A shot-on-video (SOV) film, also known as a shot-on-VHS film or a camcorder film, is a film shot using camcorders and consumer-grade equipment, as opposed to film stock or high-end digital movie cameras.
Shot-on-video films emerged in the wake of the release of Sony's professional-grade Betacam and consumer-grade Betamovie camcorders in 1983. Many shot-on-video films were low-budget and belong to the horror genre, including Boardinghouse (1982), Sledgehammer (1983), Video Violence (1987), 555, Woodchipper Massacre (both 1988), and The McPherson Tape (1989). Filmmaker siblings the Polonia brothers are known for their shot-on-video horror films, such as Splatter Farm (1987) and Feeders (1996).
The scenes in Bill Gunn's 1980 film Personal Problems were shot using a videocassette recorder which was a new technology at the time (as most previous films were shot using film stock).
The 1994 documentary film Hoop Dreams was one of the first shot-on-video documentaries to receive a wide theatrical release. The 1999 film The Blair Witch Project was shot on both 16 mm film and the consumer-grade Hi8 video format, which was transferred to film for its national theatrical release. An international example is Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier's minimalist film The Idiots (1998; aka Dogme #2).
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