I'm sure most people remember the 90's and the fad concerning UFO's and alien abductions.
But let me take you back to a time before the 90's. Specifically, 1989.
Future director, Dean Alito, was approaching his 25th birthday. And he was anxious because he wanted to be a director but had not directed his first movie yet. Since the "greats" like Speilberg, Wells, and Scorsese had already started their careers by this point, he figured he better get a move on.
So what he did was wrote a script the consisted of story beats. He then hired some actors dirt cheap and used his video camera to film the story. The story he chose was based on alien abduction stories he had heard. Believe it or not, his little film was slightly ahead of its time. He had filmed a missing footage video. Beating the Blair Witch Project by a good seven years. He was able to find Direct-to-Video distribution but the distributor burned to the ground before they could release it. But a few had made it out to some mom and pop stores.
Five years later, Mr. Alito started getting phone calls from Unsolved Mysteries, Hard Copy and the short lived extra terrestrial show Encounters. Apparently, some copies of his video made their way into the hands of UFO researchers without the opening or closing credits. It made such a splash that it brought down the house at the 1993 International UFO Congress Convention. And those television shows were presenting reports like the one below:
I saw this report back in the mid 90's and I always wanted to see what the hub bub was about. Now, with the magic of the internet. I present to you one of the first found footage films. As well as its remake in the late 90's. Please enjoy "The McPherson Tape" aka "UFO Abduction."
Author
The McPherson Tape (1989)