Case study of 3 shots- "Friday the 13th"

1 shot- 3 seconds to 16 seconds

• Moon-darkness(low key lighting)-represents death, change
• Establishing shot-"Welcome to Camp Crystal Lake"-light focused on the sigh(edge)-perhaps something is going to happen
• No transitions
• Person-yellow clothing, man- "Hello, who is that"-camera pans forward
• Light is focused on the sigh- close-up and camera is shaking- foreshadows a drastic change will occur
• Man- medium shot of the guy with yellow clothing- "Oh hi, what you doing outside this mess".
• Yellow man comes forward- non-diegetic sound of the intertextuality of Alfred Hitchcock's "Birds" dims down- a possible sign for ready for attack? The killer stabs the man with yellow clothing
• Great emphasis of the knife sound- helps create the killer's dominance and the hierarchy between the killer and everyone else
• The text of '1' has a transition- two halves come together- illustrates the action done by the killer.

6th shot- 55 seconds to 69 seconds(1 minute and 9 seconds)

• Medium shot- low key lighting- girl opens shower curtain- drastic movement, implies how she is feeling and she's desperate to find someone
• When she is reassured- the non-diegetic sound intensifies
• The diegetic sound(dialogue)- "Must be my imagination"- knife is shown behind her(intertextuality of Psycho)
• She turns around and closes the shower curtain- camera tracks her movement behind her
• She holds onto shower curtain for safety- non-diegetic sound intensifies further
• Shot reverse shot- shot of the weapon
• Shot reverses to victim- character screams and the camera zooms to her facial expressions
• Shot reverse shot- weapon then the light(making noise)

12th shot- 1:49-2:01(2:14 including title screen graphics)

• Slow motion(speed), zooms and tracks around the councillor that had sex in the start of the trailer
• Screaming of the councillor
• Non-diegetic(screaming) to diegetic when the focus of the character's facial expression is zoomed in
• Transition- fade out
• Voice over- "Friday the 13th, you may only see it once but that will be enough"- during the scene, plays alongside with the diegetic and non-diegetic sounds
• During the scene, the non-diegetic(screechy violins including the screaming converting to non-diegetic) sound and diegetic(screaming) intensifies.
• The title screen graphic of "Friday the 13th" is enlarged
• Voice over- "Friday the 13th" is played during these scenes.

Evaluation

This brief trailer analysis of shots of this trailer has helped me break-down and fully understand how the shots conform to the code and conventions of the slasher genre. It has also taught me to fully grasp the importance of shots in my Horror teaser trailer therefore I need to make sure all the shots shown in the teaser trailer has a clear importance as well conforming to the genre, the code and conventions, media theories and possibly subverting everything important in films.