Writer/director Mike Flanagan, executive producer Jason Blum and producer Trevor Macy recently spoke with “Breakthrough Entertainment” about their new supernatural thriller “Oculus.”
In “Oculus,” which opens Friday, April 11, Karen Gillan plays a woman who tries to exonerate her brother, who was convicted of murder, by proving that the crime was committed by a supernatural phenomenon.
Listen to “Breakthrough Entertainment’s” full interview with Flanagan, Blum and Macy by clicking HERE. The following is an excerpt from the interview in which they discuss why the movie avoids the found-footage trend.
“One of the things that we bumped into a lot when people would look at the short and want to do the feature is that they would come at it and say, ‘This clearly should be a found-footage movie.’ And that was never the way we wanted to go because one of the things about found-footage is you absolutely have to believe that what you are seeing in the frame is objective reality.
“The whole conceit of that style of filmmaking relies on that. And for this, it is all about distorting reality and never really knowing what is real. So found-footage was just the absolute wrong fit for this kind of story and it took a very long time and a lot of very frustrating meetings to kind of get past that knee-jerk reaction … and find people that wanted to do it differently.” – Mike Flanagan
“Part of the purpose of this movie is to compromise the objectivity of both the protagonists and – if we have done our jobs right – the audience. So being able to have Mike select what he was shooting and editing in order to do that was kind of essential. You have more options when you don’t have found footage.” – Trevor Macy
“If someone is dying or hurt or anything you want to see in a movie – any dramatic action – that is the last time you are holding a camera. If someone is in jeopardy and you are in the room, you are very unsympathetic if you are [just standing around filming it]. It is very hard to put drama into found-footage.” – Jason Blum
