The Found Footage Vs. The Footage Script

                    The Found Footage Vs. The Footage Script


    The found footage film is here to stay as long as it grows and adapts. Adaptation is the key to this. The western, the gangster film and the horror film changed over time. The horror film of the silent era grew up to become the four star films produced by Universal films in the 1930's. The genre nearly died off and then came back with a vengeance in the 50's. Led by Hammer horror films and aided with a massive wave of the newly introduced scifi horror film.

    We all know the formula by now. A group of people, one armed with a recording device, find themselves in a life and death situation. This situation is usually supernatural or thriller related. Despite the best efforts of the mostly brain dead or functioning brain damaged lead characters they end up getting themselves killed while the camera is still recording. That death is symbolic for the death of the genre.

    Found footage, must become footage films. This is done at the screenplay level and that is the reason for this post.

    What I have found is that most found footage films are not written they are outlined. They are usually structured in the form of a treatment. The basic scenes are written in normal screenplay style. The interiors or exteriors are noted and then there is a description of what the characters are suppose to do and talk about in the scene without actually stage direction or dialogue being written. As a writer you are leaving to much to chance in the found footage genre.

    The footage film screenplay is the wave of the future.

    What is a Footage screenplay and have I ever seen an example.

    The footage screenplay is a screenplay that incorporates footage shot by someone or a series of people and or security cameras on screen and mixes it with footage from a third person shooter (the cameraman).  The best example of this kind of film making is the movie End of Watch. Where the editing is done so well that you have to really focus on each scene to notice when and where the switches are made.



 
    Below is a great example of how footage and found footage can be combined to produce a quality low budget film.  Screen was shot on a budget of about four thousand dollars and combines footage from iphones and the Canon 5d mark II.

    This style of screen writing gives control back to the writer to deliver a quality story. If you are going to put your name on a found footage screenplay even if you only wrote a twenty page outline you are going to be blamed if it stinks. For the sake of your writing career the Footage screenplay gives you more control over the content that will comprise the finished product.

    You will have to pick your devices and where and when to embed the on screen devices. Writing one of these films will require you to think at times as a director within the film itself.

When inserting them into the script put these scenes down as point of view (POV).

Character’s name and then POV.

POV of security cam or webcam.

    You will find the best way of doing this. Just think in terms of footage rather than found footage and this will be a gift both to characters and audience. The audience that views the finished product will thank you. The characters that survive rather than finding themselves laying dead in a pool of their own blood beside a sputtering camcorder will love you.

    Now go write some great scenes so that you or your director can go out and shoot some great footage.
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The Found Footage Saga, Cont.

                The Found Footage Saga Cont.

    I keep coming back to found footage for two reasons. First there is a part of me that thinks that it will fade away and die off in its present form. Mostly horror films and dark suspense. And the second reason is that they keep coming. This fall we have a slate of new found footage films, some look good and at least one is a sequel to the found footage franchise Paranormal Activity.

    My last post was about Anthologies and the movie that sparked that post was V/H/S. Found footage told in a multi story format.

    The best series of found footage movies for me at least is the foreign series know as Rec. So far a trilogy of horror films about a demonic plague. I like the concept of the third film, I have not seen it yet. I plan on seeing it on demand this weekend with friends.  The concept seems to revolve around a wedding video. Why hasn’t that territory been tapped sooner. Many film makers start off filming wedding videos to help pay the bills. There are so many stories that can be told using that kind of footage. From drama to screwball comedy.

    The movie Cloverfield showed us that you can start with footage taken at a party and branch off into a totally different direction.

    What I am suggesting is that we need to do different things with this format or it will disappear. Right now I am in the middle of a screenplay where I have decided that the entire second act will revolve around found footage.

    What, what was that? What genre?

    Okay.

    You caught me. It is a horror movie. Hey, I am writing this one to actually shoot, hopefully by the end of the year, and for all involved horror was the best economic choice. Meaning cost to shoot, cost to market and return on investment.

    Keep in mind that no movie has to be made. I cringe when I hear an actor or director say of a movie that it had to be made. No it does not. Pick the ten most important or impressive movies ever released and none of them had to be made. At least breaking even has to be considered when crafting your script. People are going to be investing money based upon your script. This act is going to be the their clearest way of saying that they believe in your talent. Found footage and horror movies are being done because they are cheap to make. They are easy to market. If well done they rarely loose money.

    Money should never be your first thought when writing a low to no budget script, but it should be a factor. Found footage is a response to economics as much as it is a genre that the public is willing to embrace.

    Okay enough about the money talk.

    Here is some advice about your main character in this type of film.

    He or she must be driven. Must be the type of person who could not turn that camera away even if their children were being eaten by wild dogs.

To quote a fantastic episode of Doctor Who, “Don’t Blink.”

    They are the one’s in the story who never blink and you need to answer why before the interesting stuff starts to happen.

    The audience will want to know why he or she won’t drop that camera and run. Why is it so important that they keep shooting. Perhaps it is as complex as the fact that they are obsessive compulsive or as simple as the can not see what is happening without the camera. Give a good reason during the first few minutes and the audience will have one less voice whispering in the back of their minds. 

    Okay, I think that is it for today.

    Remember to add us to your google plus. Stumble us on stumbleupon and tell a few friends about this blog.

    This is where I will make this offer again. If someone out there wants to write a guest post I am open to it. If you have written a low to no budget script or two and you believe that you can offer some good advice. You can contact me by leaving a comment and I will get back to you.

    That is all, now get back to writing guys.

The Reality Test

                Your Script, The Reality Test

        One of the biggest problems that I have noticed in most horror and or action films is that they by pass the basic act of establishing reality. The art of the horror movie is to subvert reality. Or in other words you have to construct a real world before you can de-construct it. I have seen too many movies lately
where the screenwriter hurried passed the basics to get to what they believed to be the heart of the story.

    Let’s talk about the opening of the movie the descent. We get introduced to the lead characters in the opening scene. We are shown not told that they go on adventures together. We get a glimpse into the dominate relationship in the movie, Juno and Sarah.  We see the lead character lose her husband and child in a horrible car accident. We see all the friends gather together at the hospital to check on the one who has survived. We see them a year later. Time for another adventure that they hope will help heal their still damaged friend. We see all of this in the first fifteen minutes of the film and if not for all of this real world business what happens beneath the earth in those caves would not nearly have the same impact.

The  Descent

    Getting to know the characters and the world that they live in can only make the horror more intense when we watch that world being picked apart. The movie that did this better than any other was of course The Exorcist. We get almost a half an hour of real world before we are slowly let in on the fact that something supernatural is happening.

    I am going to agree with Neil Marshall on the fact that Deliverance is sort of a horror movie. Call it a thriller if you wish, but it does follow the rule of establishing reality. Then watch that reality get torn apart by men who see life and death in a completely different way.


    The problem with the majority of horror films being written today is that logic and reason are thrown out the window. Shock and gory replaces real suspense and what are you left with? A film that is seen once, then laughed at and soon forgotten. I want more And I believe that so do you. If you did not you would not be reading this blog.

    Here is what I am going to suggest. You can write your script anyway that you wish, but when you rewrite it I want you to keep your eye on reality.

Does my script occupy a recognizable world?

    But I am writing a walking dead film.

    Really?

    Let’s time travel back to the first one and see if George Romero established the real world first. A brother and sister visiting a grave. The brother is picking on his sister. Real world as can be until the dead guy walks up and then their world and the world of horror films is forever changed.

    Last movie to look at is The Sixth Sense. This film is as well written as any movie ever written. The opening scenes with Bruce Willis and the wife are the scenes that make the rest of the movie possible. It shows you a world that is so familiar and easy to relate to that we never question the reality that his character brings with him until the very end of the film.

    You do not have to do it that well, but well enough so that we know the world that the characters are fighting to get back to. That we can relate to the world that has fallen apart, it is easy to relate to it: after all it looks a whole lot like our own.