Films › Editing
Jaws
Directed by Steven Spielberg, 1975
Verna Fields cut around a malfunctioning mechanical shark, and the absence became the film's most famous asset. The beach attack sequence is built from short reaction shots and a dolly zoom, withholding the creature entirely. Suspense is created by the gap between the audience's knowledge and the characters' attention. It is the best available case study in editing as damage control turned into design. Fields, who had also cut American Graffiti, brought a disciplined sense of when to hold on a face rather than cut to the threat, and Spielberg has credited her assembly with teaching him how withholding information could be more frightening than showing it. The barrel sequences later in the film extend this principle by making an inanimate object stand in for the shark entirely, letting buoyancy and motion carry the tension instead of a visible creature. That substitution strategy remains standard practice for any production facing a limited or unconvincing effect.
What to watch for
Watch the first attack and count how much of the threat you actually see.
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