Found Footage with Bite: Tribeca-Premiering ‘Man Finds Tape’
"There cannot be a point at which the audience says, why are they still filming?"
‘Man Finds Tape’
In this episode of the No Film School Podcast, filmmakers Peter Hall and Paul Gandersman join No Film School's GG Hawkins to discuss their chilling feature debut Man Finds Tape, premiering in the “Escape from Tribeca” section at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. The Texas-based writer-director duo explores their found-footage horror hybrid, rooted in documentary realism and intimate character drama. They dive deep into the film’s decade-long evolution, DIY production tactics, narrative experimentation, and the collaborative scrappiness that made their micro-budget creature feature resonate on a grand scale.
In this episode, we discuss:
- How a shelved podcast idea evolved into a Tribeca-premiering feature film
- Using documentary experience to inform a found-footage horror aesthetic
- Why keeping a tight creative circle allowed for fast, agile production decisions
- Shooting scenes with GoPros and iPhones for final edits—and why it works
- Casting actors willing to dive into a highly iterative, experimental process
- Crafting practical and VFX-driven creature moments that elevate low-budget horror
- Editing techniques that treat the narrative as a real documentary-in-progress
- How found footage can stay emotionally grounded and narratively justified
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This episode of The No Film School Podcast was produced by GG Hawkins.
