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FilmSkool — a free film school

Jaws - How Spielberg Creates Suspense on the Beach

Breaks down the blocking, cutting rhythm and background staging of the beach sequence, showing how tension is built entirely through what's kept off-camera.

The Discarded Image · 15 min · Intermediate · DIR · Directing · 2018

What you take away

Try staging a scene's danger in the background while your foreground stays calm.

Watch it

Filed under

The films of Steven Spielberg

Oscar winners for directing

The Godfather Part II (1974)

Books on directing

The director’s monitor

Accsoon CineView SE — Video to a phone, for under three hundred
Accsoon CineView Quad — Four inputs, switchable — a tiny multicamera village
PortKeys BM5 III WR — Monitor that can also run the camera
Hollyland Mars 4K — 4K wireless to four phones at once
Atomos Ninja V — The 5" recorder-monitor that made ProRes RAW normal
Atomos Ninja (5") — The current 5" recorder-monitor

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