No Budget Screenplays, Found Footage

            No Budget Screenplay, Found Footage

    An ultra low budget film in number one at the box office.  Another found footage horror movie has taken the top spot at the box office.  These movies look like documentaries and act like documentaries, but they are really well thought out and written films. 
    They all come with a script of some kind.  Someone had to write it before it got filmed and the better the writing, the better the film.  I am not going to talk about The Devil Inside, I am going to allow the smoke to clear on this movie.  Like the Blair Witch Project many years ago, some people love it some people really hate it.  Let’s begin where this trend really started.  Not with the Blair Witch, but all the way back in the 1970's with a movie titled Cannibal Holocaust.  A repulsive movie at times, one that got band in a few countries during its first release.  This is a movie were the film crew travels to south America to film native tribes and instead of just recording the events they encounter they caused them and then later fall victim to them.  This simple plot device has been part of almost every found footage film since then.  Observe and become a victim.  Observe and linger too long for safety. 
    Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity, CloverField, Grave Encounters, Apollo 18, Rec and the fantastic Rec 2. All of these films could be summed up as curiosity killed the cat.  The camera feels like a shield to the one holding it and only too late are they reminded that they are part of events.  Not safe at home watching on a tv screen, but in the middle of a life and death struggle.
    What I suggest is that you keep this in mind, but you also add a twist.  Try this found footage concept with comedy or straight drama.  Remember the scene in the Sixth Sense where the boy delivers to a grieving father found footage of a step mother poisoning the daughter.  We are missing the boat, but only doing horror.  Use security camera or webcam footage or even iphone footage.  Take a chance.  Do something different with this type of story telling.