Halloween Franchise Research

Friday the 13th is an American horror franchise that comprises twelve slasher films, a television show, novels, comic books, and tie‑in merchandise. The franchise mainly focuses on the fictional character Jason Voorhees, who drowned as a boy at Camp Crystal Lake due to the negligence of the camp staff. Decades later, the lake is rumored to be "cursed" and is the setting for a series of mass murders. Jason is featured in all of the films, as either the killer or the motivation for the killings. The original film was written by Victor Miller and was produced and directed by Sean S. Cunningham.The films have grossed over $465 million at the box-office worldwide.

The first film was created to cash in on the success of Halloween (1978) and its own success led Paramount Pictures to purchase the full licensing rights to Friday the 13th. Frank Mancuso, Jr., who produced the films, also developed the television show Friday the 13th, The Series after Paramount released Jason Lives. The television series was not connected to the franchise by any character or setting, but was created based on the idea of "bad luck and curses", which the film series symbolized.

Friday 13th - Film Poster

Looking At Last Year's Work

The first shot in the video was just a simple long shot of the house. The whole house can be seen in the picture and also some of the sky and I think this was done to show that it's a dark night and it's raining which is typical in horror films.

The second shot is medium angle and a medium close up of the desk as you can't see the whole of the desk but you can see what's on top of it which is all that is needed to be shown. This shot shows a computer, a book and some empty coke cans and I think this symbolizes a teenagers desk as the coke cans are just laid about and it's untidy. This gives us an early impression of who's going to be in the film.

Another shot I thought was of some significance was the close up of the keyboard when the character is wacking the keyboard rather than just pressing it. This shows some distress and that things aren't normal.

There is a low angle shot of the character's foot hitting the floor as he gets out of bed. It happens quickly so I think it shows that he's panicking when getting out of bed because something's not right.

The next shot I thought was good was a high angle of the stairs and the character walking down it because it was a long shot and all of the stairs can be seen and you can see the character walking all the way from the top to the bottom and he walks down very slowly which shows that he's scared and it builds tension. Also, I think the fact that the stairs are filmed from a high angle, it makes the person look smaller which probably relates to how he's feeling.

There is also a shot which show the character reaching the bottom of the top set of stairs and walking around the corner. The angle is a long shot as you can see his whole body. I think this was done to show how he's moving which is slowly and uncertain; he is always holding his hand in front of his face as if there's something wrong and this gives off the horror feel again.

I also thought that the high angle close up of the back of the character's head was good because it gave the feeling that he was being followed.

I like the low angle view from the bottom of the stairs which shows the character looking down. The fact he's looking down gives the viewer the impression that there is something below and obviously he's worried about it. I also think this view was used to show the expression of fear on the person's face.

There is also an angle of the character walking down the stairs and it's level with the character but he walks down the stairs and out of the shot. Its a medium close up and I think it was used to give the feeling that there is someone down stairs looking up and waiting for him.

The last shot of the character waking up shows his eyes open in a medium close up so that you can also see the bed to acknowledge where he is but then it goes into a further out view which shows his arms and the movement they do to suggest he doesn't know what's happened.

I chose this poster because the shot used says a lot about the film. The shot used is a long shot and I think this shot was used because you can see the expression which is fear on the woman's face and also the detail on her clothes as there is a lot of blood. The fear on the woman's face gives us clear clues as to what the film involves which is terror and possibly torture for the woman and also the blood on her shirt shows that she is being harmed and there is a lot of aggression involved.

I think that the shot used is quite clever as it shows the woman in detail but also shows  a lot of the background and that is in good detail too. I can see the sky, a long road, some grass and trees. It sounds nice enough but the road is empty which I think symbolizes the fact she's alone and cannot get help which relates to the caption at the top of the poster which says 'How can you be found when no one knows you're missing.'

The photo was taken from a low angle and I think this was done so that a lot of the sky can be seen and this is because the sky looks very grey and dismal and doesn't look very happy at all...if anything it's the opposite. I think that this is meant to relate to the fear of the woman as if the sky was sunny and pleasant it wouldn't work to the same effect as the dull grey sky does.

Exploring A Past Student's Blog.

I explored Ben Hudson's blog.

1) The first thing I noticed was that his coursework video was the at the top of the page and the first video I came across. As this is the most important post on his blog it is useful to have it at the top of the page so that it is easy to find.

Torment: Dreamscape Roughcut 2 from 
Benji Hudson on Vimeo.


I also noticed that the coursework video has a hyperlink linked to it so that I can open the video in a different tab. This is useful because it means I can watch the video in a different tab, keeping the orignal window open without having to go off the page to get it. Once I have seen the video I can just close the tab and continue on the first window that I opened the tab from.


2) Ben has changed the background for his blog. This makes it more interesting to look at.


3) Ben used audacity to edit the sound track


4) There is an image from the outside of the house used in the video even though you only see the house from the inside on the video.


5) Ben used Facebook to gain feedback and advice on his work.


6) When filming for their video, they used an artificial light because the camera they were using wasn't very good at capturing in the dark and the light made the room look slightly lightly with the light in the room still turned off for the dark effect.


7) There is an image of the 15 age rating which shows who their intended target audience is.


8) Ben shows an image of the inside of the house where they are filming and says why he thinks it's good.


9) Ben used planning stages and drew a cartoon to show them.


10) There are photos of the camera set up in the room which shows how they filmed it.

Inglorious Basterds

Inglorious Basterds Film Trailer from Peter Allyn on Vimeo.

This is A poster of scream.

Slasher trailer

Slasher from Carleton Ranney on Vimeo.

A small Texas town is rocked after the brutal murder of the all American high school cheerleader Veronica Velcher. Through a series of vignettes her fellow students react to the tragedy. As tension builds surrounding the murder, the characters respond with cynicism, grief, and improvised acts of violence.

Welcome to my blog

Welcome to my blog,

My Favourite Film

Inglorious Basterds - This is my favourite film because it's a combination of what I look for in a film. I like war films but this is a war film with a twist; it's funny and not supposed to be taken deadly serious. It was directed by Quentin Tarantino who is my favourite director and I like his other films such as Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction.