Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Jaws cinematography analysis
Jaws cinematography analysis
Jaws cinematography analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Jaws cinematography analysis
Jaws is a 1975 thriller that was directed by Steven Spielberg and is also based on a 1974 nook with the same name. The film is about a great white shark attacking Amity Island which is obviously not real but a fictional resort. -Steven Spielberg’s use of editing and cut scenes is one of the biggest factors in this movie. He uses contrast in certain scenes to amplify one and somewhat down play the other. The intensity in one scene can form an overstatement on what is really going on even when the setting itself is very relaxed. One scene the really exemplifies this is one of the first scenes when Chrissie runs into the water and is dragged under water by the unknown, but a bit after we realize that she is actually being attacked by a great white. The camera cuts back to Tom laying down, completely unware of the events presiding. Him laying down enjoying the sun is a complete contrast and also the slight note screaming that is playing is very opposite Chrissies which makes the intensity shoot up when we …show more content…
return to her in the water. The contrast between Chrissies struggle in the water and Tom relaxing on the sand only makes what is going on with Chrissie more horrible. It sets a somewhat tone for expectation that Chrissie will be taken completely under the water. More cinematography that was being used by Spielberg in jaws was symbolism.
He uses 2 symbolic elements constantly during the film. One of them is the use of colors especially yellow, which interpreted as a warning of danger. Examples of this are Chrissie being a girl with blonde hair, the childing having a yellow raft and the man in the boat with a yellow cord, and it is not by coincidence that shark attacks happened during these scene, Spielberg was trying to let the view know that a shark attack was underway. More use symbolism is the film is the shark itself, the shark brought 3 men together as friends and allies. When they first are together they were constantly arguing about the shark and how to kill it, but as time goes on they find themselves spending more time out at sea with the shark as a danger they develop a sort of bond. The shark is meant to bring Quint, Hooper and Brody together, and more to prove this is the meaning of Amity which means
friendship. Sound is also used in Jaws to help portray themes throughout the film. Both dialogue and music are used to focus the viewer’s attention on a certain aspect of the film. An example of this is when the Kitner child is out at sea on his raft and action continues on the beach. The events leading up to the shark attacking Alex is Broady sitting on the beach trying to focus on the water and here the music and dialogue gets quiet and it intensifies Brody’s fear of the shark attack. Another use of sound in the film is the constant haunting music, it is used throughout the film to emphasize the coming of the shark, The low tone suspenseful music is used to put thoughts of “Oh no what is about to happen” and fear. These sounds are a better way to connect us to the characters and especially by the music considering the characters can’t hear the music but it gives us that same gut feeling of something that is about to happen. The movies “Jaws” takes cinematography to another level with its sound, symbolism and editing and it is also is amazing that the view can see and feel all these works and it makes the film much more fearful and exciting.
The use of cinematography throughout this film helps to get the point of the film across to the audience. One of the most iconic scenes in this film features near the ending, in the background there is sound of an ongoing war which represents the war against the indigenous culture, while ‘Dave’ and ‘Gail’ are in a tent together holding hands. The camera zooms in on their hands, and the audience can see the difference between the skin colours, it shows how close they are regardless of what has happened in the past.
...olours of the opening scenes combines with the horrid lifestyle of Vaughn and Lena, whilst the greens and clouded with droplets of rain as they drive over the range brings in the ideas of hope and a future for both of the characters. The vital role the changing images that surrounds the pair gives insight into the influence of settings on plot and character development.
In the very first scene the audience views there is a man shaving and has radio blaring in the background. An alarm clock goes off in a different apartment and the viewer is trying to find out where the noise is coming from which makes them engaged in the film. The setting creates depth because the audience only sees what Jefferies is viewing. At the dinner party, the music playing in the background set a tone to audience making them feel what he is missing out on. There is an alleyway shown from the window and it very crowded. The alleyway represents Jefferies being isolated
Based on Peter Benchley's bestselling novel, 'Jaws' centers around the fictional North Atlantic resort island of Amity, which finds itself terrorized by an enormous great white shark. Our hero is Martin Brody, a New York cop who took the job as Chief of the Amity PD to get his family out of the city and then finds himself in the midst of an unprecedented crisis none of his prior experience has prepared him for. The remains of young Christine Watkins are found on the beach, the apparent victim of a shark attack(Chrissie Watkins' death scene at the opening of the movie is one of the most legendary in the history of film). Chief Brody wants to close the beaches, but is refused permission
Symbolism is important in film because it is used as a physical representation of another idea or object. The definition of a symbol is something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention, especially a material object used to represent something invisible. For example, a lion symbol is used to represent courage and strength while the color red is used to represent love, violence, anger, and seduction. In M. Night Shyamalan’s film Unbreakable (2000) he uses three symbols to represent, weakness, good vs. evil, and fragility. M. night uses water as a sign of weakness for David just like Kryptonite is to Superman, color is also
In a crucial scene in Jaws, chief Martin Brody must use his mistake as guide for to him complete his goal of saving the town from the antagonistic shark. After catching a tiger shark, the local town fishermen all celebrate their victory together with Brody and the mayor believing they have solved Amity Island’s problem. Soon the mother of the deceased child who was killed by the great shark appears on the boardwalk. Her costume, a solid black dress appropriate for a funeral, contrasts with the bright sunny day on the beach that is represented with high-key lighting. The dress also symbolizes the mother’s multiple feelings of mourning for her child and her anger towards Brody, which again juxtaposes the feelings of success among Brody and the fishermen. Her conversation with the police chief is executed through a shot-reverse shot sequence but she catches Brody’s attention with a smack to his face. She goes on how Brod...
Layton chose dull, simple colors throughout the majority of the film. These choices of colors appeal to pathos. The dull colors of black and gray stir emotions- such as sad, depressed, and even scared. Thus, the use of these colors provides a perfect setting to urge the audience to keep watching. The director also decided to use darker colors when memories, old videos, or reenactments occurred in the film. This helps set them apart from the interviews and make them seem older or in the past. The interviews had little sparks of color, compared to the reenactments, but the colors were still simple and on the duller side. Although, there was more color in certain places of the film. For example, when Bourdin was imposing as Nicholas and he was riding home with the Barclay family, everything was good and things were not yet complicated; therefore, Layton decided to add more color to the scene, as well as choose more cheerful
...here the dark can conceal many things, such as a killer. Another thing that I noticed was the lack of special effects. During the shower scene, besides the music score, the only sounds were the screams of Marion and the stabbing sounds. The knife also did not touch her flesh but it is instead left to the imagination to the viewer to put together the scene. This is a very sharp contrast to what modern horror films do. Often, more modern horror films will use a lot of special effects to make it actually look like a head was hacked off or that a knife went right through someone's chest. While this does look very gory, more often than not this cheapens the overall effect of it when compared to the execution of the stabbing done in this scene. Rather than the intended effect of looking horrifying, it often is poorly executed and at best is cheesy and maybe a bit bloody.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, Jaws (Spielberg, 1975) figures into one of the most iconic films in the history of Hollywood filmmaking most notably for the visual experience that is created with the creative use of various tools of filmmaking that allow its impact to be felt even now. The classic Amity Island beach scene shown in the clip artfully uses editing techniques like long takes, wipes, split diopter, point of view shots, the zolly, and background score to intensify the suspense ridden impending shark attack without actually showing the shark.
...successful collaboration of sound, colour, camera positioning and lighting are instrumental in portraying these themes. The techniques used heighten the suspense, drama and mood of each scene and enhance the film in order to convey to the spectator the intended messages.
The tone is created through the repetition of darkness exhibited throughout the story. This repetition creates a symbolic significance of danger and terror which adds to the overall mood of the story. An example would be when the sea is described: “the dank tropical night that was palpable as it pressed its thick warm blackness” (Connell 317). This repetition continues Zaroff goes out only during the night to search for Rainsford which conveys a suspenseful tone. The tone is also created through the dialogue between the characters such as the conversation between Whitney and Rainsford they speak about hunters and prey and the fear the sailors have of the island (Connell 318). This dialogue is used as foreshadowing that unveils to the reader the sense that something bad is going to happen. In addition, the point of view of the story also clues the reader to the tone. The fact that the reader only knows what Rainsford is thinking and doing means that the whereabouts of Zaroff during the hunt is unknown until Rainsford sees or hears him. This emphasizes the creepiness and suspense of the story because the reader, like Rainsford, always have to be on the lookout for Zaroff. The tone of the story affects the readers understanding of the external conflict between Rainsford and Zaroff. The suspense and creepiness coveys to the reader the seriousness of Rainsford trying to evade and attack
Based off the previous answers given, symbolism played a crucial role in this movie because it contrasted to the imagery of the setting. The most obvious symbol in the movie is water. While water was already touched on a bit in past questions, there is a lot more to extrapolate. Water in this movie did not represent a universal symbol but a cultural symbol so research needed to be done to fully understand the meaning of water. Water, as stated previously, water represents the adaptation, especially from a mental and/or emotional standpoint. Water can be viewed as destructive or soothing. Water came up in parts of the movie when a characters was evolving. A character that fully displayed the symbol of water was Sayuri. Sayuri was forced to change from
In “The Shark” by EJ Pratt, the poet tends to use “he” when referring to the shark. The poet also describes the shark in a way that leads us to think that the shark is a symbol representing war. The poet suggests this by using metal descriptions of the shark such as “sheet iron”, “three-cornered”, “knife-edge”, “tubular” and “metallic grey” (4-6, 10, 19-20). So it could be that the poet is doing this to associate the shark with weapons used as war alas the association of metal in the poem. In my version, the shark is “she” rather than “he”. This changes the meaning of the poem. The meaning that I am trying to send to the readers is how women tend to think of each other. In the original version, the poet associates the shark with metal description. In my version, the metal descriptions as mentioned above are now “pennant flag”, “silvery grey”, “keen-edge” and “cannular” (4-6, 10, 19-20). Women are different from men. They do not use violence to solve matters, but rather they use their words and intelligence. When using these words, you can feel the change of tone from a harder tone to a softer one which is similar to the difference of violence and words. In line 15, the shark snaps at a flat-fish. In my version also line 15, the shark only glowers because females are not as aggressive as males. Females tend to look down upon other females just as the shark is doing in the poem.
beast conflict without abandoning character development, removing the inconsequential sub stories which ended with the massively successful theatrical spectacle that has won many accolades. Some of the most common criticism of the novel was directed to the human characters, stating that none of the humans were very likeable or even interesting. Steven Spielberg confessed the shark was his favorite character saying he the characters unsympathetic and wanted the shark to win. Jaws won three Academy Awards for Best Film Editing, Best Original Dramatic Score, and Best Sound. John Williams's score won the Grammy Award, the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music, and the Golden Globe Award. Jaws was, also, chosen Favorite Movie at the People's Choice Awards. American Film Institute ranked “Bruce” the shark at number 18 on its list of the 50 Best Villains.
Therefore, it is possible to notice how the cinematography, the mise-en-scene and the editing are used to resemble the peculiarities of the space in which the actions are taking place. For instance, the first part is characterized by long pan or tilt shots, the camera is steady but still manages to follow the characters actions. The editing points to the linear occurring of the events. Also, the characters and the objects are usually methodically placed in the scene. All of the elements are used to convey the rigid organization, efficiency and control typical of the military environment. On the other hand, in the second part, there are usually shorter shots and steadicam shots. The camera is free to investigate the space of action. Here, the editing is used to create a dynamic perception of the events. In this way Kubrick is able to bring in the spectators’ minds the chaotic reality of the war. Moreover, colors become another tool to communicate to the audience this sort of split within the film. In fact, after Pyle’s death the viewer can notice how those metallic and cold colors, that are present at the beginning of the film, shift into wormer colors. It is actually through Pyle’s suicide that the the spectator gets this switch. In that scene the dark red blood stains, and ideologically violates, the cold white tiles of the bathroom. This film is also different on