In
filmmaking
Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...
, found footage is the use of
footage
In filmmaking and video production, footage is raw, unedited material as originally filmed by a movie camera or recorded by a digital video camera, which typically must be film editing, edited to create a motion picture, digital video, video cli ...
as a
found object
A found object (a calque from the French ''objet trouvé''), or found art, is art created from undisguised, but often modified, items or products that are not normally considered materials from which art is made, often because they already hav ...
, appropriated for use in
collage films,
documentary film
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
s,
mockumentary films and other works.
Use in commercial film
Often, fictional films
imitate this style in order to increase their authenticity, especially the mockumentary genre. In the dramatized and embellished pseudo-documentary film ''
F for Fake'' (1973), director
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...
borrows all shots of main subject
Elmyr de Hory from a BBC documentary,
rather than fabricating the footage himself.
Stuart Cooper's ''
Overlord
An overlord in the English feudal system was a lord of a manor who had subinfeudated a particular manor, estate or fee, to a tenant. The tenant thenceforth owed to the overlord one of a variety of services, usually military service or ...
'' uses stock footage of the landing on Normandy during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
to increase realism. The footage was obtained from the
Imperial War Museum in the
UK. Other parts of the film were shot by Cooper; however, he used old World War II-era film stock with World War II-era
lens
A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'') ...
es.
Music video and VJing
A certain style of
music video
A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...
makes extensive use of found footage, mostly found on TV, like news, documentaries, old (and odd) films etc. The forefather of found footage music videos was artist
Bruce Conner who screened ''
Cosmic Ray
Cosmic rays or astroparticles are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the ...
'' in 1961. Prominent examples are videos of bands such as
Public Enemy
Public Enemy is an American Hip-hop, hip hop group formed in Roosevelt, New York, in 1985 by Chuck D and Flavor Flav. The group rose to prominence for their political messages including subjects such as Racism in the United States, American r ...
and
Coldcut. The latter also project video material during their stage show, which includes live mixing of video footage. Artists such as Vicki Bennett, also known as
People Like Us, or the video artist Kasumi with the film Shockwaves, use
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
archives such as the
Prelinger Archives.
Practitioners
*
Anti-Banality Union
*
Martin Arnold
*
Craig Baldwin
*
Dara Birnbaum
Dara Nan Birnbaum (October 29, 1946 – May 2, 2025) was an American video and installation artist based in New York City.
Birnbaum entered the nascent field of video art in the mid-to-late 1970s, challenging the gendered biases of the period ...
*
Abigail Child
*
Bruce Conner
*
Joseph Cornell
*
Guy Debord
Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situat ...
*
William Farley
*
Federica Foglia
*
Péter Forgács
*
Barbara Hammer
*
Ken Jacobs
*
Brett Morgen
*
Matthias Müller
*
Dennis Nyback
*
Vivian Ostrovsky
*
Paul Pfeiffer
*
Rick Prelinger
*
Luther Price
*
Phil Solomon
*
Chick Strand
*
System D-128
*
Peter TscherkasskyFound Footage Magazine-Experimental Cinema
/ref>
* René Viénet
See also
* Experimental film
Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that does not apply standard cinematic conventions, instead adopting Non-narrative film, non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many e ...
* Found Footage Festival
* Mashup (video)
* Montage (filmmaking)
A montage ( ) is a film editing technique in which a series of short shots are sequenced to condense space, time, and information.
Montages enable filmmakers to communicate a large amount of information to an audience over a shorter span of ti ...
* '' Vietnam in HD'', in which thirteen Americans retell their stories in the Vietnam War paired with found footage from the battlefield
* VJing
* '' WWII in HD'', in which twelve American service members retell their stories in World War II paired with found footage from the battlefield
*Remix culture
Remix culture, also known as read-write culture, is a term describing a culture that allows and encourages the creation of derivative works by combining or editing existing materials. Remix cultures are permissive of efforts to improve upon, ch ...
References
Further reading
* ''Cut: Film as Found Object in Contemporary Video'', Stefano Basilico, Milwaukee Art Museum 2004.
* ''Found Footage Film'', Cecilia Hausheer, Christoph Settele, Luzern 1992,
* '' Films Beget Films'', Jay Leyda, London, George Allen & Unwin 1964.
* ''Recycled Images: The Art and Politics of Found Footage Films'', William C. Wees, Anthology Film Archives, New York: 1993.
External links
The Recycled Cinema
– "A Research Site Devoted to the Past and Future of Found Footage Film and Video"
''Found Footage Magazine''
– a semi-annual publication with theoretical, analytical and informative contents related to found footage filmmaking
{{DEFAULTSORT:Found Footage
Cinematic techniques
Experimental film
Found object
Collage
Contemporary art