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[Lithp]

Are All Slendervlogs Found Footage?

[Cyan507]

Most are, because it's a predominantly horror-based area the restricting perspectives that found-footage provide with a first person view allow people to identify easier with the character, thus generally giving a scarier experience. It's a technique commonly used in films that aren't even part of the found footage area e.g. using POVs or wobbly handheld shots during suspense in an action/horror movie.

There's a film on youtube called The Slender Man. I remember downloading it but it's since disappeared so I can't link you to it. It used a hybrid of found footage along with traditional filming styles but unfortunately wasn't done very well. A slendervlog COULD work without the confines of the found footage trope, but it would need to be made really well, and I guess it's just easier to hit record on a camcorder than use a studio's worth of equipment.

[Lithp]

Well, here are basically the 2 explanations that I got:

Guy I was speaking with: If it's shot with a camera (implied that he meant in-universe), then it's found footage.

Wikipedia: It's Found Footage whenever they find video, usually from missing or dead protagonists.

So, take Vince just filming himself & uploading it on YouTube. According to "Guy's" explanation, that would be Found Footage. According to Wikipedia's, it wouldn't be, because the footage wasn't recovered.

I would call a video like that "mockumentary," but I guess you could apply that moniker to found footage in general, if you wanted.

[AssassinB]

I look at EMH as a found footage series personally, as well as most of the other series on this board. It would be refreshing to see someone attempt making a slendervlog with a real camera and equipment, but the footage has to come from somewhere other than the first person POV. I have a few ideas how someone could do that and upload events that they film to a youtube channel immediately as well as not getting involved in said events, but I think the best option for a non-found footage SM thing is an actual movie, because then you can just tell a story without worrying about small details that us vloggers are so nitpicky about (When did the video take place, who was in it, why did this or that happen, etc.). Instead it would be like watching MH for the first time starting right now. The series is a completed work so there wouldn't be any speculation or logistics to check in terms of keeping things realistic to the characters in the long term, only for the short term which is purely the viewing period. That's how a third-person POV could work in a non-found footage type film, it needs to be a completed work as well.

[thisistheend]

Found footage technically means that the events already happened, so I suspect that the Slendervlogs these days are more hybrid like found footage/active vlogs. So I would say yes they are, but also no.

[Cyan507]

Okay, maybe I phrased that wrong. When people use the term "found-footage" it doesn't reference any particular footage being lost or found. It merely isolates the style of filming used in Marble Hornets, Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity, Chronicle or Cannibal Holocaust into a single genre. When a character (usually the main protagonist) wields the main camera used in the production and it remains the solitary perspective then that traditionally counts as found footage.

[Lithp]

[Scowleasy]

I think that's because most of the examples of found footage we have are either tapes from a security cam (paranormal activity) or someone's personal video camera (MH, Blair witch project). So even if vlogs are progressing in real time, it still has that found footage feel to it. The only way to shake that would be to film a slenderseries from a 3rd person perspective, like a movie or TV show, but that's nearly impossible to do without large amounts of money.


For me, found footage is "hey, I found these tapes, I'll be posting them here" So I guess MH was a found footage series in the beginning, but once the characters started filming themselves in real time it morphed into more of a vlog.

[Lookbehindyou]

I agree with Scowleasy here. As someone who was a huge fan of the original Blair Witch (and feels the sequel doesn't deserve the heat it gets, Jeff went on to be in a big star in Burn Notice as well), the found footage genre, for me, means the footage in question shows past events and that it was found by someone and hence the title. This was the case in other big films as well including Cloverfield and Chronicle, as well as the recent Afflicted (which was good imo).

I think the term now is overused, and the definition has become muddy. Back when the genre first started though, it was certainly the definition I listed above. What it means now is more subjective.

EDIT: I should also point out, that in all of the above cases, the footage was filmed by those the footage was about and that it was found (likely) by someone outside of that group. People may argue that Project X was "found footage", but to me, it isn't because they ultimately would have made it public. I think who filmed it and how it is made public are important to the definition as well.

[Cyan507]

[Lithp]

Cyan: It seems like that refers to actual documentaries, though.

Look & Scowl: Part of me wants to believe you, since that justifies the "found" part, but part of me thinks that it's just a lot simpler if it=docufiction. Like I said, with the Slendervlogs, there are so many variables.

Is stealing footage or recording people without their knowledge the same as "finding" it? What if you have amnesia--aren't you technically "finding" your own footage? Ultimately, though, it doesn't matter what I think, but rather what the accepted consensus is.

[Beidah]

I'm with the idea that the footage has to be "found" to be "found footage". That way, it sort of has that in media res feel of "how did we get here?" going on.

[Carnahan]

As some others have said, I believe that, unfortunately by default, they are considered "found footage" -- I think in MH's case, it's literally the situation, but that isn't what constitutes the title. I usually refer to such movies in conversation as either found footage or even "POV" even though that is more than broad.

Yes, I think "mockumentary" can also apply, but in my mind, that refers to a single-length film done in the vein of "this could have actually happened" -- kind of loses the documentary aspect if it goes over the course of years, and different channels and forms of media.

Overall, I think "found footage" works simply because any other definition is either equally poor at describing the genre or even worse.

[Lithp]

According to Wiki, mockumentary is specifically parody. I swear that is not what it said the last time I was on that page, but whatever.

I can see that. Genre labels have a pretty strong tendency to be tricky to apply. They are often overly broad, overlap with many others, & any attempt to create more specific term winds up being obscure & raises more questions than it answers.

[Beidah]

I usually consider consider EMH, TT and the like as "fictional vlogs".