Jaws-Horror opening: The iconic film jaws followed many conventions of the horror genre in the opening scene/sequence but in some ways it also broke the mould for its genre. On top of this it has been debated whether or not it is a horror movie and in some ways it can be classed as a thriller but the fact remains that any film that can give a whole generation a fear of swimming in the sea should be recognised as a horror. Firstly in the opening of Jaws an extreme long shot is used to show that there is one main character being used, a girl called Carrie, and it shows that she is stripping down to go skinny dipping. The long shot continues to follow her into the water as the same long shot also shows her boyfriend safely passed out on the beach. This shows one convention of horror in the form of gender bias as in stereotypically in horror films the women are the victims and are depicted as weak. The whole scene set up perfectly for the girl to be taken under by a shark and this eventually happened. So this camera shot does help to support gender bias in film, especially the horror genre. The second camera angle/shot used in the scene is a low angle shot that changes to a mid-shot. This is used as the shark swims under the body and this breaks the mould of the horror theme in some ways but fits it in others, firstly it fits it because we are looking from the perspective of the antagonist (in this case the shark). This fits because when you think about horrors and the first death in them it is often the killer looking at the victim, a classic example of this is Norman Bates in the film Psycho when the shower curtain is open onto the victims. So in this way it can be argued that jaws does fit the horror convention for antagonist, however the fact is it doesn’t, it breaks the mould by using a creature/animal as often it will be a white male, possibly British but in this case it is neither human or fictional character but in fact a real life animal and that does really break the mould itself and has led to others having the idea of using other large animals in horrors, examples being Lake Placid and Piranha, so in this sense Jaws was a gateway to using alternative antagonists. So this camera angle shows the antagonists view and the victim, again showing it is a woman. Then it moves to the mid-shot where you see the girl fighting to stay alive as she holds on to a buoy for dear life, this does not fit the gender bias stereotype as it is showing that the woman has strength and at the time it is often the opposite as women are normally overcome easily and the men dominate in the film. So this shows in many ways Jaws mixes its following of stereotypes and bias to the horror genre by different interpretations of the characters roles. In terms of sound it uses diegetic sound in the form of waves crashing as a peaceful sound which works well as it helps the shock that something/somewhere so peaceful can cause so much harm. As mentioned in the introduction this film put fear into people going swimming so by hearing the waves and seeing the death there was obviously a strong association with water to the deaths. This therefore helps with the mystery as it will make the audience feel that beyond the waves we don’t know what there is. The other sound used is non diegetic which is the famous orchestra piece associated with the sharks attacks, this can be argued as something else generic in horrors as in most horrors there is a piece of music that will start playing in the event of a death or in a position of threat and the Jaws theme tune has become one of the most iconic one’s ever used and it helps to time the death scene as we can pinpoint the climax and accept when the character is going to die. In the editing we can only see the lighting effects used to show the girls legs under the water as she is about to be attacked. This is used to highlight the innocence of the girl as it shows her legs crossed which is mostly associated with young women and school students so it makes her look like a more dramatic victim. In terms of mise-en-scene there are two people in summer clothing, this shows us that they are enjoying the holiday season but also that the weather is hot, this explains why they are going for a swim in the night. However the people are more important to the genre conventions than the clothes are as it shows ethnicity bias as even in the small roles only white actors are being cast and there are no black actors in the scene or indeed the whole film. This also fits with the gender bias as well as the girl is seen to be leading the boy to the water, much as a feme fatale would in causing death of herself and possibly others so this again helps to show a convention of the horror genre. In another form of mise-en-scene the lighting helps to show that here is a couple/relationship in the scene as the fading fire in the background helps to show the two briefly holding hands, this suggests that there is a relationship between the two of them. In turn this fits the heterosexual bias as it uses a stereotypical heterosexual couple appose to a homosexual/lesbian couple in the scene, this again is another convention often focused on in horror. As well as this the dim lighting I also used in horror, a great example being in the film se7en where for the first part of the film each crime scene is very dark and in Jaws it is the same during the opening sequence, showing pathetic fallacy to forebode the death of the woman.