DGA Monthly

1 0 I D G A M O N T H L Y The Director notes the fine balance between Spielberg's rigorous architecture, his carefully and elegantly constructed frames, blocking and camera moves, and the hint of the unexpected and improvised that's always there. Yates analyzes the scene where Brody and Hopper argue with the mayor about whether to close the beach, in front of a giant Amity billboard. "The film is filled with a very precise camera choreography that guides you through the story in very immersive ways, but there are some scenes that are covered with a simple one shot, like here. The figures come into frame, go out of frame, it finally takes you over to the Amity sign, there's the absurdity of the big fin, and I love Murray Hamilton's jacket with the anchors on it, just to make him look even more ridiculous. And Richard Dreyfuss being cut right at the neck there, and all of this is done in one long shot that extends to a couple of minutes, and all the choreography within the frame charts precisely who's gaining momentum in the scene, who's losing momentum, and all with very simple blocking, very little movement of the camera." Or the scene where the dialogue between Brody and the mayor unfolds in front of a static camera on the car ferry as it crosses the creek, and the horizon moves behind the frame to create an unsettling effect that mirrors Brody's unease. "It's a very canny use of the frame," Yates notes. "He does this several times in the film, with the camera locked off; it's all about the blocking and the performances." From his first viewing, Yates says he was aware of the guiding hand of the Director—in part, of course, because the 26-year-old boy wonder Spielberg had been widely profiled in the advance hype. "Even as a kid of 12, I felt there's a real storyteller here taking me through this world, a really safe pair of hands, who wasn't afraid to scare the hell out of us and also to make us laugh, and I liked that generosity of spirit," he says. "Coming back to the film that's somehow dictated the course of my life, that set me on this journey, makes me realize that the thing that stayed with me, before the Potters and after the Potters, is an investment in character and creating a world that is vivid yet true," Yates concludes. "But the other thing I've held with me is the idea of a filmmaker at the beginning of his career who was challenged every day with the weather, the light, the water, a mechanical shark that didn't work, and no doubt thousands of other problems along the way. Yet he held his nerve and often made a virtue of those challenges. That to me is as much an inspiration as the film itself." Continued from page 9 — In this reprint from the Spring 2019 issue of DGA Quarterly, Director David Yates waxes nostalgic on the mix of horror, humor and ingenuity in Steven Spielberg's Jaws. These days, so many of the problems that nearly sunk Jaws in production would be solvable by technology—whether that's the nightmare of continuity in an ever-changing seascape, the stubborn refusal of waves to take direction or a waterlogged shark. But there are dangers here, Yates warns. "They had a nightmare, didn't they? Now it's so much easier. I think Spielberg always emphasizes the character and the story over the effect. Whether or not that was his initial design, that's the real triumph of the film. The danger in this expanding universe of blockbusters is feeling that you have to somehow top everyone else, by adding more spectacle." "There's something really worrying about the limitless availability of some of these effects, and what you can achieve and execute now. So, as I'm preparing my next film, I'm channelling everything back through that thought—can we believe this, does it feel real? We want it to be grounded, because that keeps people within the story." Movies that best succeed, Yates argues, "always offer something quite grounded emotionally. "With the Potters, I always felt we weren't making 'movies,' we were making films, with bits of action and spectacle and magic thrown in. But fundamentally I felt they were dramas. The spectacle and the magic was icing on the cake." As Yates watches Jaws, he notes how happy accidents bring a freshness that could never be replicated in a studio, let alone in front of a green screen. Two boys hoax the crowded beach with a fake shark fin, and as they tread water and make their excuses to the angry policemen bobbing in their dinghies, one of the boys gets a mouthful of water from a stray wave. "He can't say his line properly, but it's an authentic moment, so Spielberg keeps it in." "What I've discovered on these big movies that of course, you prepare thoroughly because the resources you're deploying are significant, so you really have to do your homework with storyboards and previs cartoons and all sorts of things to figure out how you're going to get the best out of the material you've got. But often the best things, the most interesting things, will come on the day—things you haven't necessarily spent months thinking about. So, it's a balance between being absolutely thorough in your prep, but on the day being absolutely open to what the universe offers up to you." "When the shark didn't work, Spielberg realized he had to play with the audience's imagination a lot more, by not revealing it," says Yates. (Credit: Everett) "The film is filled with a very precise camera choreography that guides you through the story in very immersive ways. It finally takes you over to the Amity sign, there's the absurdity of the big fin, and I love Murray Hamilton's jacket with the anchors on it, just to make him look even more ridiculous." (Credit: Universal Pictures) See information on Eastern Region Special Projects' 50th Anniversary Screening of Jaws on page 19.

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