At some stages the music stops which increases the sense of fear and suspense making the audience think that girl is isolated and an attack is eminent. The echo of the silence creates a sustaining and suspenseful environment causing the audience to become fearful and aware of the shark.
The camera shots build up the attacks by firstly introducing the character usually by a close up. The first scene is the boy walking up the beach towards is mother, an establishing long shot is used this show a normal happy family day on the beach and creates a safe atmosphere. The boy then asks his mum if he can stay in the water while chief Brody watches the water, a medium shot is used creating some concern for the boy. A full shot is then used when a man throws a stick for his dog, the dog and boy then run into the water and. Then the boy starts swimming on a lilo, a full shot is used which creates danger as he swims further away. A jump shot is used as Brody watches the water as he focuses on the boy, this jump shot creates the feeling that danger is approaching. There is then an extreme close up of the sunburnt man who blocks Brody’s view of the sea, a point of view shot is then used to show Brody peering over the mans shoulder. From a point of view shot Brody sees a woman playing in the water, but she then scream Brody gets worried but she was just playing. A small boy sings on the beach while a man calls for his dog which went into the sea to get a stick the man had thrown, by know the audience must feel anxious and scared for the people in the sea. You then see a low angle extreme close up of someone’s legs under the water as if you were looking through the sharks eyes. The attack is then seen from a distance, Chief Brody then realises something is wrong and that he was right that the seas were unsafe this makes the audience feel sympathetic towards Chief Brody. There is then a general panic and lots of jump shots showing different peoples reactions, people are rushing and pulling out friends and family from the sea. The panic then calms down, and then the lilo the boy was using then washed up onto shore an insert is used.
The director builds up fear of the shark by showing the destruction it can do, when the shark bit of a mans leg and went right through the bone, I then began to think the shark was invincible.
The shark came across as very powerful through the characters reactions. It was July 4th American Independence Day and it was boiling hot and no one was going into the water because they were terrified of the shark. Also the ambiguous screams made us scared. In some scenes as the tempo of the music increased the fear of the shark increased as well as the fast camera shots, chaos, screaming and panic.
The first two attacks make the film even scarier as it shows that the shark is out all the time and only wants to kill. It also shows that the shark will not leave Amity until it’s eaten everyone on the island.
Brody’s son then gets attacked making Brody even more determined to catch the shark also making the dilemma personal.
The most tension is during the last section of the film because it’s the last chance if they can’t kill this shark no one can
I think the scariest part of the film is the last section when the oceanologist goes face to face with the shark, another scary moment is when Brody is on the ship while it is sinking and he knows he’s running out of time. The ending is good because of the heroic music. The purpose of this film is to scare the audience using different techniques such as camera shots, music and sound affects. The great structure of this film made it scary as each attack built more suspense. I think Steven Spielberg has made a great job of this fantastic movie.
