MovieChat Forums > The Borderlands (2015) Discussion > This is not found footage (a clarificati...

This is not found footage (a clarification)

posted 10 years ago by Mr Clever
8 replies | jump to latest

This is to clarify something that I've noticed others have been confused about here in this forum. Below is from Wikipedia's entry on found footage:

"Found footage is a genre of film making, especially horror, in which all or a substantial part of a film is presented as discovered film or video recordings, often left behind by missing or dead protagonists. The events on screen are seen through the camera of one or more of the characters involved, who often speaks off screen. Filming may be done by the actors themselves as they recite their lines, and shaky camera work and naturalistic acting are often employed."

I highlighted the part about how the events on screen transpired: they are seen through the camera of one or more participants (as well as the stationary cameras). BUT, nothing in this film suggests the footage was subsequently found by anyone. Just so you know. This is also evident in the [REC] series. The film is just shown through cameras, not as if it had been assembled at a later date. Furthermore, there are at least two images shown depicting a sunset and a mountain wreathed in mist that are not footage from anyone.

So, maybe it should just be called "footage," and not "found footage."

[–] [email protected] 10 years ago

I believe, as someone pointed out on here in another thread, that the cameras were relaying their feed back to a laptop rather than recording it ontotheir head cams. So it's possible all the fotage taken by the head cams and CCTV was 'found' on their lap top.

[–] Mr Clever 10 years ago

If that is the case, then I still wouldn't consider it "found." Merely that the laptop was the omniscient viewer, as are we. That still doesn't explain the other two images in the movie that didn't come from cams.

[–] cke-ch 9 years ago

I agree, I've got no idea where this assumption has come from that suggests the footage has to be 'found'. The film never makes any such claim.

We just happen to be seeing the vast majority of the film through cameras that are part of the story itself (the head-cams and CCTV), there is no reason (other than expectations based on other films) why anyone needed to recover the footage.

CCTV/Handheld/Protagonist-shot footage has been used in movies since long before the 'found-footage' genre took mainstream hold with Blair Witch, we never needed a reason or explanation as to why or how that footage made it into the movie before, so why now?

[–] jwelker 8 years ago

I think a lot of this genre is done more as "point of view" than actual "found" footage, as in if this footage was found, it's how it would be. I think a lot of people (me included) consider films like this, as well as certain types of mockumentaries of the found footage variety, and share many (if not most) characteristics of true "found" footage.

[–] Xex-Arachnid 8 years ago

Have to jump in here. Okay, I may understand the quirk against the term "found footage" but maybe not. For instance, when talking to people about this movie I'd say something along the lines of the movie was great. It really got to me and I hate found-footage horror flicks.

That being said, going to the idea of it being relayed through a lap top or it being kept within their head gear until downloaded it manually or something. I think that since they had gear (and they had gear) it was automatically relayed to their laptops and going off of that, do you think the locals would go into their cottage and destroy the evidence (since they themselves might be aware that these guys (outsiders) messed with something they should not have messed with and met their doom or somebody on-call from the Vatican came in and took the footage? Either way, the footage may have been found but ultimately sealed.

[–] james-mac 8 years ago

You may have a small point here but because the audience is intended to receive the movie events as if they are watching something the participants in the film have shot themselves the films still would fall into the "found-footage" genre.

[–] chuggliams 8 years ago

Agreed. Although I also agree with the poster who said that even if the Vatican found the footage on their laptops later, it would be sealed.
Love it no matter what genre it is!

[–] Targetrich 8 years ago

It is astounding that you can write at such length to make such an obvious point.