← HomeFound Footage HistoryFound Footage Firsts
15 camera formats, 1961-2018
Found footage started with fake documentaries and home movies, moved to camcorders and security cameras, and later to webcams, computer screens, phones, dashcams and livestreams. For every camera format on the site, here is the earliest film in our database that uses it, from the oldest format to the newest.
These are the earliest films we have, not necessarily the first ever made. Know an earlier one? Use "Suggest a Film" on any film page.
- 1961
Earliest Documentary film on the site
Shirley Clarke's film about addicts waiting for a fix in a New York loft, presented as footage shot by a documentary crew they let in.
Then: Culloden (1964), The War Game (1966)
659 films · Busiest decade: 2010sAll Documentary Films →
- 1964
Earliest News Camera film on the site
Peter Watkins restages the 1746 Battle of Culloden as if a modern TV news crew were on the field, interviewing soldiers as it happens.
Then: The War Game (1966), Punishment Park (1971)
42 films · Busiest decade: 2010sAll News Camera Films →
- 1967
Earliest Home Video film on the site
A young man in New York decides to film his everyday life as a diary, hoping the camera will help him understand it.
Then: The McPherson Tape (1989), America's Deadliest Home Video (1993)
74 films · Busiest decade: 2010sAll Home Video Films →
- 1967
Earliest Film Camera film on the site
David shoots his diary on a 16mm Éclair camera with a separate microphone - the film camera is almost a character of its own.
Then: Manson Family Movies (1984), Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video 5 (2000)
14 films · Busiest decade: 2010sAll Film Camera Films →
- 1969
Earliest Security Camera film on the site
A psychiatrist hides a movie camera in a mirrored box in his apartment, and everything plays out in front of that one fixed lens. Rip Torn stars.
Then: Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video 4 (2000), Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video 5 (2000)
189 films · Busiest decade: 2010sAll Security Camera Films →
- 1977
Earliest TV Show Footage film on the site
A British TV hoax made as an episode of the science series Science Report, investigating why scientists are disappearing.
Then: Special Bulletin (1983), Psychic Vision: Jaganrei (1988)
83 films · Busiest decade: 2010sAll TV Show Footage Films →
- 1986
Earliest Camcorder film on the site
A low-budget American UFO film from director Donald G. Jackson.
Then: The McPherson Tape (1989), America's Deadliest Home Video (1993)
392 films · Busiest decade: 2010sAll Camcorder Films →
- 2002
Earliest Webcam film on the site
Five strangers spend six months in a remote house, watched day and night by webcams for an online reality show with a million-dollar prize.
Then: The Collingswood Story (2002), Tangled Web (2008)
100 films · Busiest decade: 2020sAll Webcam Films →
- 2002
Earliest Night Vision film on the site
Some of the hidden cameras in the reality-show house film in green-tinted night vision.
Then: [REC] (2007), Cloverfield (2008)
31 films · Busiest decade: 2010sAll Night Vision Films →
- 2002
Earliest Computer Screen film on the site
A long-distance couple keeps in touch through webcam video chats, and the whole film plays on their computer screens. Often called the first screenlife film.
Then: SkyDiver (2010), 0s & 1s (2011)
59 films · Busiest decade: 2020sAll Computer Screen Films →
- 2004
Earliest Phone Camera film on the site
This volume of the Japanese "real ghost video" series includes clips that viewers recorded with the video function of their mobile phones.
Then: Lake Mungo (2008), Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video 44 (2011)
128 films · Busiest decade: 2020sAll Phone Camera Films →
- 2005
Earliest Dashcam film on the site
Albert Pyun's sci-fi horror film is told almost entirely through the dashboard camera of a police car.
Then: Unlisted Owner (2014), Cruiser (2016)
6 films · Busiest decade: 2010sAll Dashcam Films →
- 2009
Earliest Head Camera film on the site
A SWAT team enters the quarantined apartment building with video cameras mounted on their helmets.
Then: Last Ride (2011), 616: Paranormal Incident (2013)
44 films · Busiest decade: 2010sAll Head Camera Films →
- 2016
Earliest Livestream film on the site
Billed as the first found footage film shot live in real time on Facebook Live.
Then: Baby Nymph (2016), Hide-and-Never Seek (2016)
49 films · Busiest decade: 2020sAll Livestream Films →
- 2018
Earliest Bodycam film on the site
The crew of a horror web series broadcasts from an abandoned asylum, every member wearing a body-mounted camera.
Then: The Fear Footage (2018), Gags the Clown (2018)
14 films · Busiest decade: 2020sAll Bodycam Films →
How we pick them: the found footage film with the earliest year (then the earliest release date) among all films on the site tagged with that camera format. Hybrid films are not counted, and Handheld Camera is left out because nearly every found footage film is handheld.
