The setting also contributes to the fear of the title sequence. It starts with a very unnatural view of the ocean. This makes the audience subliminally ask themselves ‘Where is this?’ and ‘Why is it being shown like this?’ their minds do this because humans want to be in a state of omniscience and by not being given answers they can’t be in their desired state. The fact that the director is making the audience question themselves subliminally makes them concentrate on the film more, because their minds are looking for answers to the questions they do not know. The odd and unfamiliar view has so much information missing from it that the audience don’t know what the view is, this scares the audience which are still looking for answers (to why it’s being shown in such an odd way) and at the same time are worried that this could be their ultimate phobia. It scares them because they want to fully concentrate on the film so they can get there information however their own minds are leading them be frightened but as humans we can not control our emotions. So while Spielberg is making the audience question themselves, he is also staging such suspense on screen that insinuates that they will give us information, leaving the audience’s mind venerable state. Spielberg could also be using an unnatural view of the sea so that the audience associate it with other unnatural things. Things that are unnatural are seen as evil because God created all things natural and his opposite is evil. This makes the audience feel uneasy and builds up tension because the audience gear ungodly things.
The music in the background then finishes and goes to a mouth organ being played. It then shows a scene full of people who are having fun; kissing, singing and flirting. This builds suspense because it goes straight from the thrilling and daunting overture to people having fun. Spielberg has used this technique because the audience then thinks that the next time they hear this it will go into a fun and loving scene. This enables Spielberg to send the audience into a false sense of security. The mouth organ that is being played gives the audience a sense of sadness and makes them feel as though there at funeral. While the audience are hearing this funeral music they are watching kids partying and having fun. The clash of sound and setting makes the audience frustrated with them selves; this is exactly what the director wants as he starts his film. Spielberg wants this because the audience will be so distracted with their own frustration that the minute he throws a death at them, they will stop and want to take in more of the drama. Letting Spielberg control and toy with their minds and add and build suspense and scare them.
Just before the character Chrissie goes in to the sea, the director throws a natural and common view of the sea; I believe Spielberg has done this so we can feel that we looking directly at the sea. This enables the audience to feel like they are there, watching. By doing this the audience feel as though everything is real, that they are actually at beach watching Chrissie running into the water. Just before the attack there is calm, the audience can hear and see the sea washing in and out. This puts the audience at the scene of the uncommitted murder. This puts in the effect of realism, which I think the director has personally added in. The director has made the audience to an unseen crime, because they weren’t really there but it’s so real, that they think they were. By making it more real, Spielberg can scare the audience more. I say this because the audience is going to fear something that doesn’t look real such as a man in shark costume.
After a short clip of her swimming, the overture then starts to play (the melody that was in the title sequence). This makes the audience feel that nothing will happen; the audience feel this because they have been led into a false sense of security from the title sequence. They expect a scene with the youth having fun so when they see an attack, it will have greater impact on them. Just before the attack, the director shows us an uncommon and supernatural view of Chrissie’s legs. This view which happens to get closer and closer to her legs makes the audience feel worried for her. It makes the audience do this because they don’t know what it is, and as it is human nature to expect the worst, they need to feel worried.
The Lilo-Attack scene starts with a wide shot of the beach. I believe that the director has done this so that the audience can see the potential victims. I think that he has done this so the audience get more of a reaction when one of them dies. They get more of a reaction because they come to emphasise with the people who are looking for a fun day at the beach, they emphasise because maybe they have been to a beach and they wouldn’t like the idea of being shark bait. So in this way the audience puts themselves into the shoes of the innocent crowd of people. I also think by showing the audience the potential victim before they die creates a sense of foreboding, it does this because the questions who, what and how are going through there minds.
The director also keeps putting the audience in Brody’s point of view, I think he does so that the audience emphasise with him. The director wants the audience to emphasise with Brody because he is the only one looking for danger, so if the audience are looking for danger then they will get it. I know that Spielberg’s intentions are for the audience to become Brody because in the ‘making of Jaws’ he says ‘It’s about the chief and no-one else’. The director uses a very seminal and clever technique when trying to get the audience to emphasise with Brody. Spielberg uses a wipe from Brody watching the sea to a wide shot of the sea, it adds to feeling that the audience is Brody because it shows him and then what he is looking at, it’s like the director is force feeding the audience information. I also think by showing Brody looking for danger, it makes the audience look for danger which builds up suspense and tension.
The audience are then fooled, what appears to be a shark swims under a large women, it is shown in a long shot, I believe the director has done this because he doesn’t want the audience to see the unknown swimmer in detail and to make sure they only see what Brody sees which is a long shot of the sea, this scares the audience because humans fear things they do not know. Then an unknown swimmer comes above the surface and it shows the audience that it only a man with a swim-cap on. This puts the audience in a false sense of security and keeps them asking the question ‘If it isn’t now, when?’ which keeps the audience in suspense because they want to know when it its happening and why it’s happening but the director decides to starve them of the information.
Brody then continues watching the sea, and a tanned man starts to talk to him and he obscures his view of the sea then he hears a girl screaming. This worries the audience (and Brody) because they are expecting an attack and it doesn’t help when people are screaming. It doesn’t help because the audience associate screaming with death, they do this because in the opening scene the girl was screaming and she ended up dead. However the audience are then again pushed into even more of a false sense of security because they think the next bunch of screams they hear will be a false alarm. The overture (the melody from the opening scene and the title sequence) that was playing just before the last murder starts, the audience automatically ask themselves ‘is it going to happen again?’, this builds suspense because they don’t know what is going to happen and what they want to happen. This is because they don’t want to be bored by another meaningless suspense builder but at the same time they don’t want to be shocked by another death. This scares the audience not only because another death could be coming up but because they are unsure of themselves.
The audience are then shown the same unnatural and uncommon view of the sea from the opening scene. This makes the audience associate it with last death which causes suspense. It causes suspense because they are in anticipation to see if it happens again. Then there is an attack. This is seen in a long shot, which leaves the audience in a hunger of detail, starving the audience of their precious omniscience. The camera then switches to Brody’s view which is a zoom-track camera method which has a stomach turning effect, so while it is showing Brody’s reaction in such a way, the audience are still kept from knowing what is fully going on. This builds even more suspense up because the audience are unaware if the shark has killed more than one person. I also think by showing Brody’s reaction it gives the audience an idea of how to react. If Brody is scared, the audience should also be scared. This is a very effective technique because it makes the audiences minds link back to more than one past scenes which frustrates and builds suspense in the audience.
What also builds up suspense in the scene is when you see Brody’s confusion; it builds suspense because Brody is the audience’s saviour and if he is confused, what hope is there for the victims, what hope is there for the audience? I also mentioned that Brody is watching out for danger, well what good is he, if jeopardy does come? Brody is afraid of the water; Brody is downgraded from a Messiah to just a protagonist. If I was rewriting Jaws, I would make the main protagonist even more of a scared person, this would make the audience even more worried because they have less hope (as do the people of Amity) of surviving.
To conclude I think that Jaws has very cunningly been put together to scare the audience. I think that a lot of the scary films these days relate to Jaws. I think this film is a perfect template to follow when making a scary film. However I do think the movie made some fatal flaws when it tries to put the audience into a false sense of security, I think this because it does it too obviously and to frequently which makes the audience loose interest.
