The film magazine Variety has, for example, used the term "faux found-footage film" to describe the 2012 film Grave Encounters 2.
It has also been used in science fiction ( e.g., Chronicle, Project Almanac, Europa Report), drama ( e.g., Zero Day, Exhibit A), comedy ( e.g., Project X) and family ( e.g., Earth to Echo) films.Īlthough found footage was originally the name of an entirely different genre, it is now frequently used to describe pseudo-documentaries crafted with this narrative technique. The most common use of the technique is in horror films, such as Cannibal Holocaust, The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, Diary of the Dead, REC, Cloverfield, and Trollhunter, where the footage is purported to be the only surviving record of the events, with the participants now missing or dead. The footage may be presented as if it were " raw" and complete or as if it had been edited into a narrative by those who "found" it. For added realism, the cinematography may be done by the actors themselves as they perform, and shaky camera work and naturalistic acting are routinely employed. The events on screen are typically seen through the camera of one or more of the characters involved, often accompanied by their real-time, off-camera commentary.
Found footage is a cinematic technique in which all or a substantial part of the work is presented as if it were discovered film or video recordings.