Found Footage
Also known as found-footage film
A film presented as recordings made by its own characters and discovered afterward, shot on their cameras and phones, as in The Blair Witch Project.
In practice
Found footage is a way of telling a fictional story as if the film were made of real recordings left behind by its characters: home videos, camcorder tapes, phone clips, security cameras or webcams. Everything the audience sees was supposedly shot by someone inside the story, and the footage is usually presented as having been discovered after something went wrong.
The form is most closely linked with horror. The Blair Witch Project (1999) made it famous by presenting itself as the tapes of three students who disappeared in the woods, and Paranormal Activity (2007), [REC] (2007) and Cloverfield (2008) followed. It is not limited to horror, though: Chronicle (2012) is a superhero story told through a teenager's camera, and Searching (2018) tells a missing-person mystery entirely on a father's computer screen.
Its appeal is immediacy and cost. A camera that shakes, loses focus and misses things feels like evidence, and the audience fills in what lies outside the frame. Because the characters operate the cameras, the films can be made with small crews and little equipment, which is why so many first features have used the form.
A found-footage scene in screenplay form
EXT. LAKESIDE PAVILION - NIGHT (ON MAYA'S CAMCORDER)
Shaky, too close. String lights blow out the frame. The time stamp in the corner reads 11:42 PM.
MAYA (O.S.)
Say something for their tenth anniversary. Go.
Uncle RAY (60s) leans into the lens, holding his drink like a microphone. Over his shoulder, out on the dark water, a canoe drifts past with nobody in it.
The camera doesn't notice. Maya swings back toward the dance floor.
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The camera belongs to a character, so the scene heading says whose footage it is, and the person filming speaks off screen. The important detail sits in the background, where the operator never looks. Found footage depends on that gap: the audience sees what the person holding the camera misses.
How found footage works
Every shot needs a reason to exist. Someone in the story is holding the camera, has left it running or has set it up, and the film only shows what that camera could have recorded. This rules out the usual cutaways, reverse angles and music score, so tension has to come from what the frame catches and what it misses.
The frame is often part of the story. Opening titles explain where the recordings were found, time stamps mark how long the characters have left, and the footage may end abruptly. Many films also use a story reason for the camera: a documentary project, a video diary, a news crew, a vlog or a detective's evidence.
Screen life, or desktop film, is a newer branch. Unfriended (2014) and Searching (2018) unfold on computer screens, through video calls, messages, browser tabs and files. The principle is the same: the audience pieces the story together from the characters' own recordings.
Found footage movies
The Blair Witch Project (1999): three students film a documentary about a local legend and are never seen again. Its marketing presented the footage as real, and its tiny budget and huge box office made the form a genre.
Paranormal Activity (2007): a couple sets up a camera to record what happens in their bedroom at night. The fixed camera and the time stamp turn every quiet frame into a search for movement.
[REC] (2007): a Spanish TV reporter and her camera operator follow firefighters into an apartment building that is sealed off with them inside. The news broadcast framing explains why they keep filming.
Cloverfield (2008): a farewell party video in New York records the night a monster attacks the city. The tape also holds older footage of a happier day, which the new recording keeps cutting into.
Chronicle (2012): three teenagers gain telekinetic powers, and one of them films everything. As his powers grow, he learns to float the camera, which changes how the film can be shot.
Searching (2018): a father looks for his missing daughter through her laptop, her accounts and his own video calls. It is told entirely on screens.
Found footage vs. mockumentary
A mockumentary imitates a finished documentary made by a professional crew, with interviews and narration, and is usually a comedy. Found footage pretends to be raw, unedited material recorded by the characters themselves, often amateurs who never meant anyone to see it, and is usually horror or thriller.
Both rely on the audience accepting that the camera is part of the world. The difference is who made the film and why: a mockumentary's crew chose what to show, while found footage claims that nobody shaped it, which is why its endings so often cut off without warning.
How to write a found-footage script
Decide who is filming, why they keep filming, and how the footage survived. These three answers shape the whole script. If a character would drop the camera and run, the scene needs a reason they don't, or a second camera that keeps recording.
Say whose camera each scene comes from. A short addition to the scene heading, such as (ON MAYA'S CAMCORDER) or (SECURITY CAMERA), tells the reader whose footage it is. Write what that camera sees, not what a film camera would see: obstructed views, missed moments, a lens pointed at the floor.
Put the important things where the operator isn't looking. Background detail, sound off screen and a camera left running in an empty room are the form's main tools for suspense.
Write the dialogue loose. People talking to a camera interrupt each other, repeat themselves and narrate what they are doing. In Plot, an off-screen line from the person filming is a normal character cue with (O.S.), and the extension stays attached to the name as you write.
Common questions
What is found footage?
Found footage is a style of fiction film presented as real recordings made by the characters, such as home videos or phone clips, and discovered after the events. The Blair Witch Project is the best-known example.
What was the first found-footage movie?
Earlier films used the idea, including Cannibal Holocaust (1980) and The Last Broadcast (1998), but The Blair Witch Project (1999) made found footage a popular genre.
Why are found-footage movies so often horror?
The style limits what the audience can see, and fear grows from what lies outside the frame. Shaky, partial footage also feels like evidence, which makes the events seem real.
What is the difference between found footage and a mockumentary?
A mockumentary imitates a finished documentary, usually for comedy. Found footage presents raw recordings made by the characters themselves, usually in horror or thrillers.
How do you write a found-footage script?
Decide who holds the camera and why they keep filming, mark whose camera each scene comes from in the scene heading, and write only what that camera could record.
Is Searching a found-footage movie?
Searching (2018) belongs to screen life, a branch of found footage told entirely on computer and phone screens through video calls, messages and files.