OPENING SCENE

By Kirstie and Jay

For Media I analysed the opening of Jaws. Jaws is a 1975 American horror/thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel Jaws. The police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant great white shark by closing the beach, only to be overruled by the town council, which wants the beach to remain open to draw a profit from tourists during the summer season. After several attacks, the police chief enlists the help of a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter. Roy Scheider stars as police chief Martin Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as marine biologist Matt Hooper, Robert Shaw as shark hunter Quint, and Lorraine Gary as Brody's wife, Ellen.Jaws is regarded as a watershed film in motion picture history, the father of the summer blockbuster movie and one of the first "high concept" films.

Introduction

The Universal MCA company is the first thing to appear before the movie begins, its opens the film with under-water sounds to lead the audience into the film.

Before the film is shot the actors decide where their name will be presented on the billing, it is normally the highest paid actor who names appears first, sometimes left to right but sometimes top to bottom. In this case it is left to right.

The film opens with a underwater effect, this gives the audience a clue that something maybe lurking under the water. The title of the film JAWS appears as well. The seaweed behind the title could represent something hidden away at the bottom of the sea.

The opening of the film shows the sea at a sharks point of view. The music playing is written by John Williams who has also composed music of films such as Star Wars, Superman and E.T.

This is the first time we see the students in the film around a camp fire indicating that the mood is warm and bright, this is also shown from their face’s as they are glowing. The camp fire is elemental, symbolic and could be seen as warmth aswell as danger. We see the students smoking and drinking this is a clue that something bad is around the corner, as in most horror films the first one to die is the one smoking or drinking.

At the edge of the fire we see a young male smoking away from the fire’s warmth, with his eyes locked on....

.. A young female, the pair are separated from the rest of the group this shows that something bad will happen to one of them, she also has blonde hair.

A long shot of the camp fire shows the young female distance from the rest of the group another indicator that she is an outsider.

As the couple are running and undressing themselves to the sea, a fence is seen, the shape of the fence looks as if it is leading them into the sea.

We see the young female approaching the sea and also we see the broken fence, this indicating that the fence may of been breached before. Also the picket fence could symbolise the sharks long, sharp teeth.

After reaching the sea she dives and begins her swim .....

.... On the other hand we see the male in the shot who does not reach the sea because he is so drunk.

In this shot we see the female stretching her leg in the water with the buoy in the background together for the first, this indicating that the buoy will play a part in the next few scenes...

In the background we see what seems to be a sun rising, however later on in the film they report the female’s death at 11.50pm. This is a mistake made by Spielberg.

The point of view of the shark is shown in this shot. The light from the moon indicates that there maybe a way of safety but the female is unaware of what is lurking beneath...

The next point of view shot shows the female floating in the sea creating a silhouette, there is no light in this shot maybe indicating that her chance of safety is gone and her death is inevitable..

The final point of view shot shows that the shark is getting ever closer to its prey and the last shot of just her legs indicating the shark is about to attack...

This shot showing the female is being attacked, her head being pulled beneath the water indicates the power the shark possesses ...

... This close up shot shows her facial expression. The attack by Jaws is striking fear into her eyes...

These sequence of shots show the attack and in the background of the shot it shows the buoy appearing constantly over and over again showing she is trying to get to safety by clinging onto the buoy. The buoy maybe symbolising a way to safety but her death soon follows..

End of scene shows the water calm as if nothing has happened, the bell on the buoy rings in tone with the waves.

A match cut to a similar view of the sea, this shot sets the tone for the rest of the film. In jaws the sea is used as another character, it is where the shark lives and where all the killings happen...