Found footage (film technique)

Found footage is a subgenre in films in which all or a substantial part of a fictional film is presented as if it were discovered film or video recordings. 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. For verisimilitude, the cinematography may be done by the actors themselves as they perform, and shaky camera work and naturalistic acting are routinely employed. 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.

The most common use of the technique is in horror films (e.g., Cannibal Holocaust, The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, Diary of the Dead), where the footage is purported to be the only surviving record of the events, with the participants now missing or dead. It has also been used in comedy (e.g., Babysitting, Project X), science-fiction (e.g., Chronicle, Project Almanac, Europa Report), and drama (e.g., Exhibit A, Zero Day).

Found footage is originally the name of an entirely different genre, but has sometimes been used to describe pseudo-documentaries with this narrative technique. The film magazine Variety has for example used the term "faux found-footage film" to describe the 2012 film Grave Encounters 2. The film scholar David Bordwell has criticized this recent use because of the confusion it creates, and instead prefers the term "discovered footage" for the narrative gimmick.

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