Timehost: Welcome to the TIME room!
Our guests have joined us and we're ready to begin! Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez are the directors of one of the greatest blockbuster hits in recent memory...The Blair Witch Project. But what's the secret behind their success?
Where did the story come from? Is there really a Blair Witch?
We'll touch on all these topics ...and more...tonight!
Let's start off with a hearty welcome to our two guests, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez.
Daniel Myrick: It's good to be here.
Eduardo Sanchez: Word up.
Timehost: Our first question deals with a question that's been on everybody's minds:
nevus66 asks: With everything going on with "The Blair Witch Project", I am more confused then ever!! Please give me a straight
answer. Is everything true? Is all the footage really shot by three kids that went missing? Why was there nothing in the news when it happened??
Daniel Myrick: The only thing that's true is that Burkettsville is a real place. Everything else was a figment of our imaginations.
luna_magik asks: Daniel and Eduardo, were you ever afraid that you would not get the results that you did by using such a realistic and
simple form of direction? Or were you always sure that your approach would work?
Eduardo Sanchez: The whole thing was an experiment. We thought it would, but were never sure. We got very lucky.
Daniel Myrick: Basically, we were clueless.
Eduardo Sanchez: Yes.
joyofcolaboy asks: How are you handling the success of The Blair Witch Project?
Eduardo Sanchez: Not well at all.
Daniel Myrick: You'll have to talk to my assistant.
In reality, it still hasn't sunk in yet.
Eduardo Sanchez: We are going nuts here.
Daniel Myrick:It's happened so fast that it's hard to process everything around us.
Eduardo Sanchez: The cover of TIME really freaked us out.
Timehost: For a good reason.
Shonuff_Shogun asks: Was your intention to make a "scary" movie or to make a movie which portrayed human terror as real as
possible?
Daniel Myrick: Yes, to all the above.
shara_954 asks: What did you do to the actors to make them seem so scared? Cause they looked way more scared than actors could act.
(Sorry this question make such little sense.)
Daniel Myrick: Well, it's a combination of their talent as actors and the
process of method filmmaking that we subjected them to.
Eduardo Sanchez: And the nightly beatings we would give them.
chickswantme1999 asks: How did you improvise on the screen where they heard the children? Did they know that that was coming or was
it a complete surprise to them?
Eduardo Sanchez: It was a surprise.
sir_jedi_anubis asks: What advice can you give other avant-garde directors in the making?
Eduardo Sanchez: Don't do it!
Daniel Myrick: Run away!
Eduardo Sanchez: It never works. Blair was a fluke!
Daniel Myrick: Don't take no for an answer.
Don't let anybody tell you you can't do anything.
vernfett asks: DId the actors know who was going to disappear first?
Daniel Myrick: They THOUGHT they knew. But they were wrong.
Eduardo Sanchez: DEAD wrong!!!!!
Daniel Myrick: Actually, they thought they were doing a beach movie.
We completely tricked them into it. They had no idea what was coming next.
Crystal_Ice2000 asks: How did Josh get out of the tent without them knowing???
Eduardo Sanchez: We gave him directions to wait for them to go to sleep, then leave the tent. We were very sneaky like that.
bewarika asks: Did the actors surprise you at all by adding any incidents or plot stuff of their own?
Daniel Myrick: Yes. The format of improvisation allowed them to create things on their own within the context of our story and characters,
so a lot of what you see in the film is of their own making,
and I think that's why it comes off as being so genuine.
semijewl asks: Where did you guys come up with the idea for this?
Daniel Myrick: In a drunken stupor at film school.
HM_Jinx asks: Was the final scene, which was horrifying by the way, choreographed or was it improvised like the rest of the film?
Eduardo Sanchez: It was scripted. We came up with it about two days before we shot it.
Timehost: What were other possible endings?
Eduardo Sanchez: We had an ending that involved a hot dog stand and a pony, but decided that it wasn't scary enough.
Daniel Myrick: I thought it was scary.
Eduardo Sanchez: Also, it gave too much away.
joyofcolaboy asks: How did you pick the town of Burkittsville for the spot to say this happened?
Daniel Myrick: They had no idea we were there -- that was a help.
It was just the perfect location. It had all the right cinematic elements.
It had mountains behind it and the perfect cemetery for Heather to do her opening for the documentary.
Eduardo Sanchez: It was beautiful and peaceful.
sir_jedi_anubis asks: Were the locals locals? Or were they actors? Or just local actors?
Daniel Myrick: We had locals. We had actors.
And we had local actors.
sir_jedi_anubis asks: Does the movie ever creep you guys out?
Eduardo Sanchez: The end creeps me out, especially with the new sound mix.
Daniel Myrick: The clown scene creeped me out the most.
Eduardo Sanchez: So much, that we had to cut it out.
buh_yeah1 asks: Why do you think the movie scared the audience?
Daniel Myrick: They're suckers!
Eduardo Sanchez: It's a horror film, that's why!
Daniel Myrick: The movie taps into most people's childhood fears
about being lost in the woods.
jedis420 asks: Could you explain the ending to me? I thought it was Mike in the corner, but I'm not sure.
Daniel Myrick: It was definitely Mike in the corner.
WHY he's standing in the corner. . .
Eduardo Sanchez: He's under some kind of influence, that's for sure.
Daniel Myrick: . . .that's up to you.
TBrettLMT asks: My name is Monica from Miami, Florida and I would like to let you know that I could not sleep after watching your
movie! It's pretty sad because I'm 30 years old!! I actually thought it was true!!
Drusilla_20 asks: This isn't a question, but a comment. You two are cinematic genuises, and I was more than impressed with "Blair
Witch." I'm not scared easily, and I could barely move after I saw that movie.
Eduardo Sanchez: We're sorry.
Daniel Myrick: Actually, filmmaking is a hobby of ours.
We really want to go onto the foosball championships.
yenza7 asks: What particular traits did you look for in the three actors you chose?
Daniel Myrick: The willingness to work cheaply and to be subjected to much abuse. But they also had to have really good improvisational skills
and be totally natural on camera.
Eduardo Sanchez: And they had to look like normal people, not movie stars. (aside to Daniel Myrick) What's up with the sideburns?
Daniel Myrick: It's a Haxan trademark.
Eduardo Sanchez: It's how we communicate with the mother ship.
Daniel Myrick: You should see our butt cheek tatoos!
manufc10 asks: Did you feel the actors had any animosity toward you guys once the shooting was done?
Eduardo Sanchez: Quite a bit.
Timehost: Give us details....!
Eduardo Sanchez: Actually, they really dug the experience.
Daniel Myrick: And they love us now.
Eduardo Sanchez: What other time in their careers are they going to get a chance to be in an improvisational feature film?
Timehost: What are they up to now, do you know?
Eduardo Sanchez: They are all doing well.
Timehost: I've heard something about Josh and Robert de Niro...true, false?
Eduardo Sanchez: True. Cuba Gooding, Jr. too.
Daniel Myrick: They're doing a lot of press right now.
We're hoping that they all become rich and famous.
mistyyg asks: What was wrapped up in the piece of Josh's shirt Heather found?
Eduardo Sanchez: Josh's teeth. And hair.
Daniel Myrick: That was Josh's teeth.
pychofreak23 asks: How much did it cost to make Blair Witch Project?
Eduardo Sanchez: $30,000 when we left the woods of MD, but a lot more once we got into Sundance.
lemmingoneeightytwo asks: Ed, did you see all the ridiculous prices the merchansises are going for on e-bay? I mean the same
merchandise you can buy from blairwitch direct?
Eduardo Sanchez: Yeah, people are nuts.
Daniel Myrick: It's great. Lots of things on e-bay are way over what the value is.
djrfive asks: I heard rumors that you guys released the movie on the Internet before it came to theatres to create hype. Was this part of
your plan, or a leaked Internet mishap?
Eduardo Sanchez: It was bootleg that someone put up on the Web. We had nothing to do with this.
Daniel Myrick: The Internet was early on our way of raising awareness about the film. It was an inexpensive way to promote the mythology and back story associated with the movie. And that, in turn, generated a loyal fan base,
which created a lot of buzz and word of mouth going into Sundance.
And that's where it all started. The Internet was integral to all that.
Eduardo Sanchez: And it's really responsible for the huge numbers we got in our first two weeks out.
Belrand1 asks: Have they estimated what the total take for the movie and merchandise will be?
Eduardo Sanchez: No.
Daniel Myrick: $4 billion.
Eduardo Sanchez: More than Star Wars.
reddeutsch asks: Are you planning on making more movies? If so, are they going to follow suit and be independent, or will you exploit
your newfound clout to make a big-budget movie?
Eduardo Sanchez: I'd like to send a shout out to all our Haxan list members!
The next film will be a bigger budget film, but nothing crazy.
Daniel Myrick: It will be nice to be able to pay the crew for a change.
Timehost: This question in from a guest: When will we see more secondary material? Sorry to our audience, we're having problems accessing questions right now...
Eduardo Sanchez: DVDs. We're releasing two DVDs with lots of cool stuff. Look for the first one around Halloween then the next one
around Christmas. We just recorded the commentary yesterday.
Look for some making of stuff on the Haxan site later this month:
www.haxan.com.
Timehost: OK, we're having some technical problems...
Eduardo Sanchez: This is an outrage.
One guest asked whether Mike decided to ditch the map in the river on his own or whether he was directed to do that....
this may be random, but it's one of those questions that keeps on irking you after you've seen the movie! So there's no time like the present to ask it.
Daniel Myrick: He ditched it on his own.
Eduardo Sanchez: That crazy guy.
Timehost: What psycho movies from the past influenced you guys, if any?
Do you consider yourselves a tad psycho?
Eduardo Sanchez: "Norma Rae."
Daniel Myrick: "Waterboy."
Eduardo Sanchez: "Thank God It's Friday."
Daniel Myrick: "Purple Rain."
Eduardo Sanchez: "Dolemite."
Daniel Myrick: And "Car Wash."
Yeah!!! "Dolemite."
Eduardo Sanchez: No. Don't ask us that.
Daniel Myrick: We're not psycho at all, what makes you say that?
Timehost: This question couldn't come through for some reason,
but we have several guests who'd like to know
about the possiblity of sequels. Any ideas?
Eduardo Sanchez: We're still talking to Artisan about that. But we are working on another Blair movie. I'm not saying sequel, though.
Timehost: Prequel, then?
Daniel Myrick: We're thinking about a musical.
Eduardo Sanchez: Every saga has a beginning...
weshargis asks: Great Premise. How did you two meet?
Eduardo Sanchez: In a dark bar in Portland.
Daniel Myrick: A steamy bath house.
We met in film school in 1990.
Timehost: Which film school?
Daniel Myrick: University of Central Florida, in Orlando.
jules556 asks: How long did it take to film the entire movie?
Eduardo Sanchez: About three years.
CenturyJames asks: I knew nothing going into the film and it scared the hell out of me. How important do you think it is that people
don't know any of the secrets of the film to truely enjoy it?
Daniel Myrick: I think it's the best way to see the movie.
But even people that know that it's fiction tell us that they just freaked out.
fluffythegod2000 asks: Who did the ambient music at the end during the credits? Is it available in a recorded format?
Eduardo Sanchez: Tony Cora did that music. It's available on Josh's "Blair Witch Mix." At all local CD stores.
Sydney_Jane asks: How old are you guys again? What are you going to do with all of the money made from this film?
Daniel Myrick: We're 12 and 17. Actually, we're 35 and 30.
And we're going to open up a Blair Witch theme park.
notorid asks: What exactly do those stick figures mean?
Daniel Myrick: Trouble. Nothing but trouble.
Actually, they mean the point of no return.
appelschlong asks: Do you think your movie has in any way negatively affected the camping industry?
Daniel Myrick: I have no idea. But KLA campgrounds probably aren't too happy with us.
Timehost: OK, unfortunately, we're running out of time, but
before we end, do you have any closing thoughts you'd like
to leave with us?
Daniel Myrick: I think we should respect our elders...and world peace.
Mainly we appreciate our fans and the support that we've gotten from everyone.
It means a lot to us, and it's been the motivation for us from the beginning to keep it going. We just want to say thanks.
Eduardo Sanchez: The cool thing about how big the film has gotten really has to do with people liking it and telling other people.
And that's really satisfying for us as filmmakers.
And please respect not only your elders and the town of Burkittsville.
Because we actually did not shoot the movie there. It was actually a soundstage. Prepare to be stupefied by our next movie "The Heart of Love"
Daniel Myrick: The most politically correct film imaginable.
Timehost: Thanks a lot, guys, for joining us here tonight! Good luck for the future!
TIME: Blair Witch Craft, (August 16, 1999)
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