Jaws Editing Techniques

(106) insert shot: In Into the Wild(2007) an insert shot of the pages in the book about botany is used when Christopher McCandless is trying to see what plants are edible or not. The audience is able to see his anxiety trying to find

The creation and consumption of films are a common favorite pastime for many people and have been for hundreds of years, but while some films can seem deceptively simple, many elements go into creating a scene, much less an entire movie. Directors use these elements which include, but are not limited to style, mood, composition and special effects to create a product that we often don’t acknowledge without looking deeper into the film. These components together are called Mise en Scène (Ebert). Of course, film can be enjoyed leisurely but there are so many more aspects of film to be explored and analyzed such as the composition of camera movement, lighting, color, sounds and music. In this case, I chose to analyze the “Redrum” scene from the renowned film, The Shining directed by Stanley Kubrick. In this scene, Danny Torrence, a five year old boy wanders around his mother’s room with a knife in hand, muttering the word “Redrum” over and over again before scrawling it across the door. I feel that a lot of this scene’s mood and style relies heavily on the camera work of the scene, the lighting and colors, and the music incorporated into the segment.

It is one of the only times in the year in which the whole of America

Almost every piece of cinema seeks to give the viewer an understanding by intricately assembling shots in a coherent, and a sometimes muddled, manner; the techniques used in editing places various shots in purposeful sequences, to emphasize certain relationships between shots. The shots can be arranged smoothly and logically, or shift abruptly from shot to shot; different methods of the aforementioned arrangement of shots are utilized in either discontinuous or continuous editing. Sherlock Jr. and The War on Drug’s music video “Holding On”, are two motion pictures that offer spatial relations, by applying techniques of both continuous and discontinuous editing.

Steven Spielberg, the creator of Jaws, uses many different techniques to draw in the suspense of viewers and to capture their imagination. These techniques include special effects – to create tension, different camera angles – to show facial expressions and group shots. The classic Jaws music, known by millions of people, also helps build up tension, to let us know when the shark is approaching. He uses colours, so that we can associate signs and symbols to forthcoming events, e.g. the colour red is associated with danger. We will be using all of the above devices to help analyse different parts of the film.

Over the many years of filmmaking, there is no doubt that classical Hollywood has made an interesting name for itself. The classical Hollywood style has become quite predictable in relation to film narrative because of their unique filmmaking choices using devices like continuity editing, three-point lighting, centered framing, and musical scores. When we think of a classic Hollywood film, we usually imagine a story with a happy ending. A phenomenal film that performs all these functions

Usually, films are neither holistically unrestricted, omniscient, or restricted. If a film is completely unrestricted everything would be expected, which makes it extremely difficult for the audience to continue watching. However, if the piece is completely restricted, the plot and narration ranges can be severely limited. JAWS defeats these two flaws by containing both unrestricted and restricted narrative qualities. Although, he is not the narrator, by watching Brody’s strengths and weaknesses it’s unquestionable why any person would root for Brody. Thus, restricting the audience into following the knowledge of Brody with the exception of the musically intensified shark attacks. For example, every time the camera moves around the water and then focuses on the next victim’s vulnerable feet the audience knows an attack is waiting. The non-diegetic sounds of the iconic musical piece, Main Title, beautifully speeds up after the camera, thus indicating to the audience the shark is about to attack without the actor’s or actress’s knowledge. This is vividly shown in both the opening scene and the Alex Kintner scene as a tactic to get the audience’s heartbeat pumping and blood pressure rising. On another note, screenwriters often surround the protagonist with family members hoping this would create a sentimental relationship between the audience and the character. However, this often does not because of

The music represents the shark, especially its movements and its presence. In the title sequence the camera is moving along the seabed like a shark. Spielberg makes the audience believe that the camera is viewing things through the shark’s eyes, he uses a camera shot called point of view shot. The music makes the shark seem a mystery because you haven’t yet seen the shark but you can feel its presence. The music clouds your vision and makes you imagine and believe something that actually isn’t even there. It builds tension

Even though the film is essentially a visual experience, the use of sound has become extremely important in modern film. The modern viewer hears a complicated soundtrack that is as meaningful as the image on the screen. Three elements comprise the film's soundtrack: the dialogue, the sound effects, and the musical score. The proper balance and mix of these elements produced the essential emphasis required, which created the desired effects. As explained by Joseph Boggs and Dennis Petrie,

Jaws was a movie that was made which clearly represents itself as a movie that follows a Hero 's Journey Narrative. The Journey begins with The Call, as part of the Departure. The Call begins once Sheriff Brody is first made aware of the shark attack that happens, before several more break out. He essentially accepts The Call by looking further into the attack, in case more come to his attention. The Initiation begins with the Apotheosis, after Brody discovers more shark attacks because he then possesses more knowledge on how to approach the problem. Finally, the Return begins and ends with the freedom To Live, where the town and all its citizens can swim in

After watching and analyzing the action adventure film, Indiana Jones - “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (2008) and the Sci-Fi thriller, The Matrix (1999) many cinematic elements attracted my attention. With three very distinct and ingenious directors, (Spielberg and the Wachowskis siblings) these two films exemplified extraordinary uses of lighting, framing, editing and sound techniques unique to its own genre.

The second attack is on a small boy in the sea at a crowded beach on

The film, Jaws, uses a variety of different photographic techniques. Panning was used quite often in this movie to remind the viewer that they were a long distance from the shoreline. Additionally, plenty of filming was done underwater. This allowed the audience to get a realistic feel for the surrounding environment. The brilliant underwater imagery resulted with help from the naturally dark and chilling emptiness of the foreign ocean world. A notable climatic shot is

During the process of envisioning and designing a film, the director, production designer, and art director (in collaboration with the cinematographer) are concerned with several major spatial and temporal elements. These design elements punctuate and underscore the movement of figures within the frame, including the following: setting, lighting, costuming, makeup, and hairstyles. Choose a scene from movieclips.com. In a three to five page paper, (excluding the cover and reference pages) analyze the mise-en-scène

Understanding movies comes from describing and analyzing the cinematic, theatrical, and literary elements that combine to create meaning. These steps create a basic understanding of the artistic and technical elements found in moviemaking. In addition, the major characteristics of different film genres and classic movies will be analyzed. The purpose of this paper is analyzing the Academy Award winning film Chicago. This paper will describe the six steps that a person should think about when watching a movie. These steps include, (1) analysis of the narrative: story, plot and meaning; (2) theatrical elements, (3) cinematography, (4) editing, (5) sound and the (6) complete package.