Unit 26 film studies

Presentation

How we know he's an auteur.

In this we can see that Spielberg uses a variety of recurring themes throughout his body of work and this is what makes a film recognisable as a Spielberg film.

Cinematography.

In this scene, the focus is on the children so the shots are mainly from a child's point of view using lots of low angles making the audience feel just as vulnerable as those in the scene. The whole scene has a dark wash which suggests danger and isolation because no one’s there to help them. The camera constantly tracks the action and there are a few close ups of facial expressions. Spielberg's shot lengths vary, some are quick and some are longer using the camera to pan around the room so we can see all the action.

Jaws.

From watching this scene, we can prove Spielberg is an auteur because his camera shots are the same in the sense that he uses a lot of wide angles and his shot durations vary, the majority being longer and he pans across the beach to get everyone in the shot. He also uses the same cinematographer, Kaminski in this film as he did in Jurassic Park. There's also an over the shoulder shot that shows Brody from the other man’s point of view, it allows the audience to see him from his perspective and we're almost the first to see him change when he sees the shark attack. Spielberg also uses a depth of focus when Brody sees the shark attack called a dolly zoom, the camera focuses on his facial expression in the foreground of the frame and blurs out the background. This draws the audience in and makes us want to see what he's looking at in the off screen space.

Sound

In the Jurassic Park clip, the sound is mainly non diegetic as we can just hear the soundtrack and dinosaur noises which have been added in in post-production, there's a bit of diegetic dialogue at the start but this doesn't carry on throughout the scene. Both clips use music by John Williams who is a recurring composer for Spielberg's films, the non-diegetic soundtrack is used throughout the scene from Jaws but as we watch it, the music speeds up or gets more dramatic as we get to an important part in the narrative, mainly whenever a shark comes into the scene. This makes the audience aware that something is about to happen. This scene is mostly diegetic sound because the concept of the scene is more realistic being sat on a beach so naturally the sound will be mainly dialogue.

Comparison. 

A lot of people who've seen the film have criticised it for having an un realistic and multi strand narrative as the balance of a horror/comedy doesn't mix well.  After watching some of the scenes, there aren't any camera shots that stand out and there isn't anything that makes you think "This is a Steve Miner film", he doesn't use any colour washes or change the depth of focus it all seems average whereas Spielberg is a lot more technical with the way he shoots his films as he is diverse with his equipment using a hand held camera and not always using tripods. Also he uses colour washes to his advantage making the audience feel a certain way, in Jurassic Park some scenes have a light wash and colours are soft but as we move on to more dangerous scenes the colours are much harsher. This is the same in Jaws as on the beach all the colours are light but that can soon change into dark and much harsher colours.


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