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Found footage is acinematic technique andfilm genre in which all or a substantial part of the work is presented as if it werefilm orvideo recordings recorded by characters in the story, and later "found" and presented to the audience. The events on screen are typically seen through the camera of one or more of the characters involved, often accompanied by theirreal-timeoff-camera commentary. For addedrealism, thecinematography may be done by the actors themselves as they perform, andshaky camera work,improvisation andnaturalistic acting are routinely employed. The footage may be presented as if it were "raw" and complete or as if it had beenedited into anarrative by those who "found" it.
The most common use of the technique is inhorror films such asThe Blair Witch Project,The Last Broadcast,Cannibal Holocaust,Paranormal Activity,Diary of the Dead,Rec,Cloverfield,Trollhunter,V/H/S,Incantation,Be My Cat: A Film for Anne,As Above, So Below,Lake Mungo orLate Night with the Devil, in which the footage is purported to be the only surviving record of the events, with the participants now missing or dead. It has also been used inscience fiction such asChronicle,Project Almanac orEuropa Report,drama such asZero Day andExhibit A,comedy such asProject X,crime mockumentary such asTrailer Park Boys,family such asEarth to Echo,experimentalarthouse such asThe Connection,The Outwaters orMasking Threshold andwar films such as84C MoPic.
Somepseudo-documentary films such asLake Mungo orNoroi: The Curse, mostscreenlife films such asUnfriended, its sequelDark Web,Profile orSearching, a fewPOV films such asHardcore Henry orPresence, mostlivestream and "live TV" films such asGhostwatch, as well as films where the footage is presented as originating fromsurveillance ordashboard cameras such asTaxi orSpree, are also often considered to fall under the found footage umbrella, despite the fact that technically the footage is not presented as "lost and found", but only as long as the camera is implied to be a part of the film and not afourth wall the way it is in traditional films.[1][2]
As a storytelling technique, found footage has precedents in literature, particularly in the trope offound manuscript,[3] as well asepistolary novel, which typically consists of eithercorrespondence ordiary entries, purportedly written by a character central to the events. Like found footage, the epistolary technique has often been employed inhorror fiction: bothDracula andFrankenstein are epistolary novels, as isThe Call of Cthulhu byH. P. Lovecraft.
Infilmmaking, the 1980 cult horror featureCannibal Holocaust is often claimed to be the first example of found footage.[4] However,Shirley Clarke's arthouse filmThe Connection (1961) and theOrson Welles directedThe Other Side of the Wind, a found footage movie shot in the early 1970s but released in 2018, predateCannibal Holocaust.[5]Les Documents Interdits [fr] (1989), segment titled “The Ferguson Case” has recently surfaced to be seen as one of the first examples to feature the found-footage style in a horror setting. Specifically its use of the footage being found in a scenario where the people who have shot it have gone missing from the circumstances at hand. This style predating filmsThe Blair Witch Project (1999) andThe Last Broadcast (1998) who popularized the genre style by nearly a decade.[6]America's Deadliest Home Video (1991), remains a potent use of the format as well as an unsung groundbreaker in the found-footage field - an ahead-of-its-time application of the vérité-video form to the horror/crime genre.[7] The device was popularised byThe Blair Witch Project (1999).[8] Found footage has since been used in other commercially successful films, includingParanormal Activity (2007),Rec (2007),Cloverfield (2008),Chronicle (2012),Sinister (2012),Creep (2014) andLate Night with the Devil (2024).[9] ReviewingV/H/S forThe A.V. Club, Scott Tobias notes that the genre "has since become to the '00s and '10s whatslasher movies were to the '80s."[10]
The genre appeals to somefilm producers because of its lower cost, as it is believed the illusion ofamateur documentary style allows lower production values than would be accepted on a conventional film. Other filmmakers choose it for creative reasons.
Writer-directorChristopher B. Landon, who has made several found footage horror films, as well as filmmakerAdrian Țofei in his found footage manifesto, posit that the genre is likely to successfully extend outside horror in the future.[11][2]
Found-footage films typically employ one or more of sixcinematic techniques—first-person perspective,pseudo-documentary,mockumentary,news footage,surveillance footage, orscreenlife—according to an analysis of 500 found-footage films conducted by Found Footage Critic.[12]
The film magazineVariety has used the term "faux found-footage" to describe the technique.Film scholarDavid Bordwell criticizes the usage, arguing that it sows confusion, and instead prefers the term "discovered footage" for the narrativegimmick.[13]
According to filmmakerAdrian Țofei in his found footage manifesto, a found footage film is technically apseudo-documentary or fake documentary film, in which all or a substantial part of the picture is presented as being composed of recordings of real life events, seen through cameras that are part of the events. He defines found footage as a "filmmaking concept" with the goal of giving audiences the illusion that they're not watching a movie made by filmmakers and actors, but genuine life events recorded by people like them who were part of the events, which would allow audiences to be fully immersed in the movie experience.[2]
In a 2016 article forCinema Journal, Cecilia Sayad explores the relationship between the found footage genre and reality. She asserts that the genre’s metaphorical framing, convincing audiences that films contain true unscripted footage, and its technical framing, mimicking amateur home videos and security footage, are key to what creates fear in the audience, dissolving the traditional boundaries between what is part of the film and real life.[14]
Sayad highlights how the found footage genre invites the audience to “to anxiously scan the image for threatening presences”, blurring the boundary between what is on screen and what is real. For example, TheParanormal Activity series’ inclusion of the timestamps on each clip of footage “empowers the audience”, encouraging watchers to analyze evidence in real time.[14] Typical found footage techniques, like shaky handheld sequences and sudden zooms, create the illusion that the camera frame is unable to contain the evil of any film’s antagonist to the screen. The selective choice to not center major action sequences on camera, like during the climax of theParanormal Activity (2007), also contributes to this effect. Sayad notes that “the sense of lurking danger is enhanced as much by our fear about seeing things as by our anxiety about what we do not see”.[14]
Importantly, Sayad notes that there is an important distinction between found footage horror films and other “self-aware” horror films, like 1996’sScream. She writes,
“Scream is pastiche of classics packages the film as artifice, keeping the relationship between movies and reality safely locked in the realm of fiction. The found-footage movie, in contrast, presents itself as real, whereas its characteristically unstable camera work suggests that the film can neither lock things in nor keep them out.[14]
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The following entries are notable films in the found footage genre, though some were only partially made in that style.
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