Boy and Visual Design
In the 1975 film Jaws, cinematography, sound, and visual design work together to enhance the tone and mood of this classic action, adventure tale. During two key scenes, "Blood on the Beach" and "Chrissie's Last Swim", these elements add intensity to the suspenseful and believable storyline.
In "Blood on the Beach", visual design, camera movement, and sound give the audience a sense of anxiety, horror, and dread. The scene opens with a long shot of a young boy walking out of the ominous water. The visual design of the beach uses mostly bright, cheery colors such as different shades of yellow, green, orange, and blue. This sets the mood as playful but anxious. The camera angle is mostly eye level. An editing technique called "eye-line match" is used when Chief Brody sees an older woman in the water floating and a mysterious black figure swims toward her. The sequence is him looking at the water with a straight face, then cuts to the water where the figure is swimming towards the woman, and then back to the chief who has a parnoid tone about him. He then realizes that the figure was an old man swimming. The over-the-shoulder shot is then used to frame and focus in on a girl in the water. When she screams Brody is fearful that the shark is attacking, but we are then shown that it is just her male friend putting her on his shoulders. This scream foreshadows an upcoming shark attack. We have diegetic sound as the kids run into the water. A line from the song "I Honestly Love You" is clearly heard; "But I got something to tell you, that I never thought I would". This refers to Chief Brody knowing about the previous shark attack and not telling anyone about it. As Ellen Brody tries to comfort the Chief, the mood of the movie is the exact opposite. The water splashes and kids scream as the noise on the beach loudens. The camera moves underwater and the non-diegetic noise is heard by the audience. The haunting instrumental music and the point of view shot puts us in
In "Blood on the Beach", visual design, camera movement, and sound give the audience a sense of anxiety, horror, and dread. The scene opens with a long shot of a young boy walking out of the ominous water. The visual design of the beach uses mostly bright, cheery colors such as different shades of yellow, green, orange, and blue. This sets the mood as playful but anxious. The camera angle is mostly eye level. An editing technique called "eye-line match" is used when Chief Brody sees an older woman in the water floating and a mysterious black figure swims toward her. The sequence is him looking at the water with a straight face, then cuts to the water where the figure is swimming towards the woman, and then back to the chief who has a parnoid tone about him. He then realizes that the figure was an old man swimming. The over-the-shoulder shot is then used to frame and focus in on a girl in the water. When she screams Brody is fearful that the shark is attacking, but we are then shown that it is just her male friend putting her on his shoulders. This scream foreshadows an upcoming shark attack. We have diegetic sound as the kids run into the water. A line from the song "I Honestly Love You" is clearly heard; "But I got something to tell you, that I never thought I would". This refers to Chief Brody knowing about the previous shark attack and not telling anyone about it. As Ellen Brody tries to comfort the Chief, the mood of the movie is the exact opposite. The water splashes and kids scream as the noise on the beach loudens. The camera moves underwater and the non-diegetic noise is heard by the audience. The haunting instrumental music and the point of view shot puts us in