The Benjamin Witch Project

In "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", Walter Benjamin argues that some form of representation of reality is a quality which defines art. He compares the images which paintings and film produce to argue that they both offer distinct reproductions of reality, albeit filtered through different methods of production. For a painter, assembling an image based in reality requires breaking it down into compositional elements. A painter then reproduces what he sees or imagines, in some way. This interpretation of reality is what gives a painting its aura, Benjamin argues. This is because the painter's creation of the image is intrinsically tied to the artist's impression or aesthetic depiction of the subject. It is unique to the painting, making it the artist's personal interpretation. Therefore, the two cannot be separated. The aura is essentially produced through an artistic interpretation of how to represent reality on a canvas.

Conversely, if we are to apply that definition to film, by Benjamin's interpretation then film allegedly has no aura. If an actor's performance is captured on more than one camera, developed to more than one copy of film, and screened in more than one theater, then Benjamin argues that the aura is lost, because the performance is reproducible and interchangeable. But isn't the performance still the personal interpretation of the actor's? Benjamin argues that an actor's aura emanates from its indelible link to the actor's performance:

"The aura which, on the stage, emanates from Macbeth, cannot be separated for the spectators from that of the actor. However, the singularity of the shot in the studio is that the camera is substituted for the public. Consequently, the aura that envelops the actor vanishes, and with it the aura of the figure he portrays.”

Yet if the filmed reproduction of the actor's performance replicates it, is it not still linked to the actor? If we assume that substituting the audience of a theater for the camera in a studio is what breaks down the aura of a performance, then we assume that the only thing that produces the aura is the physical nature of an irreproducible work of art.

In addition to separating the work of a painter from filmmaker by arguing that the art of a filmmaker lacks the aura of a painting, Benjamin also separates the ways in which the two works represent reality. Whereas paintings are created at "a natural distance from reality", Benjamin argues that film reconstructs reality using its own aesthetic code: "[The work] of the cameraman consists of multiple fragments which are assembled under a new law." Through visual, aural, and sequential information, film reconstructs an interpretation of reality which "permeates" it. This is especially true in the case of documentary-style films such as The Blair Witch Project, which attempt to produce an interpretation of reality which is as convincing as possible. By reconstructing a fictional story with close attention to detail and depicting a completely diegetic world, the film cuts into reality by literally substituting the audience's reality for that of the characters. For the duration of the film, The Blair Witch Project aims to convincingly provide the audience with a representation of reality, and expects them to believe in it.

An odd contradiction in Benjamin's description of film's reproduction or impression of reality concerns his assertion that it is "an aspect of reality which is free of all equipment." Despite this, the production of The Blair Witch Project is decidedly not "free of all equipment". While traditional American filmmaking aesthetics usually dictate that filmmakers should hide their presence through transparent editing and cinematography conventions, so as to immerse the audience and heighten realism, Blair Witch attempts realism through an alternate set of conventions. The use of documentary-style conventions such as hand-held camera shots and addressing the camera heighten the realism in this case rather than diminishing it. This is because we are led to assume it that what we see a document rather a fictional narrative. The artifice of the camera in this case is used to the filmmakers' advantage. So despite the film blatantly revealing its source - the "mechanical equipment" as Benjamin refers to it - The Blair Witch Project still permeates reality. As it is arguably successful in its aim of convincing the audience, the world it creates is fully realized and thus a successful "permeation of reality." This is significant given that this is what Benjamin feels qualifies the work as art, thus while The Blair Witch Project presents itself as a document rather than art or entertainment, yet it clearly functions successfully as such.