Lecture 15:
How do I Develop a Longer
Script?
Jaws (1975)
Written by Peter Benchley (novel and screenplay) and Carl Gottlieb (screenplay)
Professor Michael Green
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Previous Lesson
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Keeping on Track
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Approaching
Revision
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Writing Exercise #13
Jaws (1975)
This Lesson
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Approaching the
Feature Length
Script
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Jaws: Act I
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Jaws: Act II
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Jaws: Act III
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E-board
Jaws (1975)
Approaching the Feature Length
Script
Jaws (1975)
Lesson 15: Part I
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Feature vs. Short
• As we have seen, the feature differs from the
short in several important ways including:
– Thematic material
– Audience sympathy with the protagonist
– Number of subplots
– Nature of the antagonist
– Length and complexity of the set-up
• However, as we have also seen, most of the
same elements of storytelling exist in both.
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Act I: The Set Up
• Inciting Incident
• Problem and sub-problem
(related to conflict and
theme)
• Main Exposition
• Visual interest
• Raise questions/be
compelling
• Open up a world at least
slightly different than ours
Jaws (1975)
Act II: Development
• Momentum and Focus
• Accelerating Conflict
(Cause and Effect)
• The Midpoint
• Reversals
• Obstacles/Complications
• Jeopardy/the Dreadful
Alternative
Jaws (1975)
Act II: Development (Continued)
• Suspense
• Surprise
• A Flawed
Protagonist
• A Strong
Antagonist
• The Pseudosolution
Jaws (1975)
Act III: The Pay Off
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•
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•
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Revelation
Crisis
Climax
Change and Choice
Resolution
Jaws (1975)
Jaws
• Jaws is a famous production that highlights
both the problems that arise during the
creative process of filmmaking as well as the
innovation necessary to overcome them.
• Jaws was a watershed moment in the history
of film. Along with Star Wars, it is credited
with ushering in the era of the blockbuster
(which we are still in). It changed the way
that films are distributed and exhibited.
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The Production of Jaws
• Based on a bestseller by Peter Benchley
• Rights acquired by producers Richard
Zanuck and David Brown
• Spielberg tapped as director
– His second feature film after The Sugarland
Express and the TV film Duel
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Problems
• The film was pushed into production early
• It was a technical nightmare
– The shark almost never worked
• Slow production with a lot of pressure
from the studios to finish it.
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Jaws: Act I
Jaws (1975)
Lesson 15: Part II
13
The Inciting Incident
• The inciting incident in Jaws is near the
movie’s opening when the young girl goes
out swimming and is attacked.
• After this point, balance cannot be restored
to the community until the problem set in
play by the inciting incident is solved.
• Pause the lecture and watch Clip #1.
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The Inciting Incident (Formatted)
EXT CHRISSIE IN THE WATER
Her expression freezes. The water-bulge is
racing towards her. The first bump jolts her
upright, out of the water to her hips. She
reaches under water to touch her leg. Whatever
she feels makes her open her mouth to scream,
but she is slammed again, hard, whipped into an
arc of about eight feet, up and down, submerging
her down to her open mouth, choking off any
scream she might try to make. Another jolt to
her body, driving her under so that only her
hair swirls on the surface. Then it too is
sucked below in a final and terrible jerking
motion. HOLD on the eddies and swirls until
we're sure it's all over.
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The Problem and Sub-problem
• The problem in Jaws is that a great white
shark has staked a feeding claim off the
coast of a summer resort island and is
eating swimmers.
• The sub-problem is that the town
selectmen and the mayor insist that the
beaches stay open even though people are
being killed.
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Problems, Conflict and Theme
• The problems are clearly related to the
conflict. The protagonists (Chief Brody
and Matt Hooper) must try to eliminate the
danger of the shark. In pursuing this goal,
they come into conflict with the mayor and
the town selectman and with the shark itself.
• The problems are also related to theme:
– Man vs. nature
– Wealth vs. the middle and working class
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The Main Exposition
• There is a great deal of exposition in the
first act. Among other things we learn:
– About Chief Brody and his family; significantly,
we learn early on that they are outsiders.
– About the character of Amity, the values of its
people, and how it sustains its economy.
– About sharks and what they are capable of.
– About Quint and what he is willing to do.
– About Hooper and how he can help.
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Visual Interest
• Even though Jaws has a lot of dialogue, the
screenplay allows for much of the story to be
told in actions and images.
• There are frightening scenes on the ocean
and the beach that work mostly because of
the way action, characters, images and
location interact with little dialogue.
– The opening scene
– The scene with the two fisherman and the roast
Raising Questions
• The movie raises a number of questions in
the first act to keep the audience interested:
– What is the nature of the shark and how
dangerous is it?
– How much more damage/terror will it perpetrate?
– Will it be caught and how?
– Will Chief Brody triumph over the corrupt mayor?
– Will Chief Brody conquer his fears/inadequacies
and be able to act to solve the problem?
Opening Up a Different World
• Though Amity bears resemblance to beach
towns of the time (the movie was filmed in
Martha’s Vineyard), it is not a real place.
• It is strangely self-contained; despite the
problems it is having, it has very little contact
with the outside world.
• The shark problem is one that few of us
would ever have to deal with.
• Specific, unique characters.
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Jaws: Act II
Jaws (1975)
Lesson 15: Part III
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Momentum and Focus
• Maintaining the momentum in a featurelength screenplay is clearly more difficult
than maintaining it in a short.
• The key is developing lots of conflict, and
inventing enough complications, obstacles,
triumphs and setbacks for your protagonist –
usually about 60 pages worth in Act II.
• Maintaining the momentum depends on the
strength of the set-up, problem and goals.
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Accelerating Conflict
• Remember, the acceleration of conflict
works on a cause and effect basis: your
protagonist takes action, meets reaction, and
vice-versa throughout the script.
• In Jaws, Brody is fighting on two fronts,
against the shark and against the mayor.
• Up until the midpoint, there are a series of
actions and reactions as Brody fights both
antagonists with mixed success.
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The Midpoint
• Finally, at the midpoint, Brody triumphs
over the Mayor, convincing him to hire Quint
to kill the shark (this comes almost exactly at
the actual midpoint of the film, about 62
minutes in).
• The second half of Act II now focuses on the
battle against the shark – though the rest of
the act is also developing another adversary
for Brody and Hooper in Quint, who they will
face in Act III.
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Reversals
• The midpoint, when Brody triumphs over
the Mayor, is one reversal.
• Other reversals come at the end of acts.
• At the end of Act I, a shark is caught that
turns out not to be the real shark and
Brody’s resolve is strengthened when he is
blamed for the child’s death.
• At the end of Act II, the shark attacks them.
• At the end of Act III, Brody kills the shark.
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Obstacles and Complications
• Chief Brody, Hooper, and later Quint face a
number of obstacles and complications as
they pursue their goals, including:
– The beaches being re-opened
– Lack of cooperation and obfuscation by the
mayor, selectman, coroner, citizens of Amity
– Ignorance/lack of knowledge
– A shark that’s bigger than previously thought
– Quint’s madness
– Tools and weapons that don’t work
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Jeopardy and the Dreadful
Alternative
• The protagonists (and their families) are put
into jeopardy a number of times as they
work to achieve their goal – usually as a
result of getting into a position where they
might be killed by the shark, though Chief
Brody’s job is also in jeopardy.
• The dreadful alternative to not killing the
shark is that the protagonists and people
close to them may be killed if they don’t.
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Suspense
• Jaws is very suspenseful because for most of
the film the audience never knows when the
shark will attack or how dangerous it is.
• Spielberg conceals the shark for as long as
possible to maintain suspense. Instead of
showing it we hear about it, see the results of
its attacks, look at pictures from books and
hear stories about sharks.
• He also uses humor to break and catch us off
guard.
• Pause the lecture and watch Clip #2. 29
Surprise
• A number of surprises in Jaws keep the
audience interested and guessing.
– A girl gets killed on a nighttime swim.
– The mayor insists on keeping the beaches
open.
– The woman whose son dies blames Brody.
– The panic on the 4th of July results from a prank.
– The shark then shows up in the estuary where
Brody’s son is.
– Quint reveals that he was on the Indianapolis.
– Quint busts up the radio/ruins the engine.
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A Flawed Protagonist
• Chief Brody is a classic flawed protagonist.
The screenplay gives him a number of
weaknesses and shortcomings including:
– His fear of water
– His naiveté about the ways of the town
– His ignorance about everything nautical
– His ignorance about sharks
– His mistakes in giving into the town selectman
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A Strong Antagonist
• Brody does not face a strong antagonist in
a classical sense, a human foe that matches
him step for step, is equally powerful, and
has clearly conflicting goals.
• However, he does face three antagonists at
different points in the film: the shark, the
Mayor and Quint.
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The Pseudo-Solution
• The pseudo-solution in Jaws comes near
the midpoint, when Brody is given the
resources to make the beach safe.
• However, when this fails (the shark throws
everybody off by feeding in the estuary) the
protagonist must make the choice that leads
to the real solution, in this case, hiring Quint
to kill the shark.
• On the boat, a number of pseudo-solutions
are tried before the solution at the climax.
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Jaws: Act III
Jaws (1975)
Lesson 15: Part IV
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Revelation
• Jaws is a relatively simple story in terms of
character psychology and the revelations
generally don’t turn on insight.
• However, there are a number of minor
revelations in Jaws and one major one.
• Minor revelations include the knowledge
that the girl was attacked by a shark, that
the caught shark is not the real shark; that
the real shark is bigger than realized; etc.
Revelation (Continued)
• The major revelation comes when Quint
reveals that he was on the Indianapolis.
– Exposition
• This explains his behavior and leads to
another revelation – that the three men
are in trouble and on their own.
– Consequences
Crisis
• There are a number of crises in Jaws, which
force the characters to take action.
• The main crisis occurs when the conflict
intensifies and increases, causing the action
to rise for the last time. The main crisis leads
to the film’s climax.
• The main crisis happens early in Act III, when
the men are stranded on a sinking boat and
the shark is now actively attacking them.
• Pause the lecture and watch Clip #3.
Climax
• The climax is the highest, most exciting
point in the drama, where the conflict must
finally be resolved, putting the world of the
movie back into balance.
• In Jaws, the climax comes when Quint is
eaten, the ship is almost completely sunk
and Brody blows up the shark.
• Notice how the solution to the problem is
foreshadowed earlier in the film.
• Pause the lecture and watch Clip #4
Change and Choice
• Again, Jaws is not psychologically complex
and the protagonist does not make a major
choice that defines and changes him.
• However, Brody does make a series of
smaller choices along the way that show him
to be a brave, determined man who is willing
to confront his fears for the common good.
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Resolution
• Jaws has a very short resolution – the
shark is killed and Brody and Hooper will
evidently survive to bring the happy news to
Amity (unless they are eaten by another
shark on the way to shore).
• The resolution is only a minute or so long –
the screenwriter realizes that tying up loose
ends involving the characters and the town
will be ultimately anti-climatic.
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E-Board
Jaws (1975)
Lesson 13: Part IV
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E-Board Post #1
• How are the themes of Jaws that I
discussed earlier – man vs. nature and
wealth vs. the middle and working class
– manifested in the film? Are there other
themes present that I didn’t mention?
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E-Board Post #2
• Discuss one or two of your ideas for a full
length screenplay and your plan for
keeping focus and momentum as you
write it.
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End of Lecture 15
Congratulations, you’ve finished the course!