Use of Music and Camera Angles in The Movie Jaws to Influence The Audience

The horror movie Jaws directed by Steven Spielberg is an award-winning film released in 1975. The film revolves around a killer shark that tormented Amity Island beach on summer holiday. This situation causes havoc throughout the city and between tourists trying to enjoy their summer vacation at the beach. Throughout the film Spielberg uses different techniques to add more suspense and stress towards the audience. Such that he does this by using two aspects which stood out the most to myself which were the use of music and camera angles.

The film begins with the scene of a young girl swimming at the beach called Amity island where she is attacked and killed by a shark. This first attack had little involvement with the main characters. This specific situation was used only for the purpose to scare the audience and build up tension. The girl’s body was found torn to pieces which added overall shock value to the audience. The result of this specific incident is chaos throughout the town. This situation scares the Sherriff overall making him want to close off the beach. Unfortunately for Brody the mayor does not like that idea at all because he doesn’t want to lose the money coming in from tourists. Marine biologist Matt Hopper and captain Quint offer to help Brody pursue his goal to capture the killer shark. This results in a somewhat war between the trio and the shark. Throughout the movie the shark continues to place attacks without being captured.

Therefore, the second attack occurred on the little boy Alex who was enjoying a day at the beach with his mother. Alex went out in the water alone with his yellow floaty and only a few minutes later the shark attacked causing the water to turn red and for bystanders to act frantically. This sconce was made to make the audience scared and make the connection that the shark will attack whenever it wants and in public wither it be close or far from shore. This situation causes the trio of consisting of the Sheriff, Brody and Hopper to kick their investigation into full force. As a result, they end up capturing and killing a tiger shark which they thought was the cause of the two deaths. Sadly, it wants the cause of these deaths was much bigger, they did not know this yet until the mayor announces that the shark crisis is death with and the beaches are open again for fourth of July. However, on fourth of July a third attack occurs which involves Brody's son.

Coincidentally that day the trio happened to be on full alert to watch out for the shark. Brody's son got a new boat for his birthday and he decided to try it out, Brody had told him to go to the pond where it would be safe. While Brody is watching for sharks a woman shouts there is a shark in the pond, so Brody runs to the pond and he comes to find the shark attacking a man beside his son. After severing the man’s arm the shark starts to target body’s son but ends up missing and goes back out to sea. The purpose of this scene was to make the attack more personal to the main characters and for the audience to feel for Brody because he is the one that tried to prevent this situation and it occurred between his own child. This also increased the motivation within Brody to want to capture and kill the shark.

The last and ending scene of the movie occurs with the trio being out at sea ready to capture and kill the animal that has been terrorizing their town. This scene is meant to make the audience scared of what could come next. The constant sound effects and sinking of the boat add panic. The climax starts to build as the shark attacks the boat and kills the captain. The moment of the attack on quint causes sadness which builds into an even stronger fear of how exactly this movie might end. Surprisingly, in a turn of events the hero perhaps Brody adds shock value to the end of the film by shooting and killing the shark with a rifle, a bittersweet ending to a traumatic event. One important aspect that was used in the film that played an important role is the use of music played in the title sequence where the shark is swimming. The song “between the weeds “is played in the background of every scene when the shark is about to attack or scoping out its next prey. The specific song that is played is to signify in the film that the shark is nearby, and an attack is inevitable.

In many horror movies specific music, sound effects or complete silence is used to scare the audience and build up tension to the unknown that is about to occur. For example, In the film silence is used after each attack, the silence is followed by showing the victim’s body or the blood around. It is easy to see directors use this long pause of silence to force the audience to reflect on the scene and just how gruesome it is, the result is them being more afraid of how much more gruesome it will get.

The second important aspect included in the film was the use of camera technique. In all films the use of camera technique is important. The different types of shots and angles set the tone and emotion throughout the scene. An example of this is in constant close-up shots and long shots the camera captures Brody’s face while observing the sea. In this specific scene the camera concentrates on Brody’s nervous face and incorporates the use of a mi dangle shot to show his arms are moving from fear. This scene is too showing the audience that Brody cares hugely about the attacks at the beach and wants to put an end to it.