The second attack also had a big impact on the film. At the beginning of that scene there is a long shot at a large woman going into the sea and a black coloured dog called Tippet. There is also a kid called Alex who comes out of the sea and asks his Mom if he can go back in and so he does. There is also a couple in the sea as well who are joking and playing about quite a lot. Spielberg then builds up the suspense with Alex’s mother saying that he can have just 10 more minutes in the water which kind of hints that something is fishy in that scene. Firstly the camera zooms in on the large lady floating on her back with her eyes closed in the sea and with a black shape swimming towards her. The audience then breathe a sigh of relief as it turns out to be an old man in a black cap. There is also another false alarm created when a girls screams but it turns out to be that she is playing about with her boyfriend. While this is happening Brodie is sitting around surrounded by holidaymakers enjoying themselves. While the public are enjoying Brodie is sitting there all tensed as he looks around the sea for any signs of danger, This is clearly shown on his face. When the second attack takes place there is a shot, which is called a dolly shot. This is a shot where they bring the character closer to the camera and they zoom in closely to the character. This creates tension and suspense because it gets the audience thinking and gets them very scared. Now this also has an impact on the audience.
All the character in the film has their own unique thing in terms of everything. There is a girl swimmer at the start called Chrisy. Now Chrisy is in the first attack. Chrisy is a hippy kind of character. She differs from all of the characters because she is only seen in the first scene and not all the way through the film. Now Alex is made to be an important character in the scene that he gets attacked. The way Alex comes into that scene gets the audience a bit suspicious. This is because the way he comes out of the sea and gets permission of ten more minutes gets the audience a bit suspicious that something is definitely going to happen which then builds up the tension and suspense. This is a really good technique of Spielberg’s to build tension and suspense. The 4th July attack was a very important scene. This is because Brodie told his son, Michel, and his friends to play in the pond and not in the sea where there was danger; now during this bit no one was aware that anything could go wrong in the pond. There was then a false alarm in the sea but it turned out to be some two kids playing in the sea. Just as there was a sigh of relief a girl then screams that there was something in the pond. Now when Brodie heard this he was frightened because he remembers that his son was told to go into the pond. Now all the pressure was on Brodie, as he had to go to save someone who was his son. Now at this point Alex had a big role to play as he was injured and all the attention and focus was on him and only him. This also grabbed the audience’s attention because they were looking at a Dad saving his son, which built up tension. Now Hooper-the oceanographer- had a and important role in the film because although he came in half way through the film he still had to help save people’s lives as he had to find out about the shark and catch character’s roles create a lot of tension and suspense in the film.
There are quite a few false/fake alerts in the film Jaws. This builds up the audience’s expectations and builds a lot of tension and suspense. As there are fake/false alerts the audience start to get scared and want to what is going to happen next. When the girls screams in the sea before the second attack this get Brodie extremely tensed and worried. But then when he finds out that it is a girl playing about with her boyfriend he breathes a sigh of relief. Now the audience’s reaction is going to be quite the same really. They are going to get a bit worried but then find out the reality of that scream. So as you see throughout the film there are series of alarms, which get the audience worried and tensed. Now this is a really good way of building tension and suspense.
The director builds up the fear of the shark in the film in a lot of ways. Every time the shark comes into the film the music always starts up slowly. It is always either eerie or threatening instrumental music; it gets from quiet to loud. The music always has ‘dur dur’ noise. Every time the shark comes into the film the audience always get a scared reaction and get worried. They also get to the edge of their seats and start wondering what is going to happen next. This creates a big amount of tension and suspense in the film. For big affects like this Spielberg uses diegetic sounds so when the scary music comes on you can only see the shark on screen. He also uses nondiegetic sound for parts where you can only see kids playing on the beach. For parts like this he just uses the voice of kids playing and splashing water in the sea. He also uses parallel sound, which the audience expects, at some parts in the film. He also uses contrapuntal sound like when they show shots of the children playing in the sea but you can hear the shark music. Thus builds up the tension and suspense.
The editing has added more tension, suspense and fear to the film. This is because the way they edited their shots for the shark and the people being attacked has got the audience even more into the film and got them thinking. They have done this by editing the attacks and getting close ups of the shark’s mouth etc. This helps because it gets audience more scared.
I think the highest point of tension in the film was when Alex got attacked and eaten by the shark. This is because they used a variety of shots in that scene which made it very effective. I think the most effective shot of that scene was the dolly shot. This was when Brodie’s chair got pulled in towards the camera and the camera zoomed in. Overall I think Spielberg has used filmic devices to entertain and to build tension and suspense very successfully.