Promotional campaign

Haxan Films is a production company, it was founded by five graduates of the university of central Florida Film Program. It is well known for producing independent classic cult horror films most famously The Blair Witch Project. This institution would be a good one to produce my horror film as although they are a small independent company they had a very successful marketing campaign which resulted in the small film The Blair Witch Project becoming a international hit.

They are also linked to the company Artisan Entertainment which use to be a private American Movie studio. However it was bought by Lionsgate in 2003. Being attached to a large production and distribution campaign such as Lionsgate would be good for my production piece. This is because it would be produced by an independent company but still have the benefits of being with a larger company such as more funds for the promotional and distribution campaigns.
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THE WEBSITE:
http://www.blairwitch.com/
The website opens on a clip of the main girl in her home. The film is all about sustaining the element of truth for the audience so even in the website keep up the idea of realism.

The homepage contains four links headed Mythology, The Film makes, The Aftermath and The legacy. These topics further enhance the viewers knowledge of the events that happened in the film and continues to portray the film as a true story.This is a print screen of a one of the web pages displaying pictures of the "found footage"


There is also interviews with the parents of the lost teenagers, the promotional campaign is really successful as it focuses on every detail of the characters lives, before during and even what happen after they went missing. They build up a whole picture of the characters to make the film more believable and as realist as possible. There is also not real inforamtion about filming, the plot or the actors information on the website.
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THE CAST
The filmmakers used unknown actors and actresses and they had to have high improvisational skills as the diolog was going to be improvised. They even used some the the acters real names to adhere to the sense of realism. They also used many of the townspeople in the interviews who were not actors when they were shooting who claimed to know about the Blair Witch.
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FILMING
IT was shot over eight days in the forest the main character hardly had any camera training with enhanced the shaky effect of the filming. They were given clues to their next location in milk bottles, given individual instructions to shape the narrative and also rationed on food. This is why the film is so realist as the actors where not really acting, it was their real reactions and they really were scared.

The Blair Witch Project from the way it was produces to it promotional campaign is all about creating a realist event for the viewer and that is why it is one of the most successful campaigns as it goes into greatdetail.