ANALYSING OPENING TITLES - Jaws

Jaws (1975) - Steven Spielberg 

• The film opens with a tense opening sequence, which begins with two iconic minor notes which immediately builds tension with the audience. 
• the first interesting shot from this opening is the point of view shot of something moving in the water. Accompanied with the tense theme music which begins to build up as the title 'JAWS' shows, the audience already can tell that it is a villain.
• The second interesting shot is a tracking shot of two people running along the beach. The accompanying diegetic sounds of the beach highlighting the sounds of the ocean and water which may again create a tense atmosphere as you know something bad will happen in the sea just from the title sequence and music from before. 
• The third example of camera movement is the shot as she is being attacked from under the water. The shot shows half of her body above the water and just her reaction as she is being killed. The camera follows her body as she is being killed.
• The camera follows her body as it flails around in the water, effectively filling the audience with horror as the death is so sudden and horrific. 
• Another way tension is built effectively in this type of shot is through the editing. The shot-reverse-shot which shows the girl above the water and then shows the point of view shot of the 'thing' coming up to get her from under the water. 
• The shot below the surface alarms the viewer as along with the unsettling accompaniment of the theme music as the villain gets closer.