M.P - Institutional Context - The Blair Witch Project (Myrick, Sanchez, 1999)

Production

• The film was produced by the Haxan Films production company which is famous for producing the 'cult classic independent horror film The Blair Witch Project'
• It was developed during 1994
• The directors advertised in Black Stage magazine for actors who had good improvisational abilities
• While filming, the actors were given clues on where their next location would be through messages in milk crates that were found with Global Positioning Satellite systems
• Low budget of $25k
• Box office of $248.5k therefore was a success and one of the most successful independent movies of all time
• Shot of hand held cameras
• Filming lasted 8 days
• Much of the action was improvised
• There was 19 hours of footage that had to be edited down to 90 minutes
• Editing in post production took more than 8 months
• It was originally thought that the movie would be on cable television as the filmmakers did not anticipate a wide release

Distribution

• The film was first aired at the Sundance Festival in January 1999
• Artisan Entertainment bough the rights for $1 million
• Haxan and Artisan used the website for the film as the main focus of the publicity campaign
• The film was limited release to only 27 screens which created an impression that tickets for the film were hard to get hold of so audiences would not want to miss out
• They spent approx. $1 million on promotion
• Low budget trailers were shot
• On the opening weekend in July 1999, a full page in Variety Magazine was dedicated to the film that noted the amount of hits the website had (Over 21 million) which was a strong marketing tactic

Marketing Campaign

•  The film had its own website that still exists today. On the website, it documented the history of the Blair Witch from 1985 to 1997.
• The website featured information about the filmmakers and photos, there are also parts from the film of the recovered tapes and the protagonist Heather's journal.  This helped the film to increase beliefs that it is based on a true story so audiences would be more eager to watch it
• The website was gradually updated to show new information being discovered on the story
• Photos, videos and interviews appeared on the website at different intervals which added to the uncertainty about if the film was a true story or not
• The adverts they made were low budget and were shown in college campuses and a special feature on the Sci-Fi Channel
• The film avoided advertising on mainstream cinema ads. This saved them money but also caused audiences to believe the film was very special and in hope they would discover the film themselves
• For the viral marketing campaign, on IMDb before the film was released, the three main protagonists in the film were listed as 'missing, presumed dead'.
• Missing persons leaflets and posters were handed out to the public on the three characters
• The film was the first to be widely marketed online using web 2.0