How to recreate the best scene from ‘Jaws’
In the original summer blockbuster, Steven Spielberg pulled off a shot that’s equal parts uneasy and terrifying. We asked a pro to help us break down.
Video producer Benjamin Oliver and Boston area cinematogapher Beecher Cotton explore what it took to shoot one of JAWS’ most icon shots.
If you’ve seen Jaws, you know the scene: After a series of shark attacks, Chief Brody, played by Roy Scheider, watches beachgoers with increasing unease, unable to keep an eye on everyone at once. Suddenly, there’s splashing and screaming, and the camera finds Brody just as he realizes what’s happening in the water. While Brody’s face stays the same size in the frame, the background warps and distorts for about two seconds as his expression changes, an unsettling mix of realism and surrealism that brings the viewer right into Brody’s suddenly terrifying world.
The technique used to achieve the effect goes by several names, including the dolly zoom, the stretch-pull, the vertigo effect, or, sometimes, the zolly. Although it was used fairly often in mid-century films, thanks to the influence of Alfred Hitchcock, 40 years ago, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws re-popularized the dolly zoom, which you can see in later movies like Goodfellas and The Fellowship of the Ring. But Chief Brody’s look of horrified realization is still the most recognizable—and arguably the most effective—use of the technique.
So how did Spielberg get that shot? We met up with cinematographer Beecher Cotton at High Output, a film studio and professional lighting company in Canton, Massachusetts, to find out.
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