The Blair Witch Project and ARGs (Week 6)

One of the readings this week (Mascioni, 2010) mentioned Alternate Reality Games (ARGs), and I thought I would look at The Blair Witch Project as an ARG. It was mentioned in the lecture that when The Blair Witch Project was released in 1999, it was the most profitable film in Hollywood history. The film can thank low-cost advertising on the internet for this success. The use of internet advertising also suggested that the events of the film were real, a fact that the filmmakers took full advantage of.

Strictly speaking The Blair Witch Project did not start as an ARG, but it basically evolved into one. And it displays many of the elements of an ARG (Cook, 2009). When the film began to receive more attention, the filmmakers had to accommodate for this interest by giving out information on the internet. Some of this information included the mythology behind the film, photos, drawings and anything else that they had created (Candler). It was for these reasons that the internet advertising turned The Blair Witch Project into an ARG.

The Blair Witch Project was so successful as an ARG that many people are unsure as to whether it was real or not, and some refuse to believe that it is a work of fiction (Shamrock, 2009). While ARGs can be fun—after all they are still just a game—there are people who are unable to see the difference between fact and fiction.

Candler, S. Connecting With Audiences: Lessons Learned from The Blair Witch Project, viewed 2^nd September 2011, <http://www.microfilmmaker.com/tipstrick/Issue57/ConAud_1.html>.

Cook, D. 2009, The Blair Witch Project—10 Years Later, viewed 2^nd September 2011, <http://workbookproject.com/culturehacker/2009/07/30/the-blair-witch-project-10-years-later/>.

Mascioni, M. 2010, Transforming Filmmaking Through Crowdsourcing, viewed 1^st September 2011, <http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=709&doc_id=190970>.

Shamrock, 2009, The Blair Witch Project: Wait, is it real?, viewed 2^nd September 2011, <http://real.zachwhalen.net/content/blair-witch-project-wait-it-real>.