My Project To Finally Meet The Blair Witch - Into The Woods Memories & Thoughts 25 Years Later

0:02 welcome everyone Adam the woo here as

0:02 the recording of this Sunday May May

0:05 19th getting a little nervous as I'm

0:07 walking in the woods Sunday May 19th

0:09 2024 I am wearing an appropriate

0:13 shirt because today is unofficially my

0:17 Blair Witch day now a few months ago I

0:22 was going through the woods here on my

0:24 bicycle and someone had put the little

0:26 stick figure from the film they had

0:28 recreated it and they had put it over

0:31 here amongst the trees I'm going to see

0:34 if it's still here and if it is I'll do

0:35 my intro there probably isn't but if it

0:38 is that would be really really really

0:41 creepy also going to Spooky Empire today

0:45 went yesterday this is the last official

0:47 weekend of it taking place at the Windam

0:50 Orlando resort the current hotel that it

0:53 has been at off and on for the past 20

0:56 years so this is the last official day I

0:57 did a whole video on it yesterday but

0:59 today's going to be all about the The

1:00 Blair Witch going to meet the cast see a

1:03 panel and have a witchy day join

1:07 me shall you all right I'm not seeing it

1:11 it was just a random occurrence that I

1:13 was riding my bike through here and saw

1:15 it's been a few months ago I thought how

1:18 unusual it was and it got me thinking

1:21 about the film again now I have a close

1:23 tie in a special place my in my heart

1:25 for the movie cuz I remember when it

1:26 came out and I relatively more or less

1:29 bought into the hype like everyone else

1:31 did know a lot of people born after the

1:34 fact or maybe were too young to really

1:37 understand what was going on with that

1:38 and you watch it now probably doesn't

1:40 hold up because it doesn't really fit

1:42 into the

1:43 equation of when it you know came out in

1:46 1999 it was like one of those weird

1:48 times where if it would have come out a

1:50 year before or a year after it probably

1:53 would not have worked because the

1:54 internet was new so it was going viral

1:57 but yet you really couldn't fact check

1:59 stuff because the internet wasn't really

2:00 known enough to do proper research hey

2:04 I'm not really seeing the stick thing

2:05 out here anymore but there is something

2:07 really creepy about walking through the

2:10 woods there's also an another

2:12 interesting tie in I'm not going to try

2:14 to persuade anyone that is not into the

2:17 movie it's kind of a it's either a hard

2:19 no if you enjoy it or a hard yes if you

2:21 enjoy The Blair Witch

2:24 Project and there's nothing I can say or

2:26 do to convince anyone that it's a great

2:28 movie

2:30 or that it's a bad movie I really enjoy

2:33 it it was one of those products of the

2:36 time it came out at the right time and

2:40 everyone bought into it including

2:42 myself and many

2:44 others and then years later it was the

2:48 well one of not the first but one of the

2:51 first big filming locations I ever did I

2:53 went to

2:55 Maryland and did the

2:58 locations sorry starting to rain I'm

3:01 going to get to my car and head to

3:03 Spooky Empire clear wit day the woods I

3:06 was in it's right here it's a

3:09 civilization in Celebration

3:11 Florida I've also paid for a group photo

3:14 with the three cast three cast members

3:17 were in the

3:19 film and the success of the film in my

3:22 opinion and probably others is

3:25 based on those three actors who went by

3:28 their real names in the movie movie

3:30 their real names or their character

3:31 names in the

3:33 film cuz it's basically just them

3:35 filming the whole thing and they didn't

3:37 get paid hardly anything from the rumor

3:39 is they only got paid like a couple

3:40 thousand doll total for filming that and

3:42 the movie made hundreds of

3:46 millions that kind of stinks and with

3:49 what is par for the course L lately on

3:51 I4 even at a Sunday at 10:15 a.m.

3:56 eastbound looking like this at least

3:59 through the 5 35 I4 Corridor also ended

4:01 up bringing my 11 by 17 I think it's 11

4:04 x 17 it's not a full siize one sheet

4:07 from the movie but movie poster that I'm

4:09 going to get Josh Mike and Heather to

4:13 sign even though Heather Donahue changed

4:16 her name not to be affiliated with the

4:19 film she is here under her original name

4:23 Heather

4:25 Donahue so I'm sure she'll probably sign

4:27 it with the with her real name for theie

4:29 movie take a look over way over there

4:31 there's an inflatable

4:33 devil also the panel for the Blair Witch

4:36 is going to be taking place at 1: p.m.

4:38 except my photo op is slated for about

4:41 15 minutes prior to that beginning I was

4:43 going to line up early for it but I

4:44 guess I can't line up for it cuz I

4:45 getting the photo up also should be

4:47 noted that this is the 25th anniversary

4:49 of the film came out in '99 found

4:52 footage from

4:54 94 25 years ago things were a lot

4:57 different 25 years ago they are now you

5:01 know social media and the interwebs and

5:03 searching

5:04 things again I think if you were old

5:08 enough to see it at that time completely

5:10 blew your mind if you watched it now a

5:12 newer generation watching it now

5:14 probably be

5:15 like and I do get that but kind of had

5:18 to be there if you know you know but I

5:20 love it always have and over the years

5:22 have kind of gone down quite a deep

5:24 rabbit hole with how it all kind of

5:26 happened and honestly the folklore and

5:28 or back story is more fascinating now

5:32 than the film itself at this point kind

5:34 of how it all kind of happened and just

5:37 you know with with them the movie is

5:38 going to be I believe blumhouse is going

5:40 to be remaking the movie and again the

5:43 three original people who were in the

5:44 woods filming all of that did not really

5:47 get their just payout so really is a a

5:50 fascinating fascinating subject got 20

5:52 oz coffee from Wan next door piping hot

5:54 caffeinated beverage I'm going to sip

5:57 out of this cup yeah this will probably

6:00 be my last time on property here before

6:01 all this is gone the rumor is being

6:03 bulldozed I know it's closing but I'm

6:05 also hearing now that they're tearing it

6:09 down the wind it's last harra can you

6:12 just do me can you just do me a favor

6:14 and throw that down and see if one of us

6:15 slips on it Michael will you slip on it

6:18 yeah slippery it is

6:21 slippery very slippery oh it is very SL

6:24 holy cow the myths are true the Legends

6:27 are real all right that is actually

6:29 really it is true yeah it's true watch

6:32 out for D we got to warn all these

6:33 people coming over here we're just going

6:35 to turn Mario C out here we should

6:38 probably pick that up all right before

6:39 heading over to the autograph room also

6:41 Frankie Frankie's looking at me ended up

6:43 purchasing this for $25 this place

6:45 called uh ter Vision has a lot of

6:49 cassette soundtracks I looked at this

6:50 yesterday did not realize well the mic

6:53 is here with me also he noticed that

6:55 they had this

6:57 soundtrack so I ended up getting this is

7:00 filmed in St Cloud Florida and of course

7:02 I'm a St Cloud Florida guy back right

7:04 there behind my wristband I have the STC

7:07 tattoo little St cly kind of hard to see

7:09 with the wristband on but yeah got a

7:12 little I don't even have a record player

7:13 but I do have a few records which is

7:14 kind of interesting because I did meet

7:16 Herer Gordon Lewis back in 2008 here and

7:19 some The Godfather aore the director of

7:22 2000 Maniacs in fact they say the Texas

7:24 Chainsaw Massacre Toby Hooper was

7:27 inspired by Herer Gordon Lewis and that

7:29 was one of the reasons Texas Chainsaw

7:30 happen so it's kind of a legendary film

7:33 and kind of all circles back around here

7:35 the last time here the first time I Came

7:37 To Spooky I met Herer Gordon in '08 and

7:39 the last time I ended up buying Herer

7:41 Gordon soundtrack here for 2000 all

7:43 right I got the three of them signed on

7:46 here Heather was very very

7:50 sweet oh

7:52 my Michael was really nice I asked he

7:55 said what do you want me to put on here

7:56 I go the skipper line is my favorite so

7:59 they put the skipper line on there Josh

8:01 was awesome aome stay out of the woods

8:04 they customized it to Adam to Adam and

8:08 it's the skipper you illiterate TV

8:11 people yeah they were all they were all

8:13 really nice told them I was really

8:14 looking forward to the panel mic ended

8:17 up snapping some photos from me on my

8:18 phone not only am I doing the full photo

8:22 full cast photo I have figured I'd pay a

8:25 little bit extra for the the Selfies

8:27 also because this is kind of a once in

8:28 a-lifetime opportunity really to meet to

8:30 meet the

8:32 cast so I did and I told him the least I

8:34 could do to help support with the the

8:36 money issues that they're having I also

8:38 asked Josh if he want to talk about it

8:41 on camera cuz they did kind of all three

8:44 of them posted a little bit on social

8:45 media about the money issues and he said

8:47 I absolutely don't want to talk about it

8:48 on camera he goes

8:51 soon they will be uh they will be

8:53 talking about it a little bit so

8:58 anyway that was cool right very cool

9:01 dude yeah yeah M's the I got to show the

9:03 photos Micah took I'm going to have a

9:06 lot of photos from Blair Witch cuz I'm

9:07 doing the pro the Pro Photo too that's

9:09 right all right I figured since I'm

9:11 having a Blair Witch day I'd go over

9:13 here to the 13x studios and get a Blair

9:16 Witch mask from Rick who has gifted me

9:21 this who's gifted it I was going to I

9:23 was going to buy this and you're like be

9:25 some money it's going on the Knicks

9:27 today what's going on with the knck nck

9:30 play 330 game s now you know when this

9:34 video I'm getting chills telling you

9:35 this I mean the nck fans were in a cult

9:38 okay so it is what it is you know when

9:40 this video is uploaded Tom cuz I filmed

9:42 during the day edit at night tomorrow

9:44 the video is uploaded you'll know the

9:45 outcome oh so yeah the comment section

9:49 let's tune it back to Blair Witch let's

9:51 go to the you like The Blair Witch

9:53 Project I think it's one of those movies

9:55 you kind of had to be there like you

9:57 can't like people that haven't seen it

9:59 yet sure I don't know if they if they

10:00 watched it I don't know if they'd like

10:01 it it was kind of a right place at the

10:05 right time movie you know I actually

10:07 back in the day I did a uh a film

10:10 festival in Orlando 200 whatever was

10:13 when Blair Witch came out and the guys

10:14 were there the two directors that were

10:15 from Orlando so I actually got to meet

10:17 them this is way back day so always been

10:20 a big fan um days of the Dead they were

10:22 at uh a show there and she's super she's

10:25 super nice I just met her love Blair

10:27 Witch nice thanks for this

10:29 yeah check out 13x Studios go Nick oh

10:34 man check this out the guy with the

10:36 basket case cosplay is going up to the

10:38 actor from basket G oh yeah I forgot to

10:42 show these so here's my photo they call

10:44 it a selfie but basically you got to

10:46 have somebody take the photo so Michel

10:48 took the photo of me there's

10:51 Josh there's me getting my poster signed

10:53 by

10:56 Mike photo with Mike according to the

10:58 stick figure there in the the front

11:01 there's Heather off in the distance and

11:03 then there's Heather right there so

11:05 freaking cool I'm also going to do the

11:07 pro photo of the group photo of all of

11:09 them but yeah pretty awesome all right

11:11 my allotted time has arrived to meet the

11:15 cast in all three of them so there it is

11:19 I ended up getting the ticket and then

11:20 they went in and it's kind of

11:22 interesting they did they doing the

11:23 photo right before the panel so I'm

11:25 hoping I can get a good seat so now I'm

11:27 going to run over and get the panel

11:28 spooky Empire

11:31 2024 meet and three cast from Blair

11:34 Witch and going to go hopefully hear

11:37 some F I know a lot about the movie i'

11:39 kind of seen a lot of the behind the

11:41 scenes and stuff and read a lot of stuff

11:42 on it but maybe I'll see something and

11:44 hear something in the the panel that I

11:46 didn't know before so I'm going to head

11:47 over there now all right heading over to

11:49 the panel now over to the panel room all

11:52 right into the panel now

12:05 I got the front row the front row

12:05 Kevin no I think you're the scariest

12:07 thing

12:09 prep are you just going to breathe heavy

12:12 the whole time I always breathe

12:14 heavy always breae in

12:17 heavy I'm not going to wear this during

12:19 the the C is going to look at you

12:21 immediately if I just stand up

12:22 immediately like there you

12:24 go you're not aan

12:36 my name is Alia Figaroa and the reason

12:36 why I am the lucky one chosen to

12:38 moderate this panel today is because I

12:40 am the proud Film Festival director for

12:43 Spooky Empire horror film festival

12:44 hosted by andw film The Blair project is

12:48 is truly one of those films in cinema

12:50 history that that change the way the

12:53 audiences viewed film that change the

12:54 way that independent filmmakers made

12:57 films and and I was I was in high school

13:00 when I saw the Blair Witch Project in

13:02 theaters for the first time and I

13:03 remember exactly where I was who I was

13:06 with when I was watching The Blair Witch

13:08 Project it's kind of like my parents

13:10 generation when they come they're like I

13:11 remember exactly where I was when I saw

13:13 Jaws in the theater when I saw Star Wars

13:15 in the theater when I saw the Exorcist

13:17 in the theater The Blair Witch Project

13:19 is my is my version of that I remember

13:21 where I was when I saw the Blair Witch

13:23 Project and I'm so stoked to to ask

13:26 these artists the questions that I've

13:27 been wanting to ask for over 20 years

13:30 groundbreaking filmmaker Eduardo Sanchez

13:32 let's give him a round of

13:39 applause Heather donu Joshua Leonard and

13:39 Michael C Williams please come on

13:56 fall

13:56 oh this IM was oh standing in the corner

14:01 thank you guys okay that was a pretty

14:03 that was a pretty good welcome but this

14:05 is we are in Orlando Florida filmmaker

14:08 from UCF and and I want to give him some

14:12 Oldtown love welcome the cast as the

14:15 Director of the Blair wi

14:24 project okay I pretended I would look in

14:24 the mirror and be up close like with the

14:26 mirror and I would be reenacting the the

14:29 scene that is referenced so many times

14:31 but like and I would try to get snot

14:33 coming out of my not do that um so no

14:37 you guys are the coolest like truly it's

14:39 it's um you people that go into

14:43 storytelling whether you're an actor a

14:45 filmmaker a costume designer a makeup

14:47 artist whatever it's people like you

14:49 you've done it you showed us you can do

14:51 it and it inspires us and motivates us

14:53 so so thank you and we were talking

14:56 about what made us scared as a kid as

14:58 kids and we kind of honed in on this

15:00 show called in search of with uh L Neo

15:03 was a narrator that show creeped the

15:05 crap out of us when we were kids so we

15:07 went and rented it and watched the show

15:10 and we loved it and again even as adults

15:12 or you know semi adults in film school

15:14 we were uh uh we we we loved it it was

15:17 creepy and and so we were like if I

15:19 wonder if you could do that you know

15:20 fake Bic could do a fake documentary so

15:23 the whole idea was um you know a fake

15:25 documentary we wrote a script with

15:26 basically no dialogue and we never

15:29 showed it to them uh you know we wanted

15:31 them to be kind of you know try to

15:33 experience what the character are

15:34 experiencing you know as much as

15:36 possible so um and they you know we knew

15:39 we were going to improvise the whole

15:40 thing and they improvised it and they

15:42 gave us so much material uh and first of

15:44 all thank you for all being here on a

15:46 Sunday I'm sort of Blown Away by how

15:47 many of you are here so thank

15:55 you um no that that's why we you know we

15:55 were like trying cuz the film was the

15:59 shoe was 24 hours a day like they were

16:00 in the woods and we were trying to get a

16:02 little bit of sleep and trying to get

16:04 there early and give them directing

16:05 notes and get the directing notes ready

16:07 and get the location ready and hang the

16:09 stick men and people were working on the

16:11 house trying to get the Graffiti Off the

16:13 house and just all these different

16:15 things just setting up the these

16:16 scenarios for them and we would watch

16:19 the the you know the raw footage as much

16:21 as we could maybe a couple hours a day

16:23 at the most cuz there was just a lot to

16:25 do and we caught the the moment with

16:28 with uh the map kicking and also just

16:31 that kind of violent you know scene

16:34 afterwards and um you know we were just

16:37 like holy [\h__\h] like cuz that was

16:39 something that we had never you know

16:41 scripted and we and this is the kind of

16:43 thing like what Joshua was saying is

16:44 that you uh Blair Witch taught me that

16:46 like the best kind Sometimes the best

16:48 thing you can do as a director is just

16:50 to back away and let you know the people

16:52 that you hire to do the job how many

16:54 hours of footage did you have we had

16:56 like 22 hours of footage to sit through

16:58 okay so after 22 hours of footage and

17:01 you're you're you're windling that down

17:03 uh when was that moment in the editing

17:05 room that you knew you had something

17:07 special because it's kind of an

17:08 experiment up until that point I mean

17:11 you know you you know you've you know

17:14 we've all had failures before Blair

17:16 Witch and after Blair Witch you know we

17:18 know what it's like to like put your

17:19 hopes into something and be completely

17:22 crushed as a filmmaker um and you learn

17:25 from that so you know we knew we had

17:27 something cool but we would never we

17:29 were never like oh my God we have the

17:30 best movie in the world like we were

17:32 always like you know hesitant to kind of

17:34 put any kind of uh importance to what

17:37 we're doing I we just we were just going

17:39 along you know the the the the path and

17:42 the first kind of testing point was

17:44 going to be Sundance if we got into

17:46 Sundance then other things would happen

17:48 where uh Heather's um I think you're

17:50 mending Mike's pants like this it's just

17:53 like this such a tender like you know

17:56 like this moment of like and you know I

17:58 don't think you you don't even see Mike

18:00 Mike's just talking and she's doing this

18:02 with the flashlight and um her friend is

18:05 gone this is right before they hear him

18:07 you know yelling from the wood in the

18:08 woods it's just like for us it was just

18:10 like these these actors brought this

18:13 thing to life in a way that we never

18:15 thought um was possible but I just like

18:19 to find kind communities and I will say

18:21 the horror folks are some of the kindest

18:24 in a community so you guys I mean that's

18:26 to me that's what it's about so being

18:28 kind

18:32 I always travel with balloons in my

18:32 backpack and I always make

18:40 friends that's good advice travel the

18:40 you had

18:41 that was it done deliberately to keep

18:45 the cast Under Wraps because I know when

18:47 I saw the movie people were like they're

18:49 dead they're dead but we didn't hear

18:51 much about the cast until after the

18:55 movie had

18:57 momentum so I didn't know whether that

18:59 was done deliberately part of the

19:02 marketing of the fil because all we had

19:04 was Al back then Google

19:07 anything it was really the

19:10 Distributors uh that came up with that

19:14 for my understanding the Distributors

19:16 were like hey you guys just hide hide in

19:18 the shadows so that we can do what we

19:21 need to do to make this film successful

19:23 you know again like there's a lot of

19:25 things about the way the movie was a lot

19:27 of things about the movie that we would

19:29 have done differently but um and I don't

19:31 you know I guess that did work but it

19:33 was just not un it was unfair to them to

19:35 like kind of you know pretend that they

19:37 were dead that was just not must fun for

19:40 you guys for many many many years and I

19:42 don't think it's still true but we had

19:44 to sort of defend that we were acting in

19:46 this film people really thought that it

19:48 was more like they just threw us out

19:50 there and tortured us and they we didn't

19:51 know what we were getting into and

19:53 especially for the first number of years

19:55 certainly the entire First Press push

19:58 was about the marketing of the film and

20:01 whether it was real or not so it was

20:03 like it was tough for at least for me

20:06 after that to be like sitting in casting

20:08 offices and even casting directors are

20:10 like you're like a reality TV star

20:12 you're not actually an actor I'm like no

20:13 I actually studied theater and did

20:15 improv of every scene and so that's one

20:18 of those things that was heartbreaking

20:19 at the time we we dressed a guy in like

20:22 um this white outfit like like white

20:25 panty hose and socks and he was and uh

20:30 it was cold that night he fell in the

20:31 river on the way there it was terrible

20:34 yeah he fell in the river I felt so bad

20:35 for him and he you know we didn't have

20:37 any money for him he was just like yeah

20:39 I'll do it so we had him work next to

20:42 kind of next to them like parallel to

20:44 them and we wanted like Heather's camera

20:46 to kind of go and get um and then that's

20:50 one of the only scenes we reshot a

20:51 couple of times so cuz what we wanted to

20:54 do is we wanted to when she when she was

20:56 like what the hell is that you know she

20:57 would turned the camera and for a few

20:59 frames we would get like this ghostly

21:02 the light you know bouncing off the guy

21:04 and this weird figure running next to

21:06 them you know just to creep people out

21:08 more like a mummy really yeah yeah more

21:11 like like a white mummy but we wanted to

21:12 be you know he's running so we wanted to

21:14 be more like a like a ghostly you know

21:16 weird is that a human is that a a human

21:18 figure it could be anything but but it

21:21 it never came out it was never exposed

21:24 properly if you want out stars in the

21:28 dire please see them in the celebrity

21:30 room they're here for you let's give him

21:32 a round of

21:37 applause if you want to see back in the

21:37 vendor room now doing another pass

21:39 through I ended up getting this strike

21:40 from Gremlins here this reaction figure

21:43 they got a little uh little strike I've

21:45 been on a Gremlins kick the last well I

21:47 mean I've always loved Gremlins but in

21:48 the last year I've really kind of gone

21:50 down a Gremlins Rabbit Hole so I guess

21:51 it's a reaction figure here had a couple

21:54 things here before calling it today all

21:57 he's bringing uh we got some treats

21:58 there some nice delicious

22:00 treats some

22:02 uh what do you have down here you got

22:04 some little

22:19 candies is that a is that a bucket of

22:19 spare parts for the two of

22:21 you a little tuneup all right gotcha

22:53 prettier that's pure energy

22:56 cosplay what kind of moner steals

22:59 another girl

23:01 shoes I know they're pretty good they're

23:03 pretty good oh goodness you've got

23:17 things come to the center right there

23:17 guys take your

23:19 pictures let everyone see your pretty

23:21 faces

23:40 ticker I'm going to move you just a

23:40 little bit take a step to your right yep

23:44 take step to your right take a step to

23:46 your right take a step to your right now

23:49 take a step up take a up take a step up

23:53 oh up there we go there you go there we

23:56 go woo wo

24:05 so this year there's animated eyes and

24:07 the cupcake blinks too shut

24:18 up I know yes I hope you start selling

24:18 these costumes soon because you're going

24:19 to have to need it to pay for all the

24:22 stuff that goes into these things that's

24:24 mystic cosplayer Chica and cupcake from

24:26 Five Nights at Freddy

24:31 all right we got you going right there

24:31 in the center to get your certificate

24:33 for the judge's

24:40 choice you can great at the grocery

24:40 store it's a great accessory not only is

24:43 this person the winner of the best and

24:45 show today but this person also won the

24:47 audience Choice from May give it up for

24:50 Mystic cosplay at

24:59 Chica and we notice all all seam lines

24:59 on here are put there intentionally did

25:02 there's so much patterning just to get

25:04 this shape it's it's not easy to make

25:07 that shape any kind of ball shape takes

25:10 a special skill to get that just right

25:12 to get that basketball as opposed to an

25:15 egg so it takes a lot of skill there and

25:17 there's servos if you see the eyes are

25:20 blinking and moving it's just amazing

25:23 the proportions are just 18 18 I want to

25:27 know where are you going from

25:35 here there's a belt there's the

25:35 prize all right so it's going to get to

25:37 the point where you guys are just going

25:38 to become judges I'm just saying I mean

25:40 every time it's a winner one more round

25:42 of applause Mystic

25:59 cosplay all right we are going to get

25:59 all the winners and the judges on stage

26:01 for photos all of you folks you know

26:03 we've got a spooky coming up in August

26:04 in South Carolina we have spooky

26:07 happening in October over at the uh

26:10 Hyatt Regency but I want everybody to

26:12 stand up spooky here at the wind I want

26:15 everyone to face our photographers right

26:16 here hands up we're just going to do a

26:18 big

26:19 goodbye one two three

26:23 goodbye all right that's going to do it

26:25 for today from Spooky Empire the of an

26:28 era went yesterday thought I'd come back

26:31 today do strictly Blair Witch which I

26:34 did got the shirt appropriate shirt got

26:37 the photo with the cast right there met

26:42 all three of the the actors from the

26:45 film classic

26:47 1999 found footage

26:56 movie thanks for watching see you in the

26:56 next video the Vlog should probably worn

26:58 this more during the panel but yeah do

27:10 that thanks for watching the

27:10 Vlog is over

My Project To Finally Meet The Blair Witch - Into The Woods Memories & Thoughts 25 Years Later

Transcript