"Blair Witch": Filmed with a Wand or a Scalpel?

I have to say that, after looking at the two quotes from The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, that I believe that the quote regarding magician and surgeon versus painter and cameraman is a better one to apply to The Blair Witch Project. I say this because giving the actors the camera made it, in turn, much more a portrayal of their reality than a movie is when the camera is operated omnisciently. It showed everything that happened to the characters as well as everything that they saw. However, regarding the last part of the quote, The Blair Witch Project wouldn't be considered art because, while watching it, we are constantly reminded of the presence of the camera due it being shaken so frequently.

Now, regarding the first quote and why it is not as applicable to The Blair Witch Project as the second one, I feel that, since the actors are, for the most part, portraying themselves, the idea of aura does not enter into it. Any aura, however, that is created stems from the fact that the camera is not put between us and the actors but is used by the actors and is more a part of the actors than it is in the case of movies that are shot with the camera having an omniscient point of view.