Sacred Heart University DigitalCommons@SHU Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications School of Communication, Media & the Arts 2004 The Political Economy of the Indie Blockbuster: Fandom, Intermediality, and The Blair Witch Project James Castonguay Sacred Heart University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/media_fac Part of the American Film Studies Commons, and the Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Castonguay, J. (2004). The political economy of the Indie blockbuster: Fandom, intermediality, and The Blair Witch project. In S. L. Higley & J. A. Weinstock (Eds.). Nothing that is: Millennial cinema and the Blair Witch controversies. Wayne State University Press. This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Communication, Media & the Arts at DigitalCommons@SHU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@SHU. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. CHAPTER 3 The Political Economy of the Indie Blockbuster Fandom, Intermediality, and The Blair Witch Project James Castonguay Within the context of the postmodern excesses of fin de siecle media culture, the 1999 film The Blair Witch Project stood out, due in large part to the sheer scale and intensity of its media pres ence. Indeed, the cultural production of what J. P. Telotte calls "The Blair Witch Project Project" [see his essay, reprinted in this volume) provides media scholars and cultural critics with a rich case study for addressing important theoretical issues within the field of film and media studies—for example, authorship, realism, intermediality,1 genre, art vs.