Blog #2: "What I see" - Camera Technique in Jaws

In some films, it can sometimes be very difficult to know exactly what the cinematographer or film director was trying to do to add to the overall feel of the movie. Jaws is not one of those movies. On the contrary, Jaws is one of those films that not only has great acting and an awesome plot, but a fantastic use of camera technique displayed throughout the entire film.

This movie is referred to, by many of the people who worked on it, as “the most expensive hand-held movie ever made.” Because of the size of most cameras at the time, very few could be handled on open water, moving from boat to boat to boat or on rough waves. As such, they decided to use a hand-held camera for most shots. Though heavy, they were very balanced. The operator was able to get many different angles and lengths of shots of the boats and actors in actual open water.

One of the main technical cinematic points of the movie is the shark itself. Now, you should be thinking “Wait….what shark? I don’t remember seeing any shark, not until the last 40 minutes of the movie.” But you aren’t thinking that. And that is what makes Jaws such a fantastic film.

You see from the perspective of the shark, you see the aftermath created by the shark, but you hardly ever see a physical shark. Yes, it is true, some of this is brought on by the fact that the mechanical monster used in the movie was never supposed to touch salt water, but that, in my opinion, is just a technicality. Spielberg easily could have said, “let’s buy another shark.” Instead, he placed the movie in the hands of the film director and cinematographer, and said, “let’s do this.” True, they had to improvise, compromise, and fill in the blanks because of said malfunctioning sea beasty, but it was their ability to work so efficiently with these massive compromises that makes the illusion of the shark so undeniably realistic.

As already stated, many of the camera angles take place from the point of view of the shark: Underwater, dark, gracefully swimming past the kicking legs of the unsuspecting beach goers. The final shot of the attack is never from the point of view of the shark, but is always of the reactions of the surrounding people in each scene. One of the most memorable moments is when we see the long shot from the beach to the boy attacked in the water. It’s shot as if we are a bystander. Then, suddenly, the camera cuts back to a series of close ups on Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) as he takes in the panic occurring in the waves. We can’t really tell what is going on, but there is no doubt in our mind as to what has just happened. As there is no real dialogue in that scene—a side from screaming—It is undeniable that it is the camera work that truly captures it.

Another good example of technique is the appearance of the marker barrel while the three men are in the boat cabin. Earlier in the movie, the “shark” has submerged with the barrel, vanishing. Some time later, while the men are drunk and singing in the cabin, a long shot of the boat shows us their position in the distance, while the yellow barrel slide into a close up in the frame, moving towards the boat. A cut to the men again allows us to believe that the two events are occurring simultaneously and that an attack is imminent.

The feel of the movie Jaws is constant suspense. Because we never actually see this rusty, sharp-toothed contraption, the audience becomes uneasy at almost every moment the ocean is in view. We fear the open water as much as we fear the unknown thing in it. This is all thanks to the camera work. Since the thing we fear isn’t viewable, let alone even there half the time, our emotions are projected onto the water itself. It is the illusion, created by this technical choice, that we fear.

That, and of course, the sound track, with it’s fantastically ominous half step…dunnn dun……