How does the director Stephen Spielberg use filmic techniques to build suspense and build tension for the audience in the film Jaws?

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How does the director Stephen Spielberg use filmic techniques to build suspense and build tension for the audience in the film Jaws?

Jaws is based on a popular novel by Peter Benchley released in 1975. The director of the film is Stephen Spielberg. He is known for films like E.T, Catch Me If You Can, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park 1, 2, 3. He has also done may more films which have all been hits as well as being enjoyed by the audience. The film Jaws is set on a beach called Amity Islands. This beach is dangerous and has a vicious animal, which is a human meat eater. Amity Islands is used for public holidays like American’s Independence Day and so on. Lots and lots of public go to Amity Islands, as it is one of the most popular beaches used for public holidays. All the public are enjoying the holiday but do not know what is really lying beneath the water. That is why the tag line of the film is: ‘Don’t go beneath the water.’

The music plays a very big role in the film. The shark is definitely connected to the music in the film because every time the shark comes to play a role there is always some music playing in the background, which gets from quiet to loud. When the shark comes the music is always eerie or threatening type. By doing this it grabs the audience’s attention and creates suspense and tension. This then makes the audience eager to find out what is going to happen next. So the music has a great big impact on the film. For example. During the film before the second attack, and just before the shark comes into the film, it is all silent and all you can hear is the water swaying. Then when the shark starts to come in, the music gets all eerie and then as it gets louder and it turns more threatening and soon it turns really threatening and loud and before you know it there has been another attack. After the attack everything goes back to normal and it is all silent and all you can hear is the water again and people talking about the attack. This shows that this makes the film really affective and that it really grabs the audience’s attention and gets them to the edge of their seats. Another example is that when it is silent on the beach, and you can just hear the water swaying, you can also just about hear the radio on the beach. Now by doing this Spielberg adds a lot of tension into the film and creates suspense. This is because if you can hear the radio, you just might be able to hear something that is important and might create suspense or maybe turn into a false alarm afterwards.

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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 ...

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