Film Opening : The Blair Witch Project

From 0:00 to 0:10 seconds the Artisan entertainment logo comes on to the screen, followed by the Haxon Film logo until 0:14 seconds. This is then followed by a blank screen until 0:17 seconds. The tittle of the film appears onto the screen at 0:18 and lasts until 0:24 seconds. Again , this is followed by another blank screen for 5 seconds. Due to this film being a documentary style film, it was meant to look as realistic as possible, therefore a short review of what the film is about comes on the screen from 0:29 to 0:39 seconds, the review says ' In October 1994 three film making students disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville,Maryland, while shooting a documentary. A year later their footage was found'. this is then followed by another blank screen until 0:42 seconds. The film starts at 0:43 seconds as documentary introducing the first 2 characters Heather and Josh, although we don't see Josh's face until later in the film. As this film is done in the style of a documentary, it is always done from the point of view of the characters, perhaps making it more intense and realistic because getting lost can so easily happen to anyone and although the witch is said to be just a myth, our imaginations can easily be tempted that we actually believe it is true. We first see Josh at 1:15, when both him and Heather are packing up equipment into the car, the third and final character's name Mike is first mentioned at 1:42 and then at :151 we see him for the first time. Our first thoughts on Heather is that she is very bossy and controlling, we also get the impression that this school project means the most to her as she is very determined to get get things done as quickly as possible throughout the film. The other two however seem more laid back at the beginning, however as the movie unrolls we see that all three become a little more involved with the Blair Witch then they first imagined.


What the film does well:

• Introduces characters within the first 2 minutes
• Introduces what the film is about well. eg the review that appears on the screen

What the film dose not do well:

• Due to it being a documentary, we don't see the 2nd character Josh until later into the opening even though we hear him and his name is mentioned. This is one of the main down falls to this style of filming