I thought something interesting I could do would be to spotlight some indie movies from time to time. I get twitter followers all the time that are independent movies looking for a fanbase. One of those I found awhile back was The Upper Footage, a found footage film that claims to be an edited 90 minute film based around 393 minutes of footage recovered from a camera that witnessed the death of a young New York socialite and the subsequent events after her death.
Because I think the less you know about the film the better, I'll keep the plot synopsis light. Basically, a handful of young, rich New York socialites are having a regular night on the town, including bar hopping, drinking excessively in a limo and scoring cocaine. One of them, named Will, has a weird quirk where he likes to record everything, so he's along for the ride recording the nights events. While out, one of the guys decides he wants to get laid and picks up a girl to party with, Jackie. While partying with booze and cocaine later on, Jackie dies of a drug overdose, and the rest of the film is how the others deal with their new found predicament.
The film certainly is interesting, and the writer/director Justin Cole did an amazing job setting up the film. Years before it came out, he sent footage of the film to news sites and gossip sites alike about the death and disappearance of an unnamed New York socialite, and how he had all the footage that a certain character's family was trying to buy up and make disappear. There were rumors thrown out that Quentin Tarantino wanted to buy the film rights and footage and make his own movie out of it, there were rumors that the girl shown snorting a massive pile of cocaine in videos sent to news services were different celebrities, with one Dancing With The Stars contestant issuing a statement that it wasn't her. The conceit of the film though, is that it's all fake. The movie is a work of pure fiction, but between the real world setup of the footage, the inability to see a cast list or even the face of the director online, it works as a truly interesting found footage film.
The Upper Footage, while promoting itself as a semi-horror movie, is really not that scary or intense. What it is however, is believable. You can believe what happens in this film has happened in real life, you can believe what you're seeing is real footage from a real event. That being said, I found myself bored or distracted throughout portions of the film. Some of the reasons that the film looks so believable are reasons that added to my distraction or boredom, such as the extensive amount of partying that happens in the limo before we meet Jackie, the lack of focus of the camera during long sequences that sometimes mean you're looking at nothing or just lack of anything happening in parts of the film. Maybe I'm biased because I both knew going in that this was fictional and I've also seen a lot of horror films, but nothing in this movie was shocking or unsettling.
What this film is however, is an experience. I felt like I was watching a real event take place, and that's the overall point of the film, that you could leave the film questioning what you just saw was real, and for that I have to give it a lot of credit. Writer/Director Justin Cole wanted to give viewers a movie that made them question the reality of a situation. While most found-footage films have some sort of conceit to them, like ghosts or alien invasions or superpowers that take you out of the believabilty of the film, The Upper Footage is a film that covers something fairly mundane (in comparison) and because of that, you don't get that knowing feeling that what you're seeing isn't real. It's very real, it just happens that this filmed version of events isn't.
I highly recommend people check out The Upper Footage if you're into trying new experiences when it comes to film. While it might not be the most exciting, thrilling or scary found footage film, it's certainly the most real.
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