Jaws

Steven Spielburg uses a wide range of camera techniques and the second attack is a good example.  The second attack was on a small young boy who was swimming in the water very carefully on a craft with his feet dangling down in the water trying to paddle his way around.  The director shows you the shark’s point of view through his eyes looking at the boy’s feet which he had noticed splashing under the water, as soon as the shark noticed he made his way hastily in a flash to wards it.  Then straight away before the shark gets to the boy’s feet the camera changes as it shows the boy relaxed swimming on the craft. unexpectedly the camera changes again as it shows the sharks point of view again as the shark is right next to the boys feet. Then surprisingly the camera changes again and shows the boy relaxed, suddenly the boy starts splashing around in the water trying to escape form some thing holding him then we see a rupture of blood disseminating around the craft as the boy disappeared under the water.  During the attack we also see Brodys point of view as the camera zooms out of Brodys face watching the boy splashing around rarely.

If I compare the second attack of the shark in the film with the one in the book (which was written before the film was made) there is a lot of differences, but the major difference between them is during the second attack.  In the book on the second attack it says that the shark sees the boys feet moving under the water and comes towards his feet to attack but then the boy stops moving his feet and the shark gets confused and doesn’t attack, then the boy starts moving his feet again and then the shark attacks him.  In the film the shark sees the boy’s feet moving and comes directly and attacks with out stopping.

The director builds up the fear of the shark by making the music go louder and faster with a thrilling theme.  The director also builds up the fear of the shark by keeping the appearance of the original shark until the end.  The director only shows us photos of the past, showing what kind of dreadful damage the shark can cause and he also uses a point of view camera shot from the sharks perspective on many occasions. At a certain point of the film a shark is caught which the audience believes is the original man-eating shark but later they find out that they are mistaken and that the man-eating shark is still out there.  The audience knew this because the director showed Brody and Hooper checking the shark’s stomach and they didn't find any Human body parts at all.  This scene is meant to educate the audience that the man-eating shark would be a lot complicated to capture.  Their was another scene that was quite familiar to this scene which was just before the third attack when their was a sharks fin which everyone saw in the film and they ran out of the sea in fear but then it wasn’t a sharks fin it was just two boys messing around to scare everyone off.  The purpose of this scene is to inform the audience that the shark isn’t going to turn up when it is expected.  

The director builds up tension and fear in the film in many various ways but the most common way of building fear is during the attacks.  During the attacks the director builds on the music by changing the pitch and tone in various kinds of ways and the first two attacks are a good example.  The first attack was on a young girl who was in the water swimming around in the beginning of the film.  She was swimming carefully during the night, suddenly she started to splash around as if her leg was trapped under the water the music went louder and faster in all of a sudden then there was unadulterated silence as there was a burst of red blood flooding around her.  The second attack was quite analogous to the first attack by the way the tension and fear was build.  In the second attack a small young boy was swimming on a craft as he was very relaxed, suddenly he began to splash about as if some thing was holding his leg. Then the music got louder and faster in a thrilling theme, then there was silence in all of a sudden as there was blood around the craft. The third attack looked to be very confusing because members of the public were in the water by the beach swimming when they saw a black fin which looked like a sharks fin, then the people ran out of the water in panic because of the shark but later they found out that the fin was artificial. It actually was two kids messing around meanwhile brodys’ kids were in the safety pool and the original shark was in there thanks to the two small kid’s that were swimming around with the artificial fin who distracting the seekers of the original shark.  The shark had a clear attack on brodys kids. Then a man on the boat tried in vane to help and was attacked instead. That builds up great tension and fear of the audience because the director made the audience believe that the two boys who were messing around under the artificial shark fin were really a shark but then he made the audience realise that the original shark was in the safety pool were brodys’ kids were.

I thought the scariest moment in the film was towards the end when Quint was attacked by the shark and he was eaten that was the scariest moment and horrifying moment because you can see the sharks teeth covered in blood and small bits of meat on his sharp teeth as they looked lethal as it crushed Quint. I also noticed the size of it, it was incredibly colossal and almost the size of the ship that brody and his team members went on to hunt down the shark.