The Pros and Cons of "Found Footage" Films

I have a strange relationship with found footage style films. Some of the best horror I have seen comes in the form of found footage films, but also some of the worst. For those of you who do not know, a found footage film is a movie that takes place entirely from the perspective of a camera that exists in the environment of the film. These may be handheld cameras wielded by the characters or security cameras as the plot/setting demand. Also, it seems that the only genre that this type of film is acceptable in is horror, though I would love to see someone make an experimental film in another genre as found footage. So I decided to make this post pointing out a couple of the more major pros and cons of making a found footage film as a way of explaining my love/hate relationship with the sub-genre.

Pro: It is tailor made for horror.
As mentioned in my introduction, I don't think i have ever seen a non-horror film done as a found footage film. There are several reasons why this doesn't work for other genres. Found footage, due to the nature of fixed or semi fixed camera angles, feels claustrophobic since you can only look at what the camera person is looking at. This sensation wouldn't do much for a romance or action movie, but for a horror film, it enhances the experience by taking the audience into the scene. The cinematography is tricky in these films because you have to deal with cheap cameras (most of the time anyway), and thus, bad video quality. Pictures will often be blurry or distorted since the camera person is not supposed to be a professional, so framing is done poorly and sometimes a lot of action takes place away from the view of the audience. Once again, this adds to the uncomfortable feeling that can enhance horror by poking people in the "fear of the unknown" part of the psyche.

Con: Cinematography.
I know, I know, I just said that the distorted images and hard to see, claustrophobia inducing, messy shots can enhance the experience; but its insanely difficult to pull-off well. Its a hard balancing act. You have to be able to see enough action to keep the audience interested, but not distort the picture so much as to make the film unwatchable.

Pro: Costs go way down.
There are a lot of ways that shooting a found footage film can lower your necessary budget for a movie. You don't have to buy state of the art cameras, which can cost a small fortune. You don't need to pay for someone to score your movie, as a found footage film with a soundtrack edited in would kill immersion. You can also cut down on special effect costs by not always showing the monster or ghost or whatever.

Con: They have been nightmarishly overdone.
As the costs are lower more and more filmmakers have been making this kind of movie, and as such, the market is saturated with them. Sure, sometimes the moves are great (watch afflicted or V/H/S!) but most of the time you will get imitators (as with any popular style of movie) and people who didn't put any thought into the movie they were making. This means that the overwhelming majority of movies in this vein are fucking terrible.

Pro: Taking advantage of the saturated market.
Using the stereotype generated by dozens of found footage films to mess with the genre and take it to new places is one of the things that makes some of these movies so good. This is something that is hard to do prior to the sub-genre becoming big as there are little or no expectations, but as the number of films of this type grew, clever filmmakers did/are doing more to mess with some heads by doing things in a new and innovative way.

Con: Why is there a camera here in the first place!
This is a major problem for me. When you make a found footage film you have to give the characters a reason to be holding the camera. Sometimes this fits in well with the plot (see Afflicted, Grave Encounters, and Paranormal Activity 2), but most of the time the audience is left wondering "Why the fuck is that person still holding the camera! Why don't they stop filming the monsters and just run the fuck away!" This can kill the immersion that good horror tries to cultivate worse than any bad line of dialog (for me at least).

It is a hard thing to do found footage right. There are many ways found footage movies can fuck up, but if you get the right balance of story, realistic camerawork, and atmosphere down you should be able to make something good. So, go watch some horror movies, after all Halloween is coming up! I would suggest Troll Hunter, V/H/S, Paranormal Activity 1 and 2, Afflicted, and Grave Encounters. They may not be the best movies ever, but they are definitely worth of the watch.