Jaws

Jaws is possibly the best known and scariest movie that had created a sensation in the year 1975 winning world wide praise and appreciation because of the way it was presented. It was considered to be a benchmark in Hollywood movies encouraging a whole new genre of filmmaking. It was an important milestone in the illustrious career of the famous Steven Spielberg

Jaws gave rise to the phrase “the summer blockbuster” and were the first in the line of the “high concept’ movie. These movies were heavily dependent on strategic marketing plans that are based on pre-release methods of building up publicity for the movie. The other movies that followed in this genre were movies like Star Wars. Jaws was based on the novel of the same name by the successful writer Peter Benchley who had written the screenplay of the film but he was finally replaced by the Tony and Pulitzer award winning writer Howard Sackler. Carl Gottileb who appears in the supporting role of Meadows in the film also rewrote some scenes. There were three mechanical sharks that were used for the filming of the entire movie. These sharks were not tested in real ocean waters when they were developed by special effects artist Bob Mattey and production designer Joe Alves. Once these machines were placed on the ocean water they sank to the bottom. Changing the location of the shoot to a place that had a sandy bottom solved this problem.
Martha’s Vineyard at Massachusetts provided this perfect place, which helped the mechanical sharks to work properly. Production of the movie went over budget and encountered lots of problems initially. Shooting whole sequences on the sea became extremely difficult with cameras not working getting constantly soaked. The mechanical sharks malfunctioning because of corrosion of their internal machinery by salt water. There were so many problems faced by the crewmembers of the film that they nicknamed the film “Flaws”. It was so difficult to work with the mechanical sharks that Spielberg had to limit their use in the film. In most of the scenes in the movie the shark’s presence is understood from the yellow barrels that keep floating. These suggestions ironically worked for the movie since it created a Hitckockian effect of suspense. The original footage of the real sharks were created with the help of Ron and Valerie Taylor in Australia. They used a dwarf for the footage with sharks encircling them to create the illusion of huge tiger sharks. The film was so successful that it gave Steven Spielberg tremendous freedom as a creative director. In every contract that he signed from now on he had the complete rights to make the “final cut” which did not inhibit his vision as a director and gave him more freedom. Jaws won three academy awards and several nominations in different categories at the Oscars. Wikipedia

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