By Chloe Abraham

Analyse the ways Spielberg uses the camera to create meaning in the film “Jaws”.

This shot is a establishing shot. It is making the audience aware of the film’s setting. This shot is also a tracking shot. It follows the path of the boy going from the sea, onto the beach to go and talk to his mother. They have used a tracking shot because you can see more of the surroundings relative to the character. This shot shows three lifeguard chairs in the one shot which are empty. This tells the audience that if there is trouble at the beach, there are no professionals to save the day.

This shot is also an establishing shot, but this time it is showing the surroundings of a different character. This shot is a medium close up and a long shot. The sheriff on the right is in the foreground in a medium close up whereas the people on the left are in the background in a long shot. The expressions of the people and the sheriff contrast to one another. The people in the background are happy and are enjoying themselves at the beach, whereas the sheriff looks concerned and worried about something. Also, the sheriff is fully clothed in dark clothing, whereas the people in the background are wearing colourful swim suits. This shows the contrast between the happy people in the background and the sheriff who is worried and concerned.

This shot shows an extreme long shot of a person floating in the sea. The person is in the centre of the screen drawing attention to themselves and showing the audience that the person is what they should be focusing on in this shot. There is no one else in the shot which shows that the person is isolated from everyone else. The person looks very small and vulnerable in this shot because it is taken from such a long way away. There are three layers to this shot, the sand, the sea and the sky. The sea is the biggest section in this shot which draws the attention to the sea and what is in it. Also, in this shot, the sea is very calm. We can tell that nothing is going to happen yet because everything is very peaceful and still.

These shots show the dog and the boy going into the sea. Both the shots are long shots. By the dog and the boy entering the sea, they have caused a disruption in the sea. The sea is no longer calm and peaceful.

These shots show the sheriff. These shots are like a zoom in but a zoom is just one shot, whereas there are multiple shots. Each shot gets closer and closer to the sheriff. Between each shot, people walk in between the sheriff and the camera. These people are blocking his view from the sea. These shots have a shallow depth because the main focus is on the sheriff and not on the people walking in front of the camera.

These shots are point of view shots. First we are looking at the sheriff and then we are looking at the person in the sea. We presume in our minds that the sheriff is actually watching the person in the sea. However this does not mean that these to shots were filmed at the same time.

These shots are over the shoulder shots and also point of view shots. Over the shoulder shots allow us to see the location of the characters relevant to each other.

This shot shows a deep depth. The sheriff is in the foreground, the lady he is talking to is in the mid ground and the children are in the background. All three layers are in focus because all three layers are as important as each other. The sheriff has been distracted, and in that one moment when he is not concentrating, all the children go into the sea.

This shot shows the point of view of the shark. We can tell this because of the music being played. The music is non-diegetic (added in afterwards).

This shot is called a contra-zoom. This is when the camera is zoomed in while the camera tracks forward. In this example it shows the emotion of realisation on the sheriff’s face when the shark has attacked. Usually this shot is used to show the emotion on feeling uneasy.

This shot is a long shot. It shows the boy’s lido which has been destroyed. The lido has been deflated much like the boy who has drowned. Also in this shot you can see the colour red in the sea. This represents the boys blood which is iconography of death. The colour of the lido makes the colour of the blood more noticeable.