Analyse the ways that the director builds up suspense and scares the audience in the film JAWS

During the second attack camera angles are used to show different moods and tension is created within the audience. In the second attack the scene is calm and the children are having fun and this is shown by a midshot to show there joy and facial expressions. Brody is shown looking in the water and a close up shot shows his facial expressions and how they are nervous. When the audience see this the also start to feel nervous. Then the camera comes back to Brody and is looking even more nervous and frightened. The audience cannot see what is happening and as there is a scream the audience are briefly fear for the worst. When the actual attack takes place a long shot is used to show the general panic and shows how powerful the characters think the shark is. At the end of the attack there is a sudden silence and a close up shot is shown on a yellow lilo to let the audience take in what has just happened. Camera angles are very important in making the audience scared and to create suspense. Camera angles show the expressions on peoples face and keep the audience thinking.

Steven Spielberg frames the shark as being powerful and builds up fear for it. Music is used in many ways. In the title sequence music is used to show its actions and how close it is to its prey. Throughout the film the music is played to represent that the shark is coming therefore when the audience hear it they feel scared. The characters reactions show how powerful the shark is and the way they react to it shows that the shark dominates the water. The director represents the shark by slowly showing the audience more and more of what it is and what it can do. He makes the audience scared as we don’t want to see an innocent child being eaten.

Tension is built as the film goes on by revealing different things and by showing what the shark can do. The first attack doesn’t show any of the shark, the second attack shows a small amount of the shark and a bit of the damage it has done. Spielberg slowly reveals what the beast is and what it is capable of so in the third attack the audience expect to see more of the shark; this creates suspense. The audience do not want to see the shark kill the people on the beach as we see them as being innocent children. We especially don’t want to see any of Brody’s family killed as we see Brody as a person who just wants to help and is caring for people’s lives. At the end of the film Brody, Quint and Hooper set out on a boat to capture the shark. We see them on a small boat in the middle of the ocean; this gives the impression that they are helpless. The audience fear for them as they may be attacked by the dominant shark.

For me the scariest moment is the second attack as Brody was looking nervous and looking out to the water and I then felt that something bad is going to happen. I saw children playing and a boy innocently singing so I didn’t want them to be harmed. Brody’s son was also in the water and is a nice character that is helpless and dependent on his parents so I feared for him. Just before the attack there was a happy atmosphere however that all suddenly changed to the attack. This frightened me as it was so unexpected. At the end the pause and silence highlighted the extent of the attack.