Jaws Infograph

The Production History of

Answering Questions

The Cast

by Seamus Trainor

Filming Issues and restraints

Production Timeline

About the Director

Who's Bruce?

Work Cited

The Cast

John Williams

Music composer

Richard Dreyfuss

as Matt Hooper

Verna Fields

Film Editor

Roy Scheider

as Martin Brody

Robert Shaw

As Quint

Robert a. Mattey

Supervisor of team in charge of Shark Animatronics

Production Timeline

Script Writing and Filming

Director

1973

Filming on Location

At Martha's Vineyard, they were literally writng the scipt as they were filming the scenes

Producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown buy the rights to make of movie on Peter Benchley's novel, Jaws.

The long 159 day session of filming in the ocean begins

Declined by 2 directors before landing on Steven Spielberg .

Editing and Music

September, 1974

June 20th, 1975

Real life shark

The film is released in theatres with an opening earning of $7,061,513

Edited by Verna FieldsMusic composition by John Williams

Majority of filming ends

Off the South Coast Australia, Ron & Valorie Taylor filmed footage of someone in a cage underwater with a real shark. Footage was so good, Spielberg rewrote the film to have Hooper survive as per the footage

About the Director: Steven Spielberg

• Pressure was on due to the time crunch and this being his first big budget feature length film

• Constantly theatened of getting fired, the end of his career.

• But Instead of destroying his name in Hollywood, this movie began his legacy in it.

• "The sucess of that film gave me ultimately freedom to make any movie I wanted to make."
• Steven Spielberg on Jaws: The Inside Story Documentary at 1:23:39 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNKmqlgOLbw

Filming Issues

• Filming on land at Martha’s Vineyard went relatively well and stayed on time.
• Filmed out on the Atlantic Ocean, not a tank or lake.
• Filming became as much of a struggle as going out to kill a shark

• Constant delays with the current pushing boats that had been anchored down, waiting for both clear weather and sailboats to get out of shots, the orca
• The producers wanted to have The film released while the original novel was still popular
• Took nearly 3 times the planned 55 days to film (159) to film on the ocean.

Bruce

This is Bruce

Fun Fact: Spielberg named it Bruce after his lawyer.

Questions:

1. What kind of economic and technical restraints contributed to the financial success of the film?
1. One major restraint that inadvertedly made the movie a sucess was Bruce. Not showing the full-body shark added to the fear of the unknown.
2. What kind of social and or artistic factors contributed to the financial success of the film?
1. For the first time ever, the film was realeased all at the same time across the United States.
2. Synergy
1. Lots of merchandise related to it such as Sharkalate ice cream.
2. Released relatively close to the original novel's publication.

1. How does your chosen film impact the way movies are made and sold today?
1. This was the film that created blockbusters and gave Spielberg his name in Hollywood.
2. From this, he would go on to create many more classics like E.T. and the Jurassic park Franchise.

Bruce

1. Farley, Lloyd. “The Real-Life Drama That Almost Prevented Steven Spielberg’s ‘jaws’ from Being Made.” Collider, Collider, 12 Sept. 2022, collider.com/jaws-production-history-steven-spielberg/.
2. Goldberg, Rob. "Jaws The Inside Story." Youtube, uploaded by Mega Metal Magazine, 26 Sep. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNKmqlgOLbw.
3. “Jaws.” Box Office Mojo, www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0073195/. Accessed 21 Sept. 2025.
4. Morris, Nigel. “The Cinema of Steven Spielberg.” The Cinema of Steven Spielberg, Columbia University Press, 2007.
5. “No Boy Scout Picnic: Why Jaws Was the Most Challenging Film to Make...Ever.” The Daily Jaws, The Daily Jaws, 16 Jan. 2023, thedailyjaws.com/blog/no-boy-scout-picnic-why-jaws-was-the-most-challenging-film-to-make-ever.
6. “The Back Story - The Shark Is Broken.” NORTH SHORE MUSIC THEATRE, www.nsmt.org/sharkbackstory.html. Accessed 21 Sept. 2025.