User:Samanthalunarivera/Publicity stunt

The Blair Witch Project
On October 14, 1999, directors Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick released the Blair Witch Project, changing the trajectory of horror films forever. With a budget of just $60,000, Sánchez and Myrick, constructed the film to possess a "found footage" type feel. Thus, meaning that the audience would feel as if they were viewing raw, unedited video footage that the actors left behind. Shot with shaky, handheld cameras, the Blair Witch Project follows three college student - Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard - as they trek into Maryland's Black Hills Forest in order to uncover the secrets of local legend, the Blair Witch. This low-budget, horror film took the box-office by storm grossing about $1.5 million while only being streamed in 27 theaters opening night. In total, the movie grossed about $250 million throughout its time in theaters. The promotion of this film included unconventional tactics like AOL chatrooms, handing out "missing persons" leaflets to the public about the student filmmakers, and a website.

In order to begin promoting the film, Sánchez and Myrick published rumors about the "student film makers" to circulate hype and create a suspenseful build-up for the movie release. The promotion of this film included unconventional tactics like AOL chatrooms, handing out "missing persons" leaflets to the public about the student filmmakers, and a website. Within the chat rooms, Blair Witch marketers would release small tidbits of information in order to build uncertainty within the public. Not only did they stir up questions but they even used resources like IMDb to convince society that these actors truly were missing and or worse, presumed dead. On top of this, the "missing person" leaflets were planted in public locations for people to view wherever they went. Police reports and small, news articles were also distributed throughout the Internet regarding the missing trio and their potential whereabouts within the woods. Ultimately, the most instrumental component of the publicity stunt itself, was the the Blair Witch website. Each and every form of media the directors produced drove traffic back to this site. According to the Site-Seeker website, "The [Blair Witch] site was an extension of the storyline, describing in detail, the myth of the Blair Witch and giving more biographical information on the missing filmmakers. It didn’t “sell” to get users to go see the movie but instead focused on the myth to confuse and scare potential viewers". Everyone was talking about the Blair Witch Project and people wanted to know what happened to Donahue, Williams, and Leonard in the woods that night.

There were two key aspects that ultimately made the Blair Witch Project so successful; technological limitations and timing. As the Internet in the 90s, there were very little resources available to verify or refute the media content which Sánchez and Myrick produced for the film. The free publicity that Sánchez and Myrick constituted through the use of publicity stunt and media tactics, pushed the Blair Witch Project to the forefront of theater sales. The people were curious and questions needed to be answered.

The Blair Witch Project was such a hit that Sánchez and Myrick produced two other features films, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 in 2000 and Blair Witch in 2016.