In Jaws, the shot opens on the beach with the campfire at night. It’s a familiar setting; the teenagers are all stereotypically middle class ‘college kids’, very warm and relaxed. The director designed the scene to provoke a recognizable combination to the audience, to convey how normal and plausible it is. When the female and male leave the group the group, the colours change; the scene becomes dark and the characters become silhouetted against the moonlight. The silence is emphasised by the sound of the waves and the bell. The atmosphere is eerie and indefinite: the sea is calm. The female actress is silhouetted as she swims. Her friend has passed out at this point, obviously beyond giving any help, which increases the sense of her isolation and vulnerability. As the camera closes in for a close up shot, the music begins to play a principal part in the suspense created. When the shark takes hold of her, the music is almost drowned out by her screaming. The audience never sees the shark; the director targets the audiences’ imagination through the incremental establishment of suspense, to create a more frightening image. Then when the attack is over, the scene reverts to the calm sea and the ringing of the bell signals a return to normality.
The main character of Gladiator is Maximus played by Russell Crowe. Russell Crowe is cast in archetypal masculine roles. To begin with, the director wants you to feel Maximus’s longing to be back home with his family, setting a very gentle human side to the character, which will be contradicted as the film unfolds. He does this by depicting his dream as soft, ephemeral and beautiful: the music setting and colors all contributing to the atmosphere. At the opening of the battle scene, Maximus’s face shows his thoughts for the battle. He looks pensive and is full of dread; the director wants the audience to empathize with the anticipation of the terrible things about to happen. Through the behavior of the troops the viewer gets a sense of anticipation that promotes fear, although they seem to know they will win. The director even uses their admiration for Maximus to make you respect him more. When the barbarians enter, the director barely shows their faces, they all appear almost disfigured and inhuman. This dehumanizing treatment makes the viewer have as little compassion for them as possible. This makes it easier for the Romans to kill them, avoiding any moral conflict between right and wrong. The battle is put in slow motion as it draws to a close; demonstrating the devastation left behind by the combat. Alongside the sense of victory is the image of destruction. The close up of the emperor’s face acknowledges the brevity of the scene. The action genre is conveyed through the fast pace and extreme emotions of the characters.
In Jaws, the characters are not famous or particularly special, the director makes them as normal as possible to make the plot plausible. But he also sets up the possibility for something bad to happen, because they are taking drugs and drinking alcohol an opportunity is opened up for events to go wrong. The way the camera moves towards the girl creates an extra character.
The music in Gladiator is a crucial element of the film. At the beginning it is very quixotic and haunting. It makes the whole scene feel very lucid. The echo and innocence of the child’s laughter makes the experience more safe and comforting. When the battle scene changes the music alters into a very serious, dark and dramatic style. It becomes much louder to add tension, the clanging of armor and war drums give it a military atmosphere. When the battle starts it drowns out the music and is dominated by the clanging of swords, the director uses to make the battle appear and to give the background depth required for an epic film. As the battle draws to a close, the music slows down and becomes tender as before.
The acoustic guitar being played promotes the setting at the beginning of the film; this furthers the mood already created by the group’s activities. Two members of the party head off for a late night swim, continuing the playful mood: this starts amid the soothing acoustics of the water, and the ringing of the bell. This generates a dramatic difference for the terrifying event that develops. The music in Jaws is a vital component, initially the audience does not know the unknown creature is a shark, the credits introduce the piece of music over the camera being scanning the seabed. The music itself is in a minor key; very deep and dark. It begins with two simple notes; this signals the appearance of the shark, and then builds to a crescendo, which reflects the mounting fear of the audience as the realization occurs of the imminent danger. Screams contribute to the chilling build of the crescendo, the male actors screams in this particular scream are important to add the chilling effect. The screams are muffled under the water yet its all the audience hears. This increases the audiences’ sense of fear, as her screams are drowned by the sharks determination to pull its prey under the water, the audience feels a growing sense of powerlessness.
In Gladiator the camera angles at the beginning are soft, not that of an action genre. This is a reflection of the strong romantic side of the film. However while the battle is in taking place the shots vary from extreme close ups; to show the dramatic tension in the characters faces, and long shots of the battlefield to show the scale of the scene and establish its larger-than-life proportions. The film proceeds at a pace common to the action genre, this confirms the category of the film.
The camera work in Jaws starts with the opening credits; the camera drifts along the seabed, creating a sharks view in the mind of the audience. The Scene then cuts to a close-up of the teenagers, creating the image that they are the prey and are in danger from the shark. When the boy and girl single out from the crowd, the camera follows them steadily, flicking from each person, singling them both out. When the girl dives in, the camera goes to an extreme close up; her friend is unconscious furthering the isolation of the girl. The first upward shot starts to establish the suspense; at this point the camera becomes the shark. As the shark gets closer, the camera moves into an extreme close up of her, suggesting the position of the shark an its grip on the victim; the director wants you to feel her pain, fear and realisation as much as possible. When the attack is over, the scene reverts to the calmness it had before. The camera moves into a long shot scanning the horizon and the gentle sounds of the water become audible again, this signifies the end of the scene but leaves the doubt in the audience’s mind of the unidentified creature below.
