5. Limited Story Telling Ability
Lets face it, there are only so many stories you can tell via found footage. Haunted houses (
Paranormal Activity), paranormal investigations (
Blair Witch), and catastrophic events over short periods of time (
Cloverfield) are the big ones. The stories are limited because the films dont work unless youre able to explain why someone would be filming the situation. And after a while, it seems like weve seen all of these stories before. The scares themselves might not be identical, but the overall beats and movements of the films are pretty familiar. Its difficult to develop a large, intricate plot or introduce an ensemble of characters within the confines of found-footage. Nobodys making a found footage
Godfather anytime soon. Theres simply too much to do while still making sure the first person camera work makes sense. Of all the problems on this list, this one is perhaps the most fixable. It just takes some creative writing and directing to get around it.
Chronicle is a good example of how a found footage film can be stretched to occasionally epic proportions. It doesnt always work well, but the blueprint is there. Itll just take some guts and brains for someone to make it happen.