Jaws film opening analysis
- 1. AndrewGoldman A-LEVELMEDIA STUDIES : Thriller Films dark themes are immediately communicated through the film’s opening shots. These are connoted through the dark under the sea images. The opening of Jaws follows the pattern of many other traditional narratives - that is engaging the audience and set the tone of the film. Spielberg expertly creates interest for his audience with the initial slaying, in turn helping them to feel somewhat attached and connected with the events appearing on screen as a result of the Point of View camera shot – a rather sickly notion of the audience actually being the shark itself just before the kill. As the film progresses, the audience meets a group of teenagers partying on a beach. They are drinking, smoking and playing music – thus indicating their carefree nature and the fact they are oblivious to the potential danger that is nearby them. As an audience, there is also anticipation that tragedy and violence will occur to these characters, as teenagers are often targeted as victims within modern cinema (particularly those films within the horror/thriller genre). The low, continuous, ferocious, thrilling score is a representative of the thrilling genre of Jaws. The titles end just before the music approaches its peak, creating suspense and anticipation for the audience as to what will appear later in the film. Without a particular chorus as it were for this score the audience feels somewhat restricted as this forceful beat keeps coming and can’t be stopped, John Williams brilliantly simple yet frightening theme is a wonderful representative of the rest of the filmas there are direct relations between the sound in the opening scene to the rest of the films narrative: a battle of Man vs Shark. Typography of Jaws – Red font colour on poster connotes danger and blood which foreshadows what’s going to happen proceeding the titles and throughout the film. Whereas during opening titles ‘Jaws’ title is in white, this both gives the shot a smoother look as the colouring blends and creates a sense of momentary tranquillity – everything is initially white but will soon turn red. The opening of Jaws followsthe pattern of many other traditional Thriller narratives - that is engage the audience and set the tone of the film.Spielbergexpertly creates interest for his audience with the opening scenes kill,in turn helping them to feel somewhat attached and connected with the eventsappearing on screen as a result of the Point of View shot of the Shark. This camera shot and the fact that we don’t see the Shark in the opening scene which brilliantlyfollowsthe principle of a Thriller, it’s what you don’t see that can be truly thrillingand allows the audience to use their imaginations to create the most thrillingimages by themselves.