Creating The Machetes Of Friday The 13th 2009
It has been a while since we have featured a prop item from the franchise, so today the focus will be on the machete created for production of Friday The 13th 2009. Most fans know by now that the machete used in the film is gigantic and is by far the largest used in the entire film franchise.
The machete pictured above is screen used and auctioned off by Profiles In History shortly after the release of the film in 2009. In October of that year, Mario Kirner, of the Friday The 13th Props Museum, interviewed the head Prop Master for the newest Jason film, Koen Wooten, and asked him about the creation of the machete and also how many in total were made for production. Below are the details of Koen's reply, which is a fascinating look at bringing Jason Voorhees' iconic weapon to the big screen.
From Koen Wooten:
As far as machetes go, we made 17. A lot of which did not survive for various reasons. We destroyed quite a few for stunt rigs, special FX rigs, a shining chrome, rigged sparking and a very sharp version. We now have 8 (hero) aluminum machetes. So only 8 survived out of 17. At the end we has 7 rubber machetes of different rigidities.
The reason for so many machetes was that we had a lot of special rigs and some were altered to fit a young girl's hand as well as a 2 inch shorter version so that when we see Jason's hand come through the floor its not too big.
I started by taking a store bought machete and we began talking about shape, size and finish. We made four prototypes in the process. The handles are stained wood with leather, cloth and string wrappings. The blade was made of Aluminum for weight reasons. We then started with a black finish and aged it back to show wear. We put a few coats of cooked in rust in different reds.
It is a process when preparing props for a film and the fact that this much time and detail was spent just on the machete Jason would use in the film is amazing. Big thanks to Mario Kirner for the interview on his website. Please make sure to visit his website to see all of his beautiful props from the Friday the 13th film franchise. www.fridaythe13thprops.de
The machete pictured above is screen used and auctioned off by Profiles In History shortly after the release of the film in 2009. In October of that year, Mario Kirner, of the Friday The 13th Props Museum, interviewed the head Prop Master for the newest Jason film, Koen Wooten, and asked him about the creation of the machete and also how many in total were made for production. Below are the details of Koen's reply, which is a fascinating look at bringing Jason Voorhees' iconic weapon to the big screen.
From Koen Wooten:
As far as machetes go, we made 17. A lot of which did not survive for various reasons. We destroyed quite a few for stunt rigs, special FX rigs, a shining chrome, rigged sparking and a very sharp version. We now have 8 (hero) aluminum machetes. So only 8 survived out of 17. At the end we has 7 rubber machetes of different rigidities.
The reason for so many machetes was that we had a lot of special rigs and some were altered to fit a young girl's hand as well as a 2 inch shorter version so that when we see Jason's hand come through the floor its not too big.
I started by taking a store bought machete and we began talking about shape, size and finish. We made four prototypes in the process. The handles are stained wood with leather, cloth and string wrappings. The blade was made of Aluminum for weight reasons. We then started with a black finish and aged it back to show wear. We put a few coats of cooked in rust in different reds.
It is a process when preparing props for a film and the fact that this much time and detail was spent just on the machete Jason would use in the film is amazing. Big thanks to Mario Kirner for the interview on his website. Please make sure to visit his website to see all of his beautiful props from the Friday the 13th film franchise. www.fridaythe13thprops.de
