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Film: The Blair Witch Project
Album: Liverpool Sound Collage
Format: NTSC
Discovered By: Andrew C. Wendland
Set Up: Start the album when the Artisan Entertainment logo appears, and repeat the CD until the film ends. If you have a more recent copy with the Lionsgate logo, start the album just a little bit after the gates open, so that the ambient noise at the beginning of track 1 starts exactly as the letters that form “Lionsgate” begin to become visible.
Length of Sync: 81 Minutes
Notes: A lot of home media versions of the film have a runtime that is listed as 87 minutes. The film actually is only 81 minutes from beginning to end, so if your tape or DVD says 87 minutes it should still work just fine.

Connections

  • Both titles more-or-less follow the same pattern: (City Name) (Noun) (Medium).
     
  • Paul interviews local residents and passersby on the album, similar to the way the protagonists of the film do the same.

Lyrical/musical connections

Plastic Beetle

  • “...must be alright” - as the camera begins to focus.
     

  • Creepy slowed-down organ sample from “Your Mother Should Know” starts to loop during the black-and-white Burkittsville cemetery scene. The organ sample sounds rather ominous and funeral-y over the shots of the tombstones.
     

  • Music switches from the drum-and-sample-based loop to an excerpt from a recording session of “Sgt. Pepper’s… (Reprise)” with backwards piano from “All You Need Is Love” right as the camera cuts to another local being interviewed.
     

  • “...Okay, we know!” - as a woman being interviewed by the filmmakers nods to the camera.
     

  • “We’ve had a lovely time” - this sample of Ringo occurs on beat with yet another camera cut.
     

  • ​Outside ambient noise and wind matches the on-screen action. This sample in particular tends to do that a lot over the course of the sync, as it just sounds like the typical noises you might hear if you went outside and pointed your camcorder around.

Peter Blake 2000

  • “The gentlemen saw fit to either set themselves on fire, or attach lumps of concrete to themselves and chain themselves up” - As Mary, the rather creepy old woman being interviewed makes gestures with her arms which could indicate the actions being spoken in this dialogue clip as it plays.
     

  • As the word “rapidly” loops, ambient sounds in the background seemingly sync up with the camera briefly de-focusing.
     

  • Drumbeat enters on time with scene change.
     

  • Backwards drumbeat syncs with camera movement, as it pans upward slightly.
     

  • “Bit of a sound collage” loops as Mike is seen wearing a pair of headphones.

Real Gone Dub Made in Manifest in the Vortex of the Eternal Now

  • “Oh, well I can get back a bit…” is said as Mike steps a bit back from the camera lens.
     

  • “We’re now gonna walk in one long straight line” - This is a particularly fitting line, and it loops a bit throughout the course of the collage. The group are lost in the woods and plan to head south until they’re clear of the woods (in one long straight line). Of course, this is easier said than done, and they quickly find themselves going in circles.
     

  • Rapidly sweeping sine wave sounds sync up with the disorienting camera movement well throughout the track.
     

  • “Oh, well I can get back a bit…” as the camera zooms out, focusing on one of the small cairn formations the trio have found in the woods.

Made Up

  • “Who are you looking at?!” - as the group finds the first of the stick figures hanging in the trees. It’s pretty funny in context, as it appears as if the stick figure itself speaks the line.
     

  • Audible click/pop in the track exactly as the screen flashes white (watch for a few seconds after Paul asks, “What do you think of The Beatles?”, and the lady being interviewed replies that they are her “favorite band”)
     

  • The sound of a car door opening can be heard as Josh opens the flap to the tent.
     

  • Ambient noise matches with on-screen action and camera movement again (several times, actually, most often towards the end of the track).
     

  • “...you keep coming back all the time” - the trip find themselves at the same log and river they crossed earlier on, indicating that they’ve gone around in a circle.

Free Now
Second Play-through
Plastic Beetle

  • “It’s that ambient wind noise, again… and it still fits pretty well over the on-screen movement. It just really captures that “waving around a camcorder” feel.
     

  • Backwards “All You Need Is Love” piano loops are introduced on cue with a scene change.
     

  • “Hang on, John’s just broken a string” - Heather finds a bundle of sticks outside the tent, wrapped up in string.

Peter Blake 2000

  • “Complement cascade is activated and it’s this series of proteins that destroy the organ rapidly” is spoken when we see the contents of the bundle of sticks: Josh’s blood-soaked shirt containing bloody teeth, hair, and maybe even a tongue as well (though it’s too hard to make out).
     

  • “Rapidly” is repeated as Heather washes her hands off in the river. The word “rapid” has two meanings, one meaning “very fast”, and the other being the fast-moving current of a river.
     

  • We’re not sure why, but the weird “bit of a… sound collage…” vocal loops over the iconic scene towards the end of the film with Heather super-close to the camera hysterically sobbing and apologizing, just make that scene so much more unsettling. (Y’know, that scene from the trailer!).
     

  • The track builds in intensity, and vocal sample from George Harrison: “do what you wanna do” becomes more distorted as Heather and Mike approach and enter the abandoned house.
     

  • “An abrupt halt” is spoken over the credits, which is fitting, because that’s how the film ends.
     

  • The film’s credits finish as the section of the track based around Paul singing over the guitar riff to “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” ends.

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