Narrative Structure:
Jaws is a linear structure as its chronological order.
Beginning: audience is immediately introduced through the eyes of this unknown animal, threat, alien or fish creating tension as the non-diegetic sound of a beating sound indicates something wrongs going to happen or this character is dangerous. After that you are introduced to a group of rowdy teenagers on the beach signifying something is going to happen between this group of people and the mysterious character.
Middle: Sexual tension builds as a girl and a boy from the group of teenagers decide to run away from the group to jump in the sea,
End: the boy isn’t able to get in the sea as he is to drunk and ends up falling asleep on the beach whilst the girl carries on swimming far out to sea and is delirious to the fact of a dangerous creature lurking underneath her. She is alone and no one knows she is in trouble, whilst she getting attacked the buoy bell is ringing to signify danger but no one is there to help. After she’s been killed the sea is calm and silent again.
Thriller codes and conventions:
Concealment: the audience doesn’t know specifically what is under the water.
Partial Vision: the audience is introduced to the killer straight away by seeing through its point of view, as its underwater it takes a few seconds for the audience to click on where it is as its cloudy and murky( as it’s under the water) it disorientates the viewer.
Protraction: it delays what is going to happen and confuses the audience giving mixed messages to what is going to happen.
Question and answer model: the audience is left asking questions
· What is this creature under the water?
· Is she going to die?
· Why is she going into the water naked?
· Does she survive?
· Does he rescue her?
This makes the viewer carry on watching to find out the answers for such questions.
Transform city: the beach is seen to be a safe environment until this creature has turned it into a very dangerous place to be, leaving an lasting image on the audience as they could be reluctant to go the beach again.
Camera work:
We are introduced to this mysterious creature through using a point of view shot, seeing through the killer’s eye which disorientates and panics the audience as it takes a few seconds to understand your surroundings. As it cuts to beach full of teenagers a tracking shot is used to introduce to the characters to the audience. As relationship grows between characters a close up reverse shot is used to symbolise the sexual tension building between characters. The high angle shot taken of the group shows the vulnerability of the group being on the beach. When the characters run down to the beach long tracking shots are used, suspense and tension are built by long slow editing, in comparison to ‘Se7en’ when suspense and tension was built through quick cuts and fast editing, whereas the use of extreme long shot of the sea creates this suspense as you can see how eerie and lonely it is, creating this sudden fear against the sea. Like before using a reverse shot between the same girl and boy was to show the closeness and connection building whilst this time it’s to symbolise how far she is gone out to sea and this once closeness is now a far distance increasing her vulnerability being alone. As she is in the water the low under water shot would usually shows power in a character but this contradicts with that as she is far from powerful as she is oblivious that she’s getting stalked by a this mysterious creature- sending fear again to the audience as the audience is still unsure what’s going to happen and what it is. When the girl does get attacked it isn’t the camera what moves as it’s a static shot to dramatize this scene. As it cuts straight to boy in the midst of her attack you see a long shot of this boy lying on the beach to show how he’s safe and oblivious his is to what has gone on. The sequence ends again with another extreme long shot of the sea again is to contrast with that last image of the sea being danger, it’s still and calm again leaving no evidence of what has just happened.
Mise-en-scene:
As we are introduced to this creature under water the light is very dark to build up suspense to make the audience feel uncomfortable and scared, as they are unsure what is going happening. The warm colours from the campfire and beach contrasts with that last dark, cold image as the colours from the fire makes it feel a safe and warm environment.
The characters are dressed reasonable respectful and don’t seem aware of what lurks in the water as they all seem calm and relaxed. You assume underage drinking is going on as when the boy is running down the beach he is stumbling everywhere.
Sound
There is non-diegetic sound used soon as the film starts, which becomes the theme tune for this creatures appearance. The use of the theme tune builds up suspense and tension as the beat gets stronger and louder leaving the audience to feel scared and anxious for what’s going to happen next.
When we are introduced to the characters on the beach we hear brief diegetic sound such as dialogue and music playing from the guitar other than that the only time we hear sound again is when
Editing:
Eye line match of the creature under the water creates tension as you don’t know what is your looking through the eyes of. The use of cross cutting from the unknown creature to gang of teenagers also builds suspense as you there’s going to be a connection between this mysterious creature and this group of teenagers but it is not obvious to the audience yet going to be good or bad. Also the use of long takes builds this suspense as it drags out in comparison to ‘Se7en’ which uses fast cuts. Whereas in Jaws it’s unnecessary to use fast cuts as it’s not an action thriller.
Graphics:
The graphics are very simple being white on black, but they do look futuristic font- big and bold. The use of capital letter also shows importance to such names like the director who is last in the order. The title stands out from the rest of the credits as it over the point of view shot.
No comments:
Post a Comment