Being Jason is a parody of the Friday the 13th movie franchise and breaks the codes and conventions of typical horror films in which violence is the main drive of the story because there is always a story behind each murder. This is something that teenagers and adults can watch and see the funny side of horror films other than the traditional horror film in which there is always a victim, a villain and a hero since this is just giving some insight into the life of the main character, Jason. The first shot is an over the shoulder shot showing a music video playing on the TV screen and a hooded figure standing close to the television wit h a plastic piano in his hands. It is until in the second shot that we see the mask which the hooded person is wearing which raises suspicion as to why this is so and what has the plastic piano got to do with everything. We could also say that shot 2 acts like an establishing shot because it also reviews the setting in which the person is in. Shot 3 is a close up but from a lower position and this is done to show that he is the dominant one though he is the only person in the room. In shot 4 we see Jason sitting on the couch thinking of his next move and this is clearly indicated as he is touching his head. Again the plastic piano is there to show us that he was just playing along to the song on the TV screen. On shot 5 we see our fella walking through a tunnel (alone as usual) but this could have been much better if the shot was taken during the night or in the dark to create a much scarier atmosphere among the viewers.
I wouldn't say that this is a mainstream film but more of a low budget that is mainly to be shown in festivals as a first film for an up and coming director with the aim of securing more funds for a future project. I took inspiration from a lot of spoof film like Scary movie and Disaster movie to come up with something that retains the horror factor but at the same time being funny and easy to make with a simple storyline. This sequence would be at the start of the film as it shows more detail of whom and why the main characters acts in that specific manner and there is a bit of violence though this is left for the audience to work it out. The film is located in an urban area and near the cannels as the main character goes there in hunt for his victims.
This film does follow the codes of horror where most victims are usually isolated from the rest of the public and in this case that is the cannel and the tunnel which people use to cross a motorway. The mask is also vital to the storyline as this film wouldn’t be as scary if there was no mask used and this also brings into question as to who and why is the villain wearing a mask in the first place.
One of the challenging things is that I couldn’t do this sequence during the night or when it was much darker as this would have had a much more chilling effect on the audience. Also, the lack of any victims shown takes away some feelings the viewer might have had. I would say that this has little or no potential of being made into a film unless drastic changes were done to the storyline and the cast. This has taught me the importance of having a good cast and good preparation before going out and shooting. Location is another thing that was challenging and finding the right place to shoot without causing any public disturbances was difficult.
