I left a small bit out of Cloverfield, a found footage feature that found great traction at the box-office and went on to inspire a new rash of similarly filmed features, I asked him what he thought of the style’s surge in popularity and here is what he had to say:
Truth is it’s not like we were the first ones to do found footage. Blair Witch did it phenomenally ten years before we ever showed up. But certainly there’s been a new wave of it and I look at it like anything — there’s good movies and there’s bad movies — the style doesn’t really bother me in any way. I just find that this style lends itself to more bad movies and they’re sort of spoiling it for other people, but the truth is there have been some great ones too. So I’m not against it, I’m just against bad movies.
I wanted to post this because I think he hits on an important issue, and something that affects us as filmgoers who can often look at supposed imitators and say, “Ugh, I’m tired of the found footage movies, just give it up already.” The problem isn’t the format, it’s the bad movies that use it.
You can read my full interview with Drew right here.
