Soooo....what do you think about the future of found-footage movies?? are "video-camera" movies officially dead, and we're stuck with Desktop Documentaries like Missing/Searching...or will there be a resurgence? Interested to hear what people think.
People take their phones with them and do livestreams on the move nowadays. There are several entire categories over on Twitch that are just that kind of thing - in fact when I popped over there just now, one of the most viewed things on the platform was someone exploring the San Antonio Rodeo. It's not difficult to imagine some films that present themselves as lost livestreams that were recently uncovered in some lost corner of the dark web.
The shakey cam thing always makes me motion sick immediately…I can’t even watch your video right now, I’m just listening at this point and writing this comment 🤮 Can’t stand these kind of movies
Being a lifelong Godzilla fan, my dad pitching Cloverfield as "Like an american Godzilla movie" to me when I was 6 traumatized me big time, but led to it being one of my all time favorite monster movies
@@lumieredufilm the monster is way scarier than godzilla, especially for a 6 year old probably. I think of godzilla as that campy movie about the big lizard but cloverfield is genuinely fucking terrifying compared to godzilla. still a great movie
Then there's [REC], which actually improves on the formula through a double trick · The movie starts as a recording of the then-running "While you sleep", a Spanish TV show about nightlife (odd jobs, normal jobs, weirdos, etc) · Since you have members of the crew from the show, the cameraman and the main character are both decently-versed with covering stuff, they only lose composure when things go really bad, plus they also have a vocational dedication to just keep on reporting [REC], only the first one, is easily the best found footage movie ever. Jaume Balagueró just nailed it end to end.
Never watch the american remake called Quarantine. The lead actress (Jennifer Carpenter) is hot as hell but the movie does everything wrong where the original succeeded. It's like the anti [REC].
One of my all time favorite found footage films is Chronicle. It's one of those that I didn't know if even liked the first few times I watched it but I kept coming back to it and all these years later it has stayed with me and become one of my faves.
@@FilmSpook oh for sure! Such a cool movie :) I feel like in a world where there are lots of movies that are so similar, it really stands out as something trying to do something different. I'm definitely due for a re-watch
@@FilmSpook I think keeping the cave a mystery was one of the major factors that led to it being such a good movie. They aren't chosen or anything, they are random kids that ended up becoming gods on accident at a random party, and it really shows the impact that such power has on ordinary kids. Andrew is my favorite character. So much depth
I saw it once, but I feel a similar way about it. The whole time I was watching it, I was thinking "I'm not sure if I like this," and yet I now think about it so often, especially with the way that it depicts how three people can end up on very different paths in life even if they started with the same experience.
Aside from being a great found footage movie (probably the only one I actually like) the audio in Cloverfield is awesome. I suppose it might betray the found footage-ness of the film, since it is so well done, and no handheld camera that some joe shmoe would have had was capable of recording anything like that, but sometimes I will just put on Cloverfield and crank up the surround sound.
Personally I feel Rec. is the absolute top of Found Footage. It has a great plot, great acting, and a very plausible reason for there to BE a camera (up to a point of course). There's brilliant little details, like all the randoms, who are supposed to be just regular people, actually looking at the camera, and into the lens, even when they are not the focus of the shot. Which is a thing people tend to do, but actors have been taught NOT to do. I'm also a big fan of As Above so Below, but that's mostly because the setting is awesome (the Paris catacombs) and it being actually filmed there really helps with the vibe. I haven't seen Cloverfield since I saw it in cinema when it came out, but I should really revisit it!
I really enjoyed The Frankenstein Theory. It had a solid premise, that if The Monster were real it could still be alive in modern times, and might even be Big Foot. It is surprisingly faithful to the book and serves as an effective sequel.
Well i mean it is STILL realistic since basically all Camcorders post 2005/2006 recorded Multichannel Audio in 5.1 with their built in microphones (even most modern new camcorders still do that) Unless you switched the recording settings to a different file format like MP4 (if you intended to use the videos for Web Uploads) then they would only record in stereo. So i always felt the Audio in Cloverfield was pretty realistic , given the fact that the character supposedly recorded it with a little Panasonic AG-HSC1U Camcorder model, which has a 5.1 Surround microphone on top.
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 5.1 production sound only works with very steady setups and rarely with dialog present, unless you want voices panning all around the theater which is a big nono. This movie has very traditional sound design, where most of what you hear was added in post production.
The crazy online marketing for Cloverfield adds SO MUCH to the "realness" of it, The fake websites, fake companies, puzzles and movie clues and clips made the movie so much more enjoyable!
I saw Cloverfield only a few weeks ago, but I have zero hesitation in calling it the peak of found footage film. Masterful execution. Riveting from start to finish. Studios these days think unless the universe is ending the stakes aren't high, but you just need a guy trying to get to a girl he loves, and the stakes couldn't be higher. Beautifully done.
And I'm stunned to see so much green screen on the sets because I could NOT tell from seeing the movie at all! How were 2008 VFX for 25 million better than almost every mainstream Hollywood flick coming out in 2023???
@@ishaan863 they probably gave the effects team more time to perfect it than effects teams get now. most of the bad CGI in films today are because the studio rushes the post production team.
I vividly remember when cloverfield was going to air for the first time on cable tv, and I prepared myself all day to watch it cause I saw the poster at the movie theatre but I was too young to see it there. As I was able to watch at home, still a kid, I remember turning off the lights and waiting for the movie to start, I was soo excited and loved every bit of it, it was one of the first scarier movies I had ever seen then. What a blast this movie is, an absolute favorite of mine and probably the one that made me such a fan of found footage films.
The thing I most liked about Cloverfield was that your main characters weren't the heroes. They were just your average people going through an event trying to survive.
I often forget about Troll Hunter, like at the time it didn't seem that special, but I guess it was surprisingly good in terms of being a Norwegian film. Like there are other Norwegian films that are better, but they usually suffer from the lack of Norwegian actors, so the verisimilitude suffers because if one has seen a couple Norwegian films, most of the actors are recognizable to the point that you're taken out of it, but the Troll Hunter had mostly unknowns, so one can forget that they're actors, until someone famous shows up in a costume with a recognizable voice to mess it up again.
This is a great review I didn't know there was an official term for "Meeting a movie on its own terms" I love cloverfield 2008, something that they did really well was the party scene because when the camera cuts the music cuts as well, I hate when found footage movies have music in the background but it doesn't cut when the camera cuts. Great video!
I saw cloverfield in the theater in manhattan. I loved it and still do as I love any good kaiju movie. Definitely my favorite found footage movie ever. The shaky camera and huge screen made my date nauseous though.
I saw a press screening that included the public at the cinerama dome. We had to sit closer than usual. I got nauseous. I couldn't stand the narrator then found out it was TJ Miller. The TRAILER was SICK!!
I remember watching Cloverfield and could not tear my eyes away. I came away with a splitting headache from the frequent camera shake but also a new interest in “found footage” or mockumentaries. I’m always down for iterations of the genre but nothing beats a simple camera setup so far imo.
The bit where that girl died with blood exploding from every orifice was so well done. I felt so bad for her. She was cute and relatable and I felt terrible when she died, it was so sudden.
One of my issues with Cloverfield and a lot of other found footage movies is that despite the handheld camera shake they're clearly filmed on multi-thousand dollar cinema cameras. Blair Witch at least got it right by seemingly using an actual camcorder.
I can 100% understand your reaction - for example, I hate "gasoline grenades" in movies (that's not what high explosives look like!), but great sound is such a visceral part of watching films that I, personally, can let it slide. I think, most importantly, the reason is that it usually doesn't pull me out of the moment like some other things do.
District 9 had a somewhat handheld quality to many of the shots, combined with CGI monster things. It also had a lot of dirtiness to it, as in the world itself was dusty and messy, and that made it look more real imo.
I love District 9 but it annoyed me that it started out as found footage and at some point just abandoned that idea and became a monster movie with wobbly camerawork.
The guy with the alto sax in the Connection movie is Jackie McLean, one of the greatest jazz musician ever lived. Not an actor and actually a heavy user...
I actually liked the "Missing" gimmick. That actress really sells it well. So many movies forget we have cell phones and look stuff up on the internet, this was the other coin of that.
I wouldn't say I like found footage films, or think about them often, yet this film and Chronicle has easily had the most visceral impact on me, as a kid I watched Chronicle and run out bawling with tears, don't know why, never finished the film, and honestly no other films have since ever had that impact. Watching Cloverfield I was very impressed, but I also felt a really lingering sort of dread afterwards that I can't explain, its just damn good at capturing that realism, and that sort of hopeless never-ending stress of being trapped in a city as it collapses. Also the way that Lizzy Caplan's character dies is honestly harrowing, like jesus christ, and I'm glad it kind of obscured the death yet making it feel disgustingly real, I just get a pit in my stomach thinking about it. Also I loved 10 Cloverfield Lane, very different style and approach, but Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Goodman are brilliant actors, and it really nails the concept without showing any of the monsters until the end.
I loved everything around this movie. I was in theater when the trailer was shown and and it blew my mind. You see this completely relatable party and then desaster strikes. Somthing far off in the distance explodes, flies towards you and you see: it's the head of the liberty statue. No title, just the date. The whole marketing was the perfect example of viral marketing. J.J.Abrams put everything he learned while making Lost into it. For me the movie was a blast in cinema. I was so emerged and had one of my few epic moments in cinema. I really miss movies which lets you immerse yourself.
I understand found footage movies were super played out by the early-mid 2010's but I really wish the genre had kept evolving. I'd like to see a resurgence.
Same, I love found footage. Cloverfield, Chronicle, and Hell House LLC are my favourites, but the whole genre is just very much my jam, there’s an immediacy and intimacy to it that really gets me. Edit: forgot to mention As Above, So Below, which I also love. Such a great genre
Thanks for sharing this. I was probably in the 8th grade when Cloverfield came out & my friend at the time had told me to check out their Myspace page. Became a huge fan of found footage movies after checking out on ones like quarantine, REC, P.A. & even the ones that didn't get a lot of recognition/popularity, but the story and acting was there.
Saw it recently and was amazed how good the movie is! I would add that as someone who works in a VFX studio this movie has one of the most impressive VFX I have ever seen, tracking the image with all that shakiness is completely unreal and a work of art in it’s own right!
Great video thanks - I'd recommend Alien Abduction - The McPherson Tape (1998) to fans of found footage horror (otherwise known as The Incident in Lake County).
I hate it when movies rely to much on POV. Literally induces motion sickness. I got sick in the middle of Cloverfield in the middle of the movie and was miserable throughout the rest of the film... I wasn't scared, I wasn't anxious or panic'd I was just sick from all the POV camera movement. I can't imagine trying to watch Enter the Void on the Big screen... I got woozy just watching it on a 21'' Computer Monitor.
I saw Cloverfield in the theater opening weekend. The place was packed. The whole audience jumped at the jump scares. There were screams and gasps. It was super fun. I don't think I've ever seen an audience that actively engaged in a horror film before or since.
I'm so glad I saw Cloverfield in the theater. The found footage style made it intensely immersive, and those "peekaboo" moments with the kaiju landed as legitimately terrifying - not an experience I'd had with any other kaiju movie before or since.
My favorite found footage movies are actually Noroi and Lake Mungo, which are both presented as documentaries, and are two of the most deeply chilling films I've ever seen.
Chronicle for me was the first found footage movie that I watched that made me go wow, okay this is a proper genre, like that added so much to the movie.
Cloverfield, REC, and the Visit are some of my fav found footage movies. I vividly remember getting sick the first time I watched Cloverfield since my eyes/brain couldn't process the camerawork back then. This movie literally altered my brain chemistry in a sense 😂
I think the other reason why cloverfield is so great is that it is like a time capsule back to the late 2000s. It captures what that time felt like pretty darn well. The actors, writers, and vfx artists fired on all cylinders for this movie.
Cloverfield is a special movie for me! The hype marketing and just the way it was filmed. And my boy Jesse having to leave the theater 4 times due to motion sickness.
I remember reading somewhere that Clint Eastwood does his movies in one take not to capture the most spontaneous or natural reactions (which makes no sense, it’s not improv), but rather because he's an intensely high maintenance person who expects anyone working on an A-list Hollywood movie to get it right the first time (which is highly impractical IMO). Whatever the case, I'm not at all a fan of that creative choice. Yet somehow, it doesn't seem to affect the quality of his work at all. Maybe he just is THAT good at directing.
There is this amazing movie Unseen where the plot is that the main character, trying to escape a killer, broke her glasses, so she facetime someone at random and they have to guide her out of a forest. This basically bridges the gap between "desktop horror" and "camcorder" movies, plus the shaky cam footage is halted by regular movie scenes, so the pace is well balanced. It thought it was absolutely brilliant!
Project Almanac (2015) gave me so much motion sickness by the 40+ minute mark that I had to walk out. I have never in my life walked out of a movie mid-show nor have I done so since. That was traumatizing.
Cloverfield's saving grace was the fact the director knew how to bring in the various monsters in a not too much, not too little manner. They came in at the right time that let the audience become a part of the film with saying "what was that? ARGHHH!!!". That being said I'll be glad to see the end of found footage flicks, though do uphold the found footage technique to be an effective storytelling device IF it's not too much or too little.
huge off topic tangent: pointing out that found footage movies/mockumentaries can play with the fact that theres a camera present in universe reminded me of the show castle. there was a single episode filmed like a mockumentary, and i think it really utilized it well. along with the cameras and tapes being important to the episodes mystery and even b plot, it also affected how the episode and characters work! since the characters that were usually meant to be in a real situation were now aware there were cameras, they acted differently! the childish character tried harder to be cool and tried to act as a director since he loves movies, the grumpier and withdrawn character obviously hated the cameras and tried to avoid them or stood around awkwardly, a tough character showed off his skills and constantly bragged to the point of getting into fights with his teammate... i thought it was interesting! i never really thought about how different of a medium it is when the show or movie has the camera physically there for the characters as well!
I stopped this right near the beginning and immediately went and watched Let The Right One In. Wow! Not the topic of this video, but thank you for unwittingly introducing me to one of the best vampire movies I have ever seen. If you’re reading this comment and haven’t seen it, please go watch it now. The cinematography, set design, acting and adapted screenplay all combine to create something eerily tender and still yet haunting and chilling.
Anybody who likes this type of cinematography and action has to check out Hardcore Henry God damn I love that film A real gem, I never see people talk about that one
Found footage movies are not for everyone. Cloverfield remains the only movie to date from which I’ve walked out of the theater. Watching this in a huge screen where you can’t escape the feeling of immersion created by the light and sound made me feel incredibly nauseous. I’ve never had motion sickness, but this movie triggered something no other has since. Years later I was able to get through it when I watched it at home and I enjoyed it. I’ve seen other movies shot in the same fashion now, but nothing was ever as unnerving.
I love found footage movies, a lot of people straight up hate them and refuse to watch them purely because of the style, no matter how much they think the story is interesting, but I cherish them, it makes me feel like I'm with the characters at the very moment at all times or that I'm reliving something they saw years ago... Cloverfield, Project X, The Visit and many more could be shot normally on a rig, some of the would probably be better if they weren't fount footage (The Chronicle) but it's what makes them stand out compared to similar movies and wouldn't hit as hard as they do because you feel like you're a part of the story, you're the silent observer of everything that's happening, you're basically the main character of the movie because you see everything through your own eyes (camera).
I watched it in a shittiest theater of my city, and all those years later, after 3d, 4dx, imax and all those bells and whistles, this one was most immersive cinema experience i ever had.
I remember being excited for this strange movie with the cryptic advertising... then going to the theater and watching... Will Smith in I am Legend. I had to wait another month before that other movie to come out.
The marketing for this film was God-teer. Never been done this way ahead, this intensely and it's something we'll never see again. The MySpace profiles, the hidden clues everywhere ont he internet, in web coding, images, complete, fucntioning websites. The whole story about the Tagriato company, the Slusho! website (of which I still have the original T-shirt), the story about the woman going no-contact after infiltrating on the Tagriato oil rig, the suspicions that it was the oilrig that woke the monster up etc etc etc. Remember it even got mixed up with the mysterious promo webpage of the Alpha/Omega game?? It was a magical time and I don't think I was ever SO hyped for a film, because we were so invested a year before the release. It was truly a unique experience and one I will take with me the rest of my like. This film means a lot to me and my teenage self. ♥♥ Oh and fun fact, the Slusho drinks make another appearance in the Star Trek film BTS footage.
I'm an ametaur VFX artist and I also love this movie. For me though the one thing that seems like just utter hell would be 3D tracking footage that's as shaky as Cloverfield's
There are many things in Cloverfield which makes it bad, but the dread of an incomprehensible and seemingly undefeatable giant monster is... really unique in the giant monster genre. I feel that idea is an under-explored trope, that is, of regular citizens' experiences amidst the chaos and the fear of the unknown. Almost cosmic horror, to a certain extent.
I don't remember the story or characters in the slightest, but I remember how this movie looks and feels like nothing else. For that reason alone, it's good.
"The Blair Witch Project" is still my absolute favorite among the Found Footage genre because it doesn't share the many bay tropes of the later found footage movies like obvious use of CGI and image stabilization & correction. It is because "The Blair Witch Project" still has the more rough and raw nature and feels a lot less doctored and more organic. You also get a much better feeling for the characters. "Cloverfield", as much as i like it for what it is, sadly shares a lot of flaws that make many post-Blair Witch Found Footage movies feel very cheesy and cliché. Such as the deliberately wrong / bad camera angles, the perfect lighting as well as VERY obvious use of VFX effects and overal postproduction & typical boring Hollywood colortiming. These things always ruin it for me and kill the thrill. HOWEVER "Cloverfield" still had some really really nice moments and i LOVED the Sets and the atmosphere. THAT is what i personally like the most about such movies. Because it really makes the whole thing really feel like a Journey. But..... unlike "The Blair Witch Project", after i watched "Cloverfield", i totally forgot the characters and their names and really could not bond with them at all or at least care enough about them. Maybe this was intended but this is something a lot of productions share that have J.J. Abrahms' Involvement. It was the same for me with "Super 8" too.
For anyone interested, Dracula could be considered a really old example of a "found footage" story. I just think it amazing how the idea of making up a fictional recording of events is such a unique, yet timeless genre. It amazes me that humans can come from so many places and times yet still find ways to be so similar.
I think that style is so good because it brings the audience into the work, it allows us to imagine we're a part of it. Instead of just reading a story, we're imagining ourselves uncovering the "lost" pages of an unnamed researcher within a Lovecraft story detailing vague accounts of some unknowable force the brunt of humanity has no clue about or the haunted tapes of a found footage/analog horror series, beckoning us to destroy the tape and turn away. Really gives it all a sort of timeless element despite it usually being very period-based.
It'd be a strange move but I'd love for you to take a detailed look at that found footage horror video game from the ps2 era. Michigan: Report from Hell
i liked the blair witch project because they didn't film things too well. you could tell that closer to the end of the film, they were too scared to really care about their project, and was mostly using the camera to see in the dark.
While Blair Witch paved the way for this one, Cloverfield really hit hard with its relentless realism. Hard watch due to the shakiness, but such an effective movie. The only other found footage flick I actually care for is Chronicle.
I love Cloverfield, I'm not saying it's a good film but I love it. And some people get motion sickness watching it, but I'm not them, so I just love it.
It's true that the found footage genre is going into this skype/facetime/social media phase, but it might be just a temporary trend. I thinks the real evolution of the genre is in internet Alternate Reality Games (ARG). Low budget productions made by amateur horror fans, the mystery behind who made them leading to a lot of people believing it's real footage, the weird ways in which they are advertised and the virality they achieve, all these things capture the spirit of the old school found footage films. To me, the genre is like urban legends in movie format, and recent high budget films, while a lot of them are good, have lost the factor that blurs the line between fiction and reality. On the other hand, this is still very present on internet ARG's, and the fact that you're not watching it on a movie theater, but on some random youtube channel or on some unknown person's social media, makes it even more believable. I think Marble Hornets was the bridge between old found footage films and ARG's.
For me, REC runs circles around Cloverfield. The difference in acting skill, genuine tension and story is so apparent and all of it done with an even smaller budget
One thing I feel elevates Cloverfield over other found footage movies, is that it managed to stay true to the found footage concept even with the increasing scale. Chronicle, as fun as it is, had very contrived reasons for the aesthetic, and no real reason for someone to edit the footage from multiple sources. And by the end, the movie just starts cheating, by the characters moving the cameras with their telekinetic powers to create more cinematic shots
I saw Cloverfield when it came out and I just didn't get the hype. I probably need to re-visit it, however. If you're not a fan of static desktop found footage films, I would still recommend 'Host' which is a horror film over a Zoom call. It's really *really* good.
Found footage in the modern era without leaning into the desktop angle can be more vlog type - maybe even an in-world character is putting together the found footage of someones last vlog. The person was already recording for their audience and knows how to film so it isn't too bad, then the excuse for editing and distributing is on a third party, can also allow for a moment of commentary from said editor. I don't know if this is something that has been done, please let me know! (I am sure it has, not exactly the most original thought) but it's just taking the same content but in a different technological context.
Hol'up. I'm not a native speaker but I was sure that verisimilitude is all about making things as close to real as possible to enhance immersion so people breaking up into a song all of a sudden would be breaking verisimilitude as that's not what happens in real life and that for accepting that it happens in musical we use suspension of disbelief which I consider it to be a different phenomenon as something that breaks the verisimilitude, yes, but protects the enjoyment of the scene and going too far would break both. Cam footage are all about reinforcing verisimilitude, the camera is considered to be part of the world and therefore is affected by rules of it like people being aware of the camera, and suspension of disbelief used to ignore the CGI and that those are in fact only actors following a script and that it didn't really happen.
Ummmm, you might be right, but my understanding of the definition of verisimilitude in film is theory is “the appearance of being real”. And this is only in the context of the film, not necessarily the real world outside the film. So yes, I suppose I’m combining suspension of disbelief and verisimilitude into the immersive viewing experience - and specific genres rely on recurrent tropes and iconography to generate the “appearance of reality” even when the movie is on another planet, for instance.
Soooo....what do you think about the future of found-footage movies?? are "video-camera" movies officially dead, and we're stuck with Desktop Documentaries like Missing/Searching...or will there be a resurgence? Interested to hear what people think.
People take their phones with them and do livestreams on the move nowadays. There are several entire categories over on Twitch that are just that kind of thing - in fact when I popped over there just now, one of the most viewed things on the platform was someone exploring the San Antonio Rodeo. It's not difficult to imagine some films that present themselves as lost livestreams that were recently uncovered in some lost corner of the dark web.
The shakey cam thing always makes me motion sick immediately…I can’t even watch your video right now, I’m just listening at this point and writing this comment 🤮 Can’t stand these kind of movies
@@GreatGreebo that's fair - they had to put motion sickness warnings in a bunch of cinemas when this came out
working on one at the moment
also - watch the film "Dashcam" as an example of a "live stream" movie
Being a lifelong Godzilla fan, my dad pitching Cloverfield as "Like an american Godzilla movie" to me when I was 6 traumatized me big time, but led to it being one of my all time favorite monster movies
What a way to disappoint a kid, but I love cloverfield so I'm glad it worked out in the end.
@@ELFanatic lmao I wouldn't say it dissappinted me, but made me morbidly curious
curious to know why it was so traumatizing?
@@lumieredufilm the monster is way scarier than godzilla, especially for a 6 year old probably. I think of godzilla as that campy movie about the big lizard but cloverfield is genuinely fucking terrifying compared to godzilla. still a great movie
@@lumieredufilm Maybe the girl exploding while doing all sorts of gruesome sounds
Seeing Cloverfield in the theaters was one of my favorite movie going experiences of my 53 years.
Yes, you are right. One of my favorite movie experiences.
I would've enjoyed the movie regardless but the marketing campaign made the movie 10x better
Same. It was fun watching it with surround sound, especially since I had no idea what it was about when I went to watch it.
The viral marketing leading up to it was so much fun too.
Both my mother and I got seriously motion sick and had to leave. I really love this movie on a much smaller screen though.
Then there's [REC], which actually improves on the formula through a double trick
· The movie starts as a recording of the then-running "While you sleep", a Spanish TV show about nightlife (odd jobs, normal jobs, weirdos, etc)
· Since you have members of the crew from the show, the cameraman and the main character are both decently-versed with covering stuff, they only lose composure when things go really bad, plus they also have a vocational dedication to just keep on reporting
[REC], only the first one, is easily the best found footage movie ever. Jaume Balagueró just nailed it end to end.
100% agree.
Never watch the american remake called Quarantine. The lead actress (Jennifer Carpenter) is hot as hell but the movie does everything wrong where the original succeeded. It's like the anti [REC].
And with that ending REC topped not all found footage films but almost all zombie movies too. Creeped me like hell.
it's super important to see the spanish original, not the american remake which imho didn't hit everything right.
MAN I love Cloverfield. That was THE MOST intense movie I had ever seen in theaters up to that point.
One of my all time favorite found footage films is Chronicle. It's one of those that I didn't know if even liked the first few times I watched it but I kept coming back to it and all these years later it has stayed with me and become one of my faves.
👍🏾👍🏾Definitely! _Chronicle_ is still one of my favorites as well, and I love how it didn't go into detail about the cave, leaving it a mystery.
@@FilmSpook oh for sure! Such a cool movie :) I feel like in a world where there are lots of movies that are so similar, it really stands out as something trying to do something different.
I'm definitely due for a re-watch
@@FilmSpook I think keeping the cave a mystery was one of the major factors that led to it being such a good movie. They aren't chosen or anything, they are random kids that ended up becoming gods on accident at a random party, and it really shows the impact that such power has on ordinary kids. Andrew is my favorite character. So much depth
Just saw it for the first time, the other day. And maaaaaan what an absolute banger if a movie.
I saw it once, but I feel a similar way about it. The whole time I was watching it, I was thinking "I'm not sure if I like this," and yet I now think about it so often, especially with the way that it depicts how three people can end up on very different paths in life even if they started with the same experience.
Aside from being a great found footage movie (probably the only one I actually like) the audio in Cloverfield is awesome. I suppose it might betray the found footage-ness of the film, since it is so well done, and no handheld camera that some joe shmoe would have had was capable of recording anything like that, but sometimes I will just put on Cloverfield and crank up the surround sound.
yeah good point! the sound mixing definitely adds another layer of realism :)
Personally I feel Rec. is the absolute top of Found Footage. It has a great plot, great acting, and a very plausible reason for there to BE a camera (up to a point of course). There's brilliant little details, like all the randoms, who are supposed to be just regular people, actually looking at the camera, and into the lens, even when they are not the focus of the shot. Which is a thing people tend to do, but actors have been taught NOT to do.
I'm also a big fan of As Above so Below, but that's mostly because the setting is awesome (the Paris catacombs) and it being actually filmed there really helps with the vibe.
I haven't seen Cloverfield since I saw it in cinema when it came out, but I should really revisit it!
I really enjoyed The Frankenstein Theory. It had a solid premise, that if The Monster were real it could still be alive in modern times, and might even be Big Foot.
It is surprisingly faithful to the book and serves as an effective sequel.
Well i mean it is STILL realistic since basically all Camcorders post 2005/2006 recorded Multichannel Audio in 5.1 with their built in microphones (even most modern new camcorders still do that) Unless you switched the recording settings to a different file format like MP4 (if you intended to use the videos for Web Uploads) then they would only record in stereo. So i always felt the Audio in Cloverfield was pretty realistic , given the fact that the character supposedly recorded it with a little Panasonic AG-HSC1U Camcorder model, which has a 5.1 Surround microphone on top.
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 5.1 production sound only works with very steady setups and rarely with dialog present, unless you want voices panning all around the theater which is a big nono. This movie has very traditional sound design, where most of what you hear was added in post production.
The crazy online marketing for Cloverfield adds SO MUCH to the "realness" of it, The fake websites, fake companies, puzzles and movie clues and clips made the movie so much more enjoyable!
I saw Cloverfield only a few weeks ago, but I have zero hesitation in calling it the peak of found footage film. Masterful execution. Riveting from start to finish. Studios these days think unless the universe is ending the stakes aren't high, but you just need a guy trying to get to a girl he loves, and the stakes couldn't be higher. Beautifully done.
And I'm stunned to see so much green screen on the sets because I could NOT tell from seeing the movie at all! How were 2008 VFX for 25 million better than almost every mainstream Hollywood flick coming out in 2023???
@@ishaan863 they probably gave the effects team more time to perfect it than effects teams get now. most of the bad CGI in films today are because the studio rushes the post production team.
I saw the film and it has a better drunk camera than GTA 4 mod.
I vividly remember when cloverfield was going to air for the first time on cable tv, and I prepared myself all day to watch it cause I saw the poster at the movie theatre but I was too young to see it there. As I was able to watch at home, still a kid, I remember turning off the lights and waiting for the movie to start, I was soo excited and loved every bit of it, it was one of the first scarier movies I had ever seen then. What a blast this movie is, an absolute favorite of mine and probably the one that made me such a fan of found footage films.
The thing I most liked about Cloverfield was that your main characters weren't the heroes. They were just your average people going through an event trying to survive.
I often forget about Troll Hunter, like at the time it didn't seem that special, but I guess it was surprisingly good in terms of being a Norwegian film. Like there are other Norwegian films that are better, but they usually suffer from the lack of Norwegian actors, so the verisimilitude suffers because if one has seen a couple Norwegian films, most of the actors are recognizable to the point that you're taken out of it, but the Troll Hunter had mostly unknowns, so one can forget that they're actors, until someone famous shows up in a costume with a recognizable voice to mess it up again.
This is a great review I didn't know there was an official term for "Meeting a movie on its own terms" I love cloverfield 2008, something that they did really well was the party scene because when the camera cuts the music cuts as well, I hate when found footage movies have music in the background but it doesn't cut when the camera cuts. Great video!
I saw cloverfield in the theater in manhattan. I loved it and still do as I love any good kaiju movie. Definitely my favorite found footage movie ever. The shaky camera and huge screen made my date nauseous though.
I saw a press screening that included the public at the cinerama dome. We had to sit closer than usual. I got nauseous. I couldn't stand the narrator then found out it was TJ Miller. The TRAILER was SICK!!
@@edwardduarte7393 Miller was the camera man.
I remember watching Cloverfield and could not tear my eyes away. I came away with a splitting headache from the frequent camera shake but also a new interest in “found footage” or mockumentaries. I’m always down for iterations of the genre but nothing beats a simple camera setup so far imo.
The bit where that girl died with blood exploding from every orifice was so well done. I felt so bad for her. She was cute and relatable and I felt terrible when she died, it was so sudden.
Fr, the sound design for that part is absolutely horrific too.
One of my issues with Cloverfield and a lot of other found footage movies is that despite the handheld camera shake they're clearly filmed on multi-thousand dollar cinema cameras. Blair Witch at least got it right by seemingly using an actual camcorder.
I can 100% understand your reaction - for example, I hate "gasoline grenades" in movies (that's not what high explosives look like!), but great sound is such a visceral part of watching films that I, personally, can let it slide. I think, most importantly, the reason is that it usually doesn't pull me out of the moment like some other things do.
One of the cameras they used in Blair Witch was an actual 8mm cam.
this film reminds me of district 9 for some reason
District 9 had a somewhat handheld quality to many of the shots, combined with CGI monster things. It also had a lot of dirtiness to it, as in the world itself was dusty and messy, and that made it look more real imo.
I love District 9 but it annoyed me that it started out as found footage and at some point just abandoned that idea and became a monster movie with wobbly camerawork.
“As above so below” had the same effect on me. You know it’s fake but the escalation and anxiety of the characters hooks you
Cloverfield is a masterpiece I love it wholeheartedly
tj miller jumpscare
hahaha the years have not been kind to his reputation
The guy with the alto sax in the Connection movie is Jackie McLean, one of the greatest jazz musician ever lived. Not an actor and actually a heavy user...
I wish I could upvote this
I actually liked the "Missing" gimmick. That actress really sells it well. So many movies forget we have cell phones and look stuff up on the internet, this was the other coin of that.
Jack, another banger.
Please keep making these, as a fellow Aussie there are unreal!
cheers mate! carn straya
As a non-Australian, these are still fantastic.
I wouldn't say I like found footage films, or think about them often, yet this film and Chronicle has easily had the most visceral impact on me, as a kid I watched Chronicle and run out bawling with tears, don't know why, never finished the film, and honestly no other films have since ever had that impact. Watching Cloverfield I was very impressed, but I also felt a really lingering sort of dread afterwards that I can't explain, its just damn good at capturing that realism, and that sort of hopeless never-ending stress of being trapped in a city as it collapses. Also the way that Lizzy Caplan's character dies is honestly harrowing, like jesus christ, and I'm glad it kind of obscured the death yet making it feel disgustingly real, I just get a pit in my stomach thinking about it. Also I loved 10 Cloverfield Lane, very different style and approach, but Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Goodman are brilliant actors, and it really nails the concept without showing any of the monsters until the end.
I loved everything around this movie. I was in theater when the trailer was shown and and it blew my mind. You see this completely relatable party and then desaster strikes. Somthing far off in the distance explodes, flies towards you and you see: it's the head of the liberty statue. No title, just the date. The whole marketing was the perfect example of viral marketing. J.J.Abrams put everything he learned while making Lost into it.
For me the movie was a blast in cinema. I was so emerged and had one of my few epic moments in cinema. I really miss movies which lets you immerse yourself.
The actress in the thumbnail is Lizzy Caplan
I understand found footage movies were super played out by the early-mid 2010's but I really wish the genre had kept evolving. I'd like to see a resurgence.
Same, I love found footage. Cloverfield, Chronicle, and Hell House LLC are my favourites, but the whole genre is just very much my jam, there’s an immediacy and intimacy to it that really gets me.
Edit: forgot to mention As Above, So Below, which I also love. Such a great genre
check out Deadstream and Gonjiam Haunted Asylum if you havent
Thanks for sharing this. I was probably in the 8th grade when Cloverfield came out & my friend at the time had told me to check out their Myspace page. Became a huge fan of found footage movies after checking out on ones like quarantine, REC, P.A. & even the ones that didn't get a lot of recognition/popularity, but the story and acting was there.
REC is great!
Saw it recently and was amazed how good the movie is! I would add that as someone who works in a VFX studio this movie has one of the most impressive VFX I have ever seen, tracking the image with all that shakiness is completely unreal and a work of art in it’s own right!
Great video thanks - I'd recommend Alien Abduction - The McPherson Tape (1998) to fans of found footage horror (otherwise known as The Incident in Lake County).
The words popping up on rhythm with the punches was pretty awesome
I hate it when movies rely to much on POV. Literally induces motion sickness. I got sick in the middle of Cloverfield in the middle of the movie and was
miserable throughout the rest of the film... I wasn't scared, I wasn't anxious or panic'd I was just sick from all the POV camera movement.
I can't imagine trying to watch Enter the Void on the Big screen... I got woozy just watching it on a 21'' Computer Monitor.
I saw Cloverfield in the theater opening weekend. The place was packed. The whole audience jumped at the jump scares. There were screams and gasps. It was super fun. I don't think I've ever seen an audience that actively engaged in a horror film before or since.
The Searching and sequal Missing really did the genre well though, really brought it to the modern era and I really enjoy them.
I'm so glad I saw Cloverfield in the theater. The found footage style made it intensely immersive, and those "peekaboo" moments with the kaiju landed as legitimately terrifying - not an experience I'd had with any other kaiju movie before or since.
watching Cloverfield for the first time at the local cinema was quite an experience.
My favorite found footage movies are actually Noroi and Lake Mungo, which are both presented as documentaries, and are two of the most deeply chilling films I've ever seen.
for fans of the found footage horror genre, my number one recommendation is marble hornets
Chronicle for me was the first found footage movie that I watched that made me go wow, okay this is a proper genre, like that added so much to the movie.
Cloverfield, REC, and the Visit are some of my fav found footage movies. I vividly remember getting sick the first time I watched Cloverfield since my eyes/brain couldn't process the camerawork back then. This movie literally altered my brain chemistry in a sense 😂
Happy to see REC referenced here. Other favourites of mine are Poughkeepsie Tapes, Taking of Deborah Logan, Savageland...
I think the other reason why cloverfield is so great is that it is like a time capsule back to the late 2000s. It captures what that time felt like pretty darn well. The actors, writers, and vfx artists fired on all cylinders for this movie.
Cloverfield is a special movie for me! The hype marketing and just the way it was filmed. And my boy Jesse having to leave the theater 4 times due to motion sickness.
I remember reading somewhere that Clint Eastwood does his movies in one take not to capture the most spontaneous or natural reactions (which makes no sense, it’s not improv), but rather because he's an intensely high maintenance person who expects anyone working on an A-list Hollywood movie to get it right the first time (which is highly impractical IMO). Whatever the case, I'm not at all a fan of that creative choice. Yet somehow, it doesn't seem to affect the quality of his work at all. Maybe he just is THAT good at directing.
There is this amazing movie Unseen where the plot is that the main character, trying to escape a killer, broke her glasses, so she facetime someone at random and they have to guide her out of a forest. This basically bridges the gap between "desktop horror" and "camcorder" movies, plus the shaky cam footage is halted by regular movie scenes, so the pace is well balanced. It thought it was absolutely brilliant!
The end shot of cloverfield showing the ufo crashing into the water behind her is genius
Cloverfield is easily one of the most underrated movies of the genre, it definitely deserves a remake or at least a sequel..
The ARG surrounding it was sooooo hype when it was running
Project Almanac (2015) gave me so much motion sickness by the 40+ minute mark that I had to walk out. I have never in my life walked out of a movie mid-show nor have I done so since. That was traumatizing.
I only clipped because of Lizzy Caplan. I had no idea that she was in that movie
Cloverfield's saving grace was the fact the director knew how to bring in the various monsters in a not too much, not too little manner. They came in at the right time that let the audience become a part of the film with saying "what was that? ARGHHH!!!".
That being said I'll be glad to see the end of found footage flicks, though do uphold the found footage technique to be an effective storytelling device IF it's not too much or too little.
Cloverfield was obviously meant to have realistic human 1st person camerawork... and it did it perfectly.
The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield and Rec are my favourite found footage movies!
im a simple man, i see cloverfield, i click
Its so cool that reeves went on to direct the batman
The second one is fantastic. Cloverfield lane. The cast is great.
Agree - John Goodman is elite
huge off topic tangent:
pointing out that found footage movies/mockumentaries can play with the fact that theres a camera present in universe reminded me of the show castle. there was a single episode filmed like a mockumentary, and i think it really utilized it well. along with the cameras and tapes being important to the episodes mystery and even b plot, it also affected how the episode and characters work! since the characters that were usually meant to be in a real situation were now aware there were cameras, they acted differently! the childish character tried harder to be cool and tried to act as a director since he loves movies, the grumpier and withdrawn character obviously hated the cameras and tried to avoid them or stood around awkwardly, a tough character showed off his skills and constantly bragged to the point of getting into fights with his teammate... i thought it was interesting!
i never really thought about how different of a medium it is when the show or movie has the camera physically there for the characters as well!
Referring to Cloverfield as a franchise feels like an example of "the letter, but not the spirit, of the law". :P
Reese still getting work both gives me hope and sadness. I too can fail up, just like him. But I have to suck so bad that everyone pities me.
I stopped this right near the beginning and immediately went and watched Let The Right One In. Wow! Not the topic of this video, but thank you for unwittingly introducing me to one of the best vampire movies I have ever seen. If you’re reading this comment and haven’t seen it, please go watch it now. The cinematography, set design, acting and adapted screenplay all combine to create something eerily tender and still yet haunting and chilling.
Anybody who likes this type of cinematography and action has to check out Hardcore Henry
God damn I love that film
A real gem, I never see people talk about that one
It's cool to see a director getting better with each film.
the "oh my god, oh god" bro the southpark episode was not kidding lol
A masterclass where a professional camera operator is being asked to pretend to be a beginner. I love it.
the world needs more found footage musicals
Found footage movies are not for everyone. Cloverfield remains the only movie to date from which I’ve walked out of the theater.
Watching this in a huge screen where you can’t escape the feeling of immersion created by the light and sound made me feel incredibly nauseous. I’ve never had motion sickness, but this movie triggered something no other has since.
Years later I was able to get through it when I watched it at home and I enjoyed it. I’ve seen other movies shot in the same fashion now, but nothing was ever as unnerving.
I love found footage movies, a lot of people straight up hate them and refuse to watch them purely because of the style, no matter how much they think the story is interesting, but I cherish them, it makes me feel like I'm with the characters at the very moment at all times or that I'm reliving something they saw years ago...
Cloverfield, Project X, The Visit and many more could be shot normally on a rig, some of the would probably be better if they weren't fount footage (The Chronicle) but it's what makes them stand out compared to similar movies and wouldn't hit as hard as they do because you feel like you're a part of the story, you're the silent observer of everything that's happening, you're basically the main character of the movie because you see everything through your own eyes (camera).
I watched it in a shittiest theater of my city, and all those years later, after 3d, 4dx, imax and all those bells and whistles, this one was most immersive cinema experience i ever had.
Shaky cam is one of those things that directors need to keep under control. A little can add mood, but it quickly turns into garbage.
I remember being excited for this strange movie with the cryptic advertising... then going to the theater and watching... Will Smith in I am Legend. I had to wait another month before that other movie to come out.
babe wake up new scene it video
I think this movie and The Flower Tapes are masterclasses in found footage camera work.
Never heard of it, but thanks. I'll look it up. The first found footage movie I ever saw, and probably still my favorite, was Man Bites Dog.
I was very impressed by Cloverfield when I saw it in the original theatre release.
The marketing for this film was God-teer. Never been done this way ahead, this intensely and it's something we'll never see again. The MySpace profiles, the hidden clues everywhere ont he internet, in web coding, images, complete, fucntioning websites. The whole story about the Tagriato company, the Slusho! website (of which I still have the original T-shirt), the story about the woman going no-contact after infiltrating on the Tagriato oil rig, the suspicions that it was the oilrig that woke the monster up etc etc etc. Remember it even got mixed up with the mysterious promo webpage of the Alpha/Omega game??
It was a magical time and I don't think I was ever SO hyped for a film, because we were so invested a year before the release. It was truly a unique experience and one I will take with me the rest of my like. This film means a lot to me and my teenage self. ♥♥
Oh and fun fact, the Slusho drinks make another appearance in the Star Trek film BTS footage.
I'm an ametaur VFX artist and I also love this movie. For me though the one thing that seems like just utter hell would be 3D tracking footage that's as shaky as Cloverfield's
There are many things in Cloverfield which makes it bad, but the dread of an incomprehensible and seemingly undefeatable giant monster is... really unique in the giant monster genre. I feel that idea is an under-explored trope, that is, of regular citizens' experiences amidst the chaos and the fear of the unknown. Almost cosmic horror, to a certain extent.
I don't remember the story or characters in the slightest, but I remember how this movie looks and feels like nothing else. For that reason alone, it's good.
I found Cloverfield incredibly eye-straining to watch
going to go watch it RN
"The Blair Witch Project" is still my absolute favorite among the Found Footage genre because it doesn't share the many bay tropes of the later found footage movies like obvious use of CGI and image stabilization & correction. It is because "The Blair Witch Project" still has the more rough and raw nature and feels a lot less doctored and more organic. You also get a much better feeling for the characters. "Cloverfield", as much as i like it for what it is, sadly shares a lot of flaws that make many post-Blair Witch Found Footage movies feel very cheesy and cliché. Such as the deliberately wrong / bad camera angles, the perfect lighting as well as VERY obvious use of VFX effects and overal postproduction & typical boring Hollywood colortiming. These things always ruin it for me and kill the thrill. HOWEVER "Cloverfield" still had some really really nice moments and i LOVED the Sets and the atmosphere. THAT is what i personally like the most about such movies. Because it really makes the whole thing really feel like a Journey. But..... unlike "The Blair Witch Project", after i watched "Cloverfield", i totally forgot the characters and their names and really could not bond with them at all or at least care enough about them. Maybe this was intended but this is something a lot of productions share that have J.J. Abrahms' Involvement. It was the same for me with "Super 8" too.
For anyone interested, Dracula could be considered a really old example of a "found footage" story. I just think it amazing how the idea of making up a fictional recording of events is such a unique, yet timeless genre. It amazes me that humans can come from so many places and times yet still find ways to be so similar.
I think that style is so good because it brings the audience into the work, it allows us to imagine we're a part of it. Instead of just reading a story, we're imagining ourselves uncovering the "lost" pages of an unnamed researcher within a Lovecraft story detailing vague accounts of some unknowable force the brunt of humanity has no clue about or the haunted tapes of a found footage/analog horror series, beckoning us to destroy the tape and turn away. Really gives it all a sort of timeless element despite it usually being very period-based.
REC is the best around. It's just marvelous.
Troll Hunter is so good
It'd be a strange move but I'd love for you to take a detailed look at that found footage horror video game from the ps2 era. Michigan: Report from Hell
LOST fans thought the creature was the Smoke Monster from this movie was in the theaters in various LOST blogs and LOST bbs discussion forums.
i liked the blair witch project because they didn't film things too well. you could tell that closer to the end of the film, they were too scared to really care about their project, and was mostly using the camera to see in the dark.
"Franchise Spawning" I wish.
While Blair Witch paved the way for this one, Cloverfield really hit hard with its relentless realism. Hard watch due to the shakiness, but such an effective movie. The only other found footage flick I actually care for is Chronicle.
I love Cloverfield, I'm not saying it's a good film but I love it. And some people get motion sickness watching it, but I'm not them, so I just love it.
All hail Cloverfield!!!!
It's true that the found footage genre is going into this skype/facetime/social media phase, but it might be just a temporary trend. I thinks the real evolution of the genre is in internet Alternate Reality Games (ARG).
Low budget productions made by amateur horror fans, the mystery behind who made them leading to a lot of people believing it's real footage, the weird ways in which they are advertised and the virality they achieve, all these things capture the spirit of the old school found footage films.
To me, the genre is like urban legends in movie format, and recent high budget films, while a lot of them are good, have lost the factor that blurs the line between fiction and reality. On the other hand, this is still very present on internet ARG's, and the fact that you're not watching it on a movie theater, but on some random youtube channel or on some unknown person's social media, makes it even more believable.
I think Marble Hornets was the bridge between old found footage films and ARG's.
I loved Cloverfield and all the viral marketing when it first came out.
For me, REC runs circles around Cloverfield. The difference in acting skill, genuine tension and story is so apparent and all of it done with an even smaller budget
When previous video title is not good enough
One thing I feel elevates Cloverfield over other found footage movies, is that it managed to stay true to the found footage concept even with the increasing scale. Chronicle, as fun as it is, had very contrived reasons for the aesthetic, and no real reason for someone to edit the footage from multiple sources. And by the end, the movie just starts cheating, by the characters moving the cameras with their telekinetic powers to create more cinematic shots
I saw Cloverfield when it came out and I just didn't get the hype. I probably need to re-visit it, however.
If you're not a fan of static desktop found footage films, I would still recommend 'Host' which is a horror film over a Zoom call. It's really *really* good.
Thanks for the suggestion - I'll add it to the list!
Found footage in the modern era without leaning into the desktop angle can be more vlog type - maybe even an in-world character is putting together the found footage of someones last vlog. The person was already recording for their audience and knows how to film so it isn't too bad, then the excuse for editing and distributing is on a third party, can also allow for a moment of commentary from said editor. I don't know if this is something that has been done, please let me know! (I am sure it has, not exactly the most original thought) but it's just taking the same content but in a different technological context.
Hol'up. I'm not a native speaker but I was sure that verisimilitude is all about making things as close to real as possible to enhance immersion so people breaking up into a song all of a sudden would be breaking verisimilitude as that's not what happens in real life and that for accepting that it happens in musical we use suspension of disbelief which I consider it to be a different phenomenon as something that breaks the verisimilitude, yes, but protects the enjoyment of the scene and going too far would break both. Cam footage are all about reinforcing verisimilitude, the camera is considered to be part of the world and therefore is affected by rules of it like people being aware of the camera, and suspension of disbelief used to ignore the CGI and that those are in fact only actors following a script and that it didn't really happen.
Ummmm, you might be right, but my understanding of the definition of verisimilitude in film is theory is “the appearance of being real”. And this is only in the context of the film, not necessarily the real world outside the film. So yes, I suppose I’m combining suspension of disbelief and verisimilitude into the immersive viewing experience - and specific genres rely on recurrent tropes and iconography to generate the “appearance of reality” even when the movie is on another planet, for instance.