Jaws - How does Steven Speilburg build suspense in the film 'Jaws'?

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Analyse the ways that the director builds suspense and scares the audience in the film Jaws

         

        In the 1975 thriller ‘Jaws’, the director Steven Spielberg, uses a variety of techniques to build suspense and frighten the audience. The factors that Spielberg uses to construct the film and impact the audience are:- diegetic and non diegetic sound, camera angles to show facial expressions and different shots, and he uses colour so that we can associate signs and symbols to forthcoming events, e.g. the colour red is associated with danger.

         The nerve wracking thriller is set in the grounds of Amity Island, America in the 1970’s.It is set on 4th of July because that is the date of the main holiday season in Amity and that alone emphasizes the amount of people. It is based on Peter Benchly’s novel, inspired by the Jersey shore shark attack of 1916. The main character of the film- Martin Brody (police chief) suspects a shark brutally attacked a young woman on Amity Island. He was attempting to close the beach when the town mayor interrupted him, explaining it may destroy the tourist population of the island. As a result of this decision, Alex Kitner is attacked, then another man and then the shark nearly kills one of Brody’s son’s. Hooper (shark expert), Quint (Shark hunter) and Brody then go on a search to hunt down the vicious man eater. In the end, Quint gets attacked by the great white and Brody triumphantly kills the shark.

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          Firstly, in Jaws Steven Spielberg uses diegetic sound to build tension especially in the second attack. Diegetic sound is where you can see a source for the sound on screen. Before the attack, people were talking calmly in a relaxed tone. Happy and relaxed music was playing and people were laughing and singing, creating a calm peaceful atmosphere. As the attack looms, the diegetic sounds become louder and negative Screams come from the girl that’s involved in the false alarm, building tension. Suddenly the soundtrack comes on which is a deep distinctive ‘Duh duh’, which ...

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