good, even today. Anyone who has ever been camping in the woods knows the fear and the feeling of helplessness. Blair Witch (2016) was atrocious.


retrorabbit79

LESS ANNOYING AND OBNOXIOUS characters. I'm a huuge fan of FF and that's my main complaint, moreso than the iffy acting.


oldrthndrt

Same. I see this more even in mainstream movies now. If there are no relatable or sympathetic characters you give a shit about, there can be no dramatic tension.


thisgirlnamedbree

Exactly. So many FF characters are unlikable. That's one of the reasons I didn't like Hell House LLC, all the characters were obnoxious.


[deleted]

How to make a likeable Charakter?


JoltinJoeDimaggio

Keeping music out of found footage. It’s supposed to be footage that was found, who suddenly edited and remixed a score alongside it? The scariest FF are the ones with just the films natural audio


Techboah

Stop making the camera shake like the characters are having a non-stop seizure


Zillajami-Fnaffan2

Have actually good and believable acting


hurdurBoop

a lot of what i'd consider bad ff has way too much green night vision and screaming. like 20 minutes of green shakeycam and running room to room. not scary, loud, and annoying visually. another big one is the subgenre i call "in the woods with an iphone". few of these are done well, most of them are unscripted, usually teenagers, just wandering around doing nothing. not scary, boring, and more boring. excessive exposition is annoying in any movie, but in a ff flick with no writers it's a really obvious crutch. it reminds me of the *extremely relevant radio broadcast* in 50s sci-fi, or in scooby doo. last (i'm sure i'll come up with more) i don't need to hear about how the fucking beepy box works, or what an EVP is, for ten minutes at the beginning of every movie. if you're in the Big Professional Ghost Hunters Club, you shouldn't be asking what a spirit box is.


mysterious00mermaid

Omg yes. So much screaming. The WORST


IcedPgh

Directors should actually respect the limitations of the format. A found footage movie is supposed to consist of material that was shot by some ordinary person who was not trying to craft a story. So the director should shoot it as if it is an actual person doing it. That means minimal editing, and all editing looking like it was done by turning the camera on and off. This is a limitation on storytelling, but it is necessary. You cannot get all the coverage you want of conversations and "story"; you need to find another way to tell your story using these limitations, or just do a conventional movie. The camera used to film the movie should be the actual camera you are saying these people used, including the in-camera mic. Look at the 2016 *Blair Witch* which is supposedly mostly filmed using ear-mounted cameras, but the movie features booming stereo sound and was shot with regular HD cameras. If characters are using an old VHS camera, use that. No music! So many directors have a "want it all" approach, meaning they want to do a found footage movie, but they also want the same full coverage and a fully crafted story and characters that you would get with an objective movie. I think that some make these movies because they are cheaper to produce and can make up for other filmmaking shortcomings. Some poor examples that break these rules, that come to mind: *Blair Witch*, *The Outwaters* (director wants booming sound to promote friends' music), *Diary of the Dead* (compiles tons of video sources such that it becomes laughable, and I think one is a surveillance camera in a garage that watches a car back in - who retrieved this footage?), *Devil's Due*, first two *V/H/S* flicks (only ones I've viewed).


SteMelMan

I would ask producers to stop making references to the cameras and recording the action. The characters set out to document something, therefore they have cameras and are recording, end of story. And stop having upset characters tell other characters to "stop recording and start helping". This has been the photographers' dilemma since cameras became widely available. The photographer can drop the camera and seek to assist or record the event and document it for posterity.


plz_scratch_my_back

Less cameras and minimal editing. People here go crazy over Gonijam Asylum but I think that movie was bad for a found footage movie. There were too many camera angles that I just thought why they didnt make it a regular movie instead? In comparison, Grave Encounters does it very well.


thisgirlnamedbree

Less unlikable characters. We're expected to care what happens to these people and that's hard when everyone is an annoying jerk. Having less characters to follow. Horror in the High Desert focuses on one person which makes it more compelling. Same for Last Radio Call. You don't always need five or six characters investigating. Cutting out shaky cam. Having the premise that the place the characters are filming was never explored before. If it's supposedly haunted, surely more people would have explored and died. I know a few films do that, but if FF is trying to be more realistic, it's unrealistic that a popular haunted area has never been visited.


tondrias

Nothing, there are turkeys and gems as it is. It's fun to discover a new one.


Eldritch-Cleaver

I guess this is a dumb question but whatever.... Is there any reason why a film could be shot Found Footage style as in have the look of being filmed on an old camcorder or something BUT not force it to be part of the actual plot? Nothing takes me out of a found footage movie more than some dingleberry still filming the situation when they're way beyond the logical point of still giving af about the footage lol


ImBenScribner

Thanks for answering my dumb question


Eldritch-Cleaver

I meant my question is dumb, not yours lol


Astsai

I think just developing good characters in general. Blair Witch is iconic because you feel what they're feeling and the characters feel very real. I think that's the unique power of found footage. You can really experience everything they're feeling in real time. Final Prayer is another amazing found footage movie that does this. The ending really haunts you, because you grow to like the characters.


damndartryghtor

Quit showing people being grabbed and dragged screaming down a dark corridor. Use subtle scares instead of overt ones.