Jaws - Creating a legendary film Pt 5

Shooting locations

Exterior shots were filmed on Island of Martha’s Vineyard Massachusetts on 2 May of 1972. There were thoughts about eastern Long island but Martha’s Vineyard offers two advantages for the producers of Jaws.

1. According to David Brown they wanted a vacation area that was a tourist destination of the lower middle class - so that it can be believable to audience that the appearance of the shark will destroy the local tourist industry.  

2. The coast line of Martha’s Vineyard had a sandy bottom that is not deeper than 35 feet (11m) from the shore - so mechanical shark model were able to operate.

The underwater shot were filmed at Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer water tank in Culer City California and in Santa Catalina Island (California).

The Ben Garden’s body scene is an underwater scene, where the marine biologist Hooper finds the head of local fisherman Ben Gardner in a swimming pool in Enchino California - using a fake body placed at a boat hull.

Real Shark attack footage from Australia

Real Shark attack footage from Australia, Ron and Valery Taylor shot real shark attack footage from Australia. Especially they used a miniature scuba cage to create the illusion that the real shark was huge. This real footage was incorporated in film.

Mechanical Effects

Joe Alves designed three full size shark models, they were fabricated at Rolly Harper’s Motion Picture and Equipment Rental in Sun Valley. The contruction process of the three models was supervised by mechanical efects supervisor Bob Mattey known in cinema industry for his work in film 2000 lEagues under the sea (she had created a giant squid). The models were giant and there was a need for extra divers to locate sharks at the ocean bottom and other 14 men to operate the models.

Cinematography Innovations

The film director of Jaws, Steven Spielberg wanted the camera to resemble what swimmers and shark attack victims see, as a result a cinematographer Bill Bulter innovated and he created a rig to keep the camera stable and a sealed submarine camera box to film the underwater action. All innovations created in an effort to facilitate the marine and underwater shooting of Jaws.

The final film

The production of the film went over budget and had a vary troubled shooting. The real location shooting approach and the use of full sized sharks and the realistic performance of the shark caused not only delays but also changes at the shooting script.

Actually there was a unrealistic performance of shark models. The director of Jaws - Steven Spielberg decide to hint the unrealistic shark models and to show only the affects of shark presence rather than the shark itself. Examples of this technique are:

(1). During the scene of shark hunt, the location of the shark is showen by yellow barrels and not by showing the shark itself.

(2). The opening scene, where the giant shark is not showen to the audience, but the a young woman is being devoured by shark. Steven Spielberg used soft cables to drank and yank the young actress in an effort to simulate the shark attack.     

Actually, mulfuctions and unrealistic performance of shark models and the desicion to hit shark models from the audience have added suspense to Jaws film and as it was announced by Steven Spielberg “The film went from a Japanese Saturday marine horror flick to a more a Hitchcock film - the less you see the more you get thrilled”  - “The shark not working was a godsent. It made me became more Alfred Hitchcock than the Ray Harryhausen” as a result the acting became more critical fpr making the audience believe in the giant shark. “The more fake the shark looked in the water, there was more need for actors realistic performance”.

Elias Stoikos

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Jaws - Creating a legendary film Pt. 2

Writing the Film Jaws

The Universal producers David Brown and Richard Zanuck when bought the film rights of the Jaws novel promissed to auther of the book Peter Benchley to write the scripr of the film. Peter Benchley wrote three different drafts of the script and announced to producers that “I’m writting out on this, and that is the best I can do”. Also, during the principal photography of film Peter Benchley returned and played the part of a young reporter.

Steven Spielberg’s approach to Jaws adaption (from book to screen)

Steven Spileberg wanted to follow the base concept and storyline of Jaws book, and he wanted to avoid confusion to audience by filming sub - plots of the book. Steven Spielberg liked the final part of the book “the shark hunt” and his idea was to use the main  storyline of the book and base the first two acts of the film on original screenplay and follow the book only at the third act.

Steven Spielberg wanted to remove the book’s sub plot about the love afair of police officers wife Ellen Broody with Matt Hooper (marine biologist).

Steven Spielberg wanted to avoid the project to be dark and just a sea adventure. He wanted the film characters to be belivable, alive and to capture the iterest of the audience. Spielberg wanted to polish the screenplay of jaws. He approached the scrennwriter John Byrun, but he refused to participate then he approached the makers of “Columbo” William Link and Richard Levinson but they refuse, too.

Finally, Howard Sackler (a Pulitzer price winner) and Sugarland Express writers Mathew Robinson and Hal Banwood offered an uncredited rewrite to Jaws script. Also, as I have already mentioned Steven Spielberg wanted to add jokes and humour in film, there was a need to avoid making a dark marine thriller / adventure. Steven Spielberg’s offer to Cottlieb was to make changes in script and if he wanted to play a part / role in the film. Carl Cottlieb, agreed and he contributed to the project firstly by accepting “a one week dialogue polish” deal, which finally turned to be a nine - week script rewriting project during the period of film’s principal photography.

The meals with Gottlieb and the other members of crew and cast

Actually the script of each scene was discussed before the shot, each night during the period of principal photography the next day’s programmed to film scene was resented and was discussed for what would go into the film. Actually a large number of dialogue originated from actor’s inspirations during these meals and on the set few new lines of dialogue where created, as Roy Scheider’s line “You’ ve gonna need a bigger boat”.

Steven Spielberg’s Screenplay draft

According to  Steven Spielberg :Interviews, the film director had prepared also his own draft script, but he can not find any reliable information on the degree that influence the other screenplay writers.

Elias Stoikos 

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Jaws- Creating a legendary film

From an idea to a Blockbuster (Jaws Film)

The film Jaws is based on Peter Benchley's novel with the same name. Benchey was inspired by the sport fisherman Frank Mudious’s capture a gigantic shark in 1964. The character of professional shark hunter Quint, was created by Sackler when he was researching the World War II USS Indianapolis disaster. In my opinion  the most dramatic scene in Jaws is the Quint’s monologue about the disaster of USS Indianapolis and the shark attacks to castaways. The plot of the novel is about a giant - man eater sharks attacks to summer swimmers in a fictional town in East cost of United States. The story line of the book has two levels of conflict - the first conflict is between the local police officer and the local business community and the Mayor of the small - island town - police officer wants to close the beach but Mayor had a different idea because summer tourism is the only revenue resource to small town. The second level of conflict is about the fight of local police man - a marine biologist and a  professional shark hunter - against the giant man eating shark.

The acquisition of Jaws novel film rights

Universal pictures producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown heard about the Peter Bencley’s  novel “Jaws”. Both producers read the book during a night and at the next morning they decided that Jaws is a great fictional story that can be a great film. There were also many obstacles most of them related with filming the scenes of giant - moster shark.

Finally Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown bought the film rights rights of Jaws novel in 1973 for $175.000. David Brown claimed that if they had read the Jaws twice they would never have produced the film Jaws because of the difficulty to film action scenes with a monster shark.

Choosing the director for Jaws

The first candidate on Zanuck’s and Brown’s list was veteran filmmaker John Sturges who has directed in the past the maritime adventure - “The old man and the sea”. The second candidate was Dick Richards, but he used to describe the giant man - eating shark as a whale and the team of proiducers dropped him from the project.

Finbally, Steven Spielberg who was just 26 years old and he has just directed his first theatrical fim “Sugarland Express” (I need to mention that during the period of Steven Spilberg’s selection Sugarland Express had not been released) for Universal producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown. The first project of Steven Spielberg was the TV movie Duel.

Steven Spielberg loved the idea of Jaws but he feared also to be typecast as a “truck and shark director”. Finally and hopefully for us the fans and students of horror films and cinema Steven Spielberg was convinced to direct Jaws. Producer David Brown convinced the young film - director to direct the film project by saying to him, “after Jaws you can make any film you want”. After three decades, we can say that David Brown was so true and so correct about his decision and his idea about Steven Spielberg and the following Spielberg’s film projects.

Elias Stoikos

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