The Blair With Project (1999) Low Budget Filmmaking

  

There are several elements of low budget filmmaking evident in "The Blair Witch Project".

These include; 

1. Main characters were played by non famous actors.
2. Footage was filmed by the actors from their point of view.
3. No professional equipment used - the cameras were hand held.
4. The footage was filmed in a documentary style.
5. The set was very simple - available locations were used - nothing was built specially for the film.
6. There are a lot of unnecessary shots included - ground, walls.
7. Simple editing - blunt cuts and no special effects.
8. Dialogue doesn't seem to be scripted - actors had a rough idea of what they had to say, however not all of it was scripted.
9. There are no sounds effects nor any presents of diegetic or non diegetic music.
10. Costumes are regular everyday clothes such as jumpers, jeans and boots - possibly actors own clothes. 
11. There were no signs of light or sound crew.

After doing my research on this film, I found out that the script was only a 35-page outline as the writers wanted the actors to improvise their dialogue in order to make the story more realistic and believable.

Due to no written dialogue the actors had to use a 'code' word for when they wanted to speak out of character - the code was "taco."

The actors filmed nineteen hours of footage in total which had to be then cut and edited down to ninety minutes.

Only one of the actors continued working in the industry as a full time actor.