Jaws Film Techniques

(263) zoom shot: In Jaws (1975) a zoom shot is used to show police chief Brody’s realization that a kid had been attacked by a shark. The audience sees his change in expression and probably feels the same way.

In both the excerpts "Jams" and "Swimming with Nightmares" by Peter Benchley, the author creates suspense in many ways. The author utilizes descriptive words, character's choices, and dangerous situations for creating suspense.

Suspense is a detail that many horror writer use to catch the attention of many readers and keep them holding on till the end. Just as W.F. Harvey does when creating suspense in his story August Heat. Mr. Harvey used three methods to create his suspense for his story, foreshadowing, withholding information, and reversal. With these three methods he is able to make the reader feel like, “ We may even hold our breath without realizing it as we read on eagerly to find out how the story ends”(Source 1).

Swimming in the ocean on a beautiful beach, the sun shining, the water is the perfect temperature, you have zero worries in the world. Until you feel a bump on your leg and notice someone on shore screaming and pointing in your direction, duh dum. You bring yourself out of your reverie and notice a very large fin protruding from the water moving towards you, duhh dumm. Your heart starts racing as you frantically think of your chances of being able to swim away from this monster coming your direction with increasing speed, duh dum dum dum dum. With simple notes of a tuba, John Williams could amplify the fear portrayed in Steven Spielberg’s movie Jaws (1975). These simple notes would carry on to be a standard to symbolize something terrifying

are waiting to see if the shark is still there. We then get our answer

     The fact that we do not see the shark makes the audience feel quite uneasy, as in a way we are uncertain of what the danger is. It also builds up a lot of fear, from our point of view.

The first way the author creates suspense in the story is by foreshadowing. When Captain Torres walked into the barber’s shop, the barber, “Started to shake,” (Tellez 1) indicating that the barber felt instant fear, when his enemy approached. This foreshadows that the barber knows the man and that he will be deciding to kill him or not. Foreshadowing creates suspense because it is a clue given to the reader. It is the reader’s job to guess what is going to happen in the story and that is what makes it interesting. Without foreshadowing the reader won’t be able to prepare what is going to happen next. Another scene where the foreshadowing technique is used was when the barber came up with his reasons to not kill Captain Torres. The barber contemplated in his mind, “Don’t want to stain myself with blood. Just lather, and nothing else,” (Tellez 2) which foreshadows that the barber is not going to commit murder.

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

During the film Steve Spielberg uses music, a mysterious shark and camera techniques such as simultaneous track and zoom, long shot, close up shots and medium shots to build suspense, tension and scare the audience.

Hooper brings along a lot of his very expensive marine-biologist equipment to help them find this beast quicker. Also, they bring along some chum to attract the shark more easily. After being idle for some time, Brody and his crew finally see sign of the shark. The shark bites into the boat, and swallows up Quint in the process. At that point, Hooper is under water in the anti-shark cage attempting to stab the shark. Before the ship sinks, the Ultimate Boon occurs when Brody shoots a compressed air tank while it is in the shark 's mouth.

Suspense is a crucial ingredient in the making of horror and thriller films. The significance of suspense in horror films is to bring out the “twist or unexpected moment of realization that makes someone scream and one's heart race. In the film industry, there are various types of genre, but as different as films may seem, they all have one element that links them all together. That element is known as Mise-en-scene. Mise-en-scene is a French phrase that means “putting into the scene.” Mise-en-scene includes elements such as setting, lighting, costume, and figure movement and expression (acting).

Peter Benchley wrote "Jaws" the novel before it was made into a film directed by Steven Spielberg. "Jaws" is a thriller/horror with the main aim being to build up suspense and tension. When making the film Jaws Steven Spielberg had to face the challenging task of translating Benchley’s popular novel into a hit movie whilst still maintaining the suspense created through the many textual devices used by Benchley, such as language techniques and sentence structure. Spielberg managed use different camera angles and shots alongside lighting effects to create atmosphere and tension to pretty much the same effect. In the background he uses music and sound effects to add to the dramatic visual images he creates.

One of the ways that Spielberg conveys a sense of suspense in Jaws is by not showing the shark. He gives us man glimpses of it, such as the fin, and shadows accompanied by blood, but never the full until late in the film. I think this really helps us as the audience fear the shark more, as our imagination is forced to fill in the blanks, which sometimes creates something far worse than the actual thing.

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