Jaws: Different Film Techniques

When thinking about famous movies, many come to mind. You got comedies, scary movies, or action movies. Out of these genres, one action movie stands out and is an American classic. Jaws came out in 1975 and was directed by Steven Spielberg, after the book came out the year before. Jaws was based around three characters, a police chief, sailor, and a scientist seeking a great white shark. During the beginning of the movie, two innocent people get killed and the police chief, Brody, suspects it is a shark that has attacked them. Jaws became a major must see for years to come. Jaws uses many different film techniques to keep the audience suspenseful, make the overall movie better. At the beginning of the film the music that plays in the back ground is soft and quiet. This makes the audience feel suspicious that something is going to happen, as the shark swiftly moves through the weeds in the murky water as the tension on the audience builds up. In this movie, we don’t actually see the shark at first, this plays on the viewers mind by not knowing what is going on. Spielberg uses the, now famous, low threatening music, that starts off slow and progressively get faster. This foreshadows to the viewer that the shark is around. The theme music to Jaws is widely known for suspense. It is even used today in films and on people's mind, when something bad happens, it is usually playing. Another way this movie uses suspense is by never really showing the shark, except for brief flashes of a fin here or there, when the big attack takes place. The actors and actresses in this film were no one big as far as movie stars. Spielberg did this to make it seem like this could happen to any one of us. This clever idea made this movie as great as it is because of how people reacted to it. Film techniques were used in the movie such as when the camera stops and focuses on a man smoking and drinking beer, then the film cuts to a girl sitting opposite of him. Another technique used is