Jaws Cinematography

During the film Steve Spielberg uses music, a mysterious shark and camera techniques such as simultaneous track and zoom, long shot, close up shots and medium shots to build suspense, tension and scare the audience. The music represents the shark, especially its movements and its presence. In the title sequence the camera is moving along the seabed like a shark. Spielberg makes the audience believe that the camera is viewing things through the shark’s eyes, he uses a camera shot called point of view shot. The music makes the shark seem a mystery because you haven’t yet seen the shark but you can feel its presence. The music clouds your vision and makes you imagine and believe something that actually isn’t even there. It builds tension and the music gives a dramatic and eerie effect. Other example of how music of silence is used to scare the audience or build tension will be discussed next. The first scene, Chrissie strips to go swimming in the sea, the man from the same camp – where music is playing and the atmosphere is happy and relaxed – is chasing her towards the beach. The man is drunk and collapses; Chrissie has been in the sea already, for a long time on her own. The water is calm and you can here it lap against itself and brush up to the shore and a warning bell is heard that is used to warn ships and other obstacles. Suddenly the camera shot dips under the water, the dramatic music from the title sequence begins. The audience can see Chrissie swimming, as the music continues getting faster the sharks presence is made known to the audience. As the shark approaches her – her legs are dangling downwards under the water. Just as soon as we have a close up of Chrissie legs, the camera shot goes above the water watching Chrissie she looks around. Everything is silent, by surprise the shark suddenly pulls from below (the camera makes it believable). Chrissie starts screaming, there’s splashing, lots of tension as the shark underneath, supposedly biting her