The Blair Witch Project - Final Scene

The Blair Witch Project ends on a rather uneasy scene and there are a few things that are interesting. These things are with concern to the upcoming coursework project.

Firstly;

Mise en scene

• The scene is in colour until the two characters enter the house. This suggests that something within the house is uneasy.
• The shot is a POV shot throughout because it is supposed to be filmed on a handheld camera. This adds to the suspense as the camera is mostly always shaking, showing us that the character is scared. This makes things more tense for us because out focus is always moving around and we do not know what to look at.
• There is also very little lighting in the first few seconds of this scene. A lack of light makes it much more eerie because we cannot see much. Not being able to see much slightly panics us as we would prefer to know what is coming. What we do have as lighting, is artificial as the scene is set at night.
• All of these techniques put us in the same position as the characters, as we can only see what they can too. By doing this, our fear of the unknown increases dramatically.

• The fact that the person holding the camera is a woman also makes the scene more tense. Categorically, we see women as helpless and vunerable and the fact that she is the one filming all of this makes us uneasy. 
• The shots of the house show us that it is probably unused as it is in pretty bad shape.
• When we see this, it also makes the house more eerie because it adds to the idea of something being wrong. The characters believe that they can hear their friend shouting in the house and it would be very odd have a house in the middle of the forest.

• The scene constantly switches between colour film and black and white. This adds a sense of unease as there is no consistency.
• At one point, there are things on the floor that we cannot really identify. They look like leaves and, if they are, this would add to the inconsistency of the film as it would be odd to find leaves inside a house. Especially covering the whole floor.

• The camera shows that the windows, and doors, appear completely black, suggesting that there is no way out of this house. That these two people are now trapped.

• At one point, we can see lots of handprints on the wall of the building. These handprints are all at different heights and look as if whoever did them, did them in a struggle.
• They also to be a brown/red colour, implying that it might have once been blood.
• Also, they resemble a 'Stop' type of sign. This tells us that there may be danger ahead and that the people walking should stop and turn around.

• In the following few seconds, we see more handprints in the same position, but less this time. This implys that the characters are running out of time to turn back.
• Finally, we see the other character facing a wall and not moving. This really starts to build the suspense as we do not know why he is doing that and how he got like it.
• The fact that he doesn't respond the girl screaming connotes that something has gone seriously wrong and he is not leaving the house.
• The final shot is on the side as the girl has been knocked over by something. The canted framing here tells us that something is not right in the house.

Sound;

• The sound throughout this scene is all diegetic. It is only the characters talking.
• Apart from this, it is silent. The silence makes the scene eerie as we are waiting for something.
• Also, the fact that we can only hear what the characters are hearing, puts us in exactly the same position as them

Editing;

• There is a lot of cross cutting between the two different cameras (one is black and white, and one is colour)
• Aside from this, it is mostly continuity editing.