Jaws Shot By Shot - Part 2 - the Kintner boy

JAWSpart 2: the kintner boythe story so far: chrissie watkins’ mutilated corpse has been found on the beach after a ‘midnight’ swim. the coroner gave cause of death as shark attack. chief brody, in his first summer as chief of amity island police, wants to close the beaches.the mayor and his cronies can’t let that happen on the busy 4th july weekend, and the coroner backtracks on his verdict.jaws is an anamorphic wide screen film, sometimes expressed as an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. since 1970, the anamorphic aspect ratio is actually closer to 2.39:1, though still often expressed as 2.35.one of the key advantages of 2.35 is the ability to show close-up foreground action and background action at the same time.more than any other scene in jaws, the beach scene shows spielberg’s technical brilliance as well as his supreme ability to tell stories visually. this complex tracking shot starts at time index 00:13:02, as the fat woman walks into the water.the long take. alex kintner emerges from the sea, and the camera pans with his movement towards......his mother, reading her book and wearing her distinctive summer hat. alex wants to go out on his lilo. compare shot with spielberg’s storyboard. the music at this point is diegeticstill the same take. the camera now tracks alex up to the beach huts... splashes of yellow in the background.the same beach huts we earlier saw in the distance behind the deputy who discovered chrissie’s body...(...in other words, the beach huts are smack in the middle of the shark’s hunting ground — see inset)still the same take. the camera has tracked alex all the way to chief brody. again, classic 2.35:1 ratio mise-en-scène. brody in the foreground in close-up; in the background, the crowded beach and the empty lifeguard stations. the take ends at 00:13:40.seadogalexboyfat womanmumchief brodybeachhutsbeachhutsbeachhuts