1. The movie was inspired by the true events of a shark attack in Portland, Peter Benchley used it as inspiration to write a novel, from there they used the novel to create the film where Benchley was a screenwriter.
2. The scene where Brody's son was being saved by a man who was torn from the torso was deleted because it was deemed to gruesome for the movie and the scene was replaced.
3. They commissioned filming of Great White Sharks in the seas of South Australia. The experts over there didn't have big enough sharks so they used a smaller cage and a smaller actor to emulate the effect of the shark's monstrosity. The shark whilst filming got it's head caught and struggled endlessly, no one was in the cage so the makers of the film changed the script to fit that part into the final product.
4. The shark was seen as the top star, so they didn't need to cast any big names, instead they chose the better actors, Roy Scheider was cast whilst being at a party where he met Spielberg, Dreyfuss originally wanted to watch the movie, not be cast as he thought it would be difficult to shoot, but after seeing a previous perfomance of his that he thought was unsatisfactory he decided to join the cast.
5. They took several photos of different locations to decide where they would film, they decided to film a quiet resort in Massachusetts where the area was small enough where during filming in the sea, the coast wouldn't be visible to create a sense of alienation for the audience, that there was nowhere to go.
6. Actors were allowed to improvise on the script, Roy Scheider for example, after the first reveal of the shark, makes the comment "We're gonna need a bigger boat."
7. A composer compiles the score to a film, usually using an orchestra to assist him. Film wasn't very captivating without the music. John Williams was the composer. Under water sequences were taken into account as being most prevalent when it came to the score, a sense of suspense was created. 'Pirate music was used'. Slow music, with bass characterised the shark. The 'bom bom bom', represented an unstoppable attack. Could be easily altered, 'The best idea was the simplest one'. Wanted to use the music as a signal for the shark. When they didn't use music and the shark came out of nowhere it created a sense of fear as audience are accustomed to the signal. Combination of sound and image effected the memory. To quote Spielberg, "Responsible for half the success of the movie."
8. Test screening of the scene with the Bed Gardner head didn't get a reaction with the audience, so he spent $3,000 of his money in filming it again to create a more frightful scene.
9. Wanted to use camera at water level, at a human point of view. Also used a handheld camera technique, which proved rather effective and was ended up being used for the majority of the film.
10. Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual and audible media of a film to be used to convey information through the processes of correction, organisation, and other modifications in the film, performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete output. Verna Fields was the editor of Jaws. Known as 'Mother Cutter', cooked for the crew, told stories and more importantly cut the film. Never had enough film to cut, didn't do much until the final product where she worked hand in hand with Spielberg editing the film.
11. They were essentially overseeing the entire project and wanted to convey the interpretation of Jaws to the production, it was very tense as at times they thought their careers as producers would disintegrate if the film failed which seemed to be the likely outcome for a time.
12. Had to watch the final version of the film. During post production phase they arrange for distribution. The producer would also collect any Best Picture award rather then the director.
13. A production designer, in this being Joe Alves for Jaws, would collaborate with the director throughout the film, they were responsible for the overall look of the film. From special effects to stylists, to scenes etc they wanted to establish a unified visual experience.
The role I believe would suit me most would be the Producer role, I'd love to be the one taking the risk and overseeing an entire production and the challenge that was brought upon with the spending of the film's budget.
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