Anyone know the GPS location where. . .

[Guest Wesley Horton]

Just a question,

 

Does anyone know any of the coordinates where the cast from Blair Witch was generally mucking around? If I recall correctly, they were directed daily by GPS to a general location where they would find a script outline. (and this before SA was turned off)

 

I suppose that would actually make them true pioneer geocachers.

 

I understand the park where it was filmed was really pretty small and they actually had to constantly avoid dirt roads and playgrounds and such.

 

Regards,

Wesley Horton

[Guest makaio]

Don't know the exact location, other than it was supposedly in Burkittsville, MD (approx 8 miles NE of Harpers Ferry, WV), but found this website...

 

http://www.kaos2000.net/interviews/heatherdonohue99.html

 

with the following exerpt from an interview with one of the actors (Heather Donohue)...

 

Is it true that most of your acting was improvisational? Were you given a very vague script? Is it also true that you were sent bottles with notes on what to argue about the next day?

 

HD: It wasn't bottles. It was actually... You know when you drop off 35 millimeter still film in the plastic canisters? There were three of those in milk crates. We would find this milk crate through a global positioning system, sort of like they use in the Norstar car systems, the satellite navigation systems. The Haxan guys, who made them film, would program wait points in that little GPS unit. We would find these milk crates at those wait points and in those milk crates would be these three little cans, each with our names on it. We would open them up, read our notes, and try not to show them to each other. So, as the day progressed, we would improvise about the story structure that the Haxan guys had provided for us. From there we would come up with scenes. We could go beyond what they've given us. We could create scenes and basically take these characters to places didn't even think they would go. We would just go wherever we wanted. That was part of the appeal, was to me, initially, was that I saw an improvised feature. I mean, as an actor you just never get that kind of freedom.

 

So it seems they were geocaching before geocaching existed

 

I went to http://www.haxan.com to see if any contact email addresses to whom we might send a request for the coordinates used by the actors, but the site appears to simply be a placeholder.

 

[This message has been edited by makaio (edited 16 August 2001).]

[Guest makaio]

Don't know the exact location, other than it was supposedly in Burkittsville, MD (approx 8 miles NE of Harpers Ferry, WV), but found this website...

 

http://www.kaos2000.net/interviews/heatherdonohue99.html

 

with the following exerpt from an interview with one of the actors (Heather Donohue)...

 

Is it true that most of your acting was improvisational? Were you given a very vague script? Is it also true that you were sent bottles with notes on what to argue about the next day?

 

HD: It wasn't bottles. It was actually... You know when you drop off 35 millimeter still film in the plastic canisters? There were three of those in milk crates. We would find this milk crate through a global positioning system, sort of like they use in the Norstar car systems, the satellite navigation systems. The Haxan guys, who made them film, would program wait points in that little GPS unit. We would find these milk crates at those wait points and in those milk crates would be these three little cans, each with our names on it. We would open them up, read our notes, and try not to show them to each other. So, as the day progressed, we would improvise about the story structure that the Haxan guys had provided for us. From there we would come up with scenes. We could go beyond what they've given us. We could create scenes and basically take these characters to places didn't even think they would go. We would just go wherever we wanted. That was part of the appeal, was to me, initially, was that I saw an improvised feature. I mean, as an actor you just never get that kind of freedom.

 

So it seems they were geocaching before geocaching existed

 

I went to http://www.haxan.com to see if any contact email addresses to whom we might send a request for the coordinates used by the actors, but the site appears to simply be a placeholder.

 

[This message has been edited by makaio (edited 16 August 2001).]

[Guest jeremy]

Send email to webmaster@haxan.com - You might get lucky and they have all email forwarded somewhere.

 

J

[Guest makaio]

I tried one to postmaster (an acct that almost always exists) but it bounced. I'll try webmaster and see what happens.

 

[This message has been edited by makaio (edited 17 August 2001).]

[Guest Wesley Horton]

I know that the actual filming of the picture took place no where near "Burketsville" but actually occured in a park or refuge not far from Washington DC.

 

I suppose they should get the credit for being early, but I'd have to check the date to see if they actually preceeded (I think they did, as SA was still on.) the first recorded geocaching

Wesley Horton

[Guest RealDcoy]

off the bank. Keep hiking on the bank of the river, and you'll stumble upon the infamous "Coffin Rock." You can't miss it. It juts out over the creek about halfway across the water. Since the movie, the uprooted tree that graced the rock has been swept away by the creek.

 

If it's still early and you're up for more hiking, take a stroll through the lovely pine plantation ? thankfully no longer riddled with spooky stickmen. It's just off the road from Route 118 and Black Rock Road farther up the Greenway Trail.

 

Patapsco State Park

A Blair Witch fan?s visit to Maryland would not be complete without taking a look at the scary house featured at the end of the movie. The abandoned house has always been off-limits to the public and is slated for removal. It is on the edge of Baltimore County's Patapsco Valley State Park in the Woodstock area. Park officials are wary of visitors stomping around this crumbling structure for fear that someone might get hurt. The filmmakers had a permit to film in the house. The park is south and west of Baltimore with 14,000 acres of fishing, camping, canoeing and hiking, as well as horseback and mountain bike trails that run alongside the Patapsco River. There are campgrounds in the park alongside Rte. 40 in Ellicot City. They are open through October.

[Guest makaio]

The movie was released 7/30/1999, a full 9 months before the demise of SA and the birth of geocaching. They were likely filming (and GPS huntng) at least a few months to a year prior to the release date.