Symbolism in theatre and cinema

YVONNE PHILLIPS

ARTS/100

INTRODUCTION TO THE VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS

18/03/2019

ROCKFORD SANSOM
 Until 16th-century shark was known as Sea dogs. A shark is a group of fishes that have 5-

7 gill slits and pectoral fins. There are different classes of sharks according to modern research.

Shark is not new for humans because they are living among sea waters from more than 420

million years (Elasmo-research.org, 2019). According to the researchers, the shark has almost

500 species that are different in size and color. The smallest shark is called dwarf lantern shark

which lives in the deep sea and its length is only 6.7 inches (Pimiento and Cantalapiedra, 2019).

The largest type of shark is the whale shark which is considered the largest fish among all types

of fishes. Whale shark lives in almost all types of sea and its normal length is almost 12 meters.

Generally, sharks don't like to live in fresh waters but some sharks like bull shark live in both

seawater and fresh water. Generally, when we talk about the shark, we took a whale shark.

Because whale shark is the biggest in all other fishes and we see this fish as a sign of danger. In

different movies like Jaw, we saw a shark as a sign of danger.

Jaws were Steven Spielberg’s directed a thriller movie. This movie was released in 1975

and become one of the famous and highest earning movies of the decade. The story of the movie

was simple but the presence of shark made him popular among the audience. The story starts

when a terrifying shark eats a woman under the water. Experts found that the death of a woman

is due to the shark attack so it is better to close the beach but due to the financial loss, the owner

does not want to close the beach (Catalog.afi.com, 2019). After some time a local fisher catches

a big fish than Mayor claimed that he catches a shark and now the beach is completely safe.

After some days, shark return and injured people on the beach but at last with the help of Police

office, they kill the shark by an explosion (Catalog.afi.com, 2019).

If we consider the movie Jaws, the shark is a symbol of fear in our culture, society, and

human methodology. In the movie, shark eats the living humans and this act of shark creates an
atmosphere of fear. After these movies, there are many other parts that have been released of

these movies and we saw that in all parts, shark demonstrated as a terrifying character that

destroyed the human things especially humans itself. Besides this movie, there is different news

about shark attacks on humans (Peace, 2019).

Artistic choice plays an important role in the success of any film. Jaws movie genre was

drama and mystery. I will also add the action and horror genre in the Jaws movie. This act will

make this movie more interesting because people feel fear in the presence of a shark

(Milnepublishing.geneseo.edu, 2019). Horror and action genre addition will make more

interesting this movie. For staging of jaws movies, change the video and camera techniques,

lighting and sound effects are the three elements of production that I will apply in the staging of

Jaws.

References

Catalog.afi.com. (2019). AFI|Catalog. [online] Available at:

https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetailsPrintView/55193 [Accessed 8 Apr. 2019].

Elasmo-research.org. (2019). Fathoming Geologic Time. [online] Available at:

http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/evolution/geologic_time.htm [Accessed 8 Apr.

2019].

Milnepublishing.geneseo.edu. (2019). 2. What Is Genre and How Is It Determined? – Exploring

Movie Construction and Production. [online] Available at:

 https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/exploring-movie-construction-and-

production/chapter/2-what-is-genre-and-how-is-it-determined/ [Accessed 8 Apr. 2019].

Peace, A. (2019). Sharks aren't criminals, but our fear makes us talk as if they are. [online] The

Conversation. Available at: http://theconversation.com/sharks-arent-criminals-but-our-fear-

makes-us-talk-as-if-they-are-36493 [Accessed 8 Apr. 2019].

Pimiento, C. and Cantalapiedra, J. (2019). Evolutionary pathways toward gigantism in sharks

and rays. Evolution, 73(3), pp.588-599.