Last night I watched JAWS, my favorite shark movie. I usually watch it on July fourth. For me, one of the best scenes, is Robert Shaw’s wonderful monologue, about serving on the Indianapolis, which was not in the book. I understand Spielberg disliked the book, and made big story-line changes for the movie script. I have to say, I agree having read the book. The movie was much better, something I don’t usually find.
The other part of the movie that I really enjoy, on a personal level, is the great music score by John Williams. It was 1977, two years after Jaws was released. At that time, I was in the post-production sound phase of my careers. I was working for a sound studio in New York City, as an editor, and re-recording mixer. My schedule for the next week, was to work on an hour-long television show for CBS Sports, entitled “Shark Tagging.” It was produced in conjunction with “Skin Diver Magazine,” and shot in St. Thomas, the U.S. Virgin Islands. I had a week to build the dialogue, music, and sound effects tracks, and then mix the sound to the final picture edit. The dialogue was recorded on location, and I had an extensive sound effects library. What I didn’t know, was what music the producer wanted, until he walked into my studio, and handed me the complete music score from Jaws. All he said was, just place the music where it will work.
The premise of the program, was a competition between three, two-person teams. Using Pole spears, and U.S. Department of Agriculture tags, to tag the sharks in certain places. Each tagged area on the shark, was awarded a different point value. The judges were, Paul Tzimoulis, and Geri Murphy, from “Skin Diver Magazine.” I can only remember one team. Ron, and Valerie Taylor. They are the husband, and wife team that shot the second unit footage of Great White sharks in the waters off Dangerous Reef in South Australia for Jaws. The other two teams, I know were famous skin, and scuba divers.
This was a two-week shoot, using an array of different size boats. They were joined with a 90-foot motor vessel, which served as the primary ship. There were, either two or three underwater cameras used, in specially designed housings. The video from each camera was fed through an umbilical cable directly to its own one-inch video tape recorder, on board the 90-foot motor vessel.
The underwater shoot was staged with the camera operators, the two judges, and one two-person team. In addition, there was a safety cage, and several safety divers, just in case. The water was being constantly chummed with blood, and fish carcass. It was very well organized, and researched as to the best locations around St. Thomas, to attract sharks. The only problem was, that they weren’t attracting any sharks. It was very disappointing, and frustrating, especially as the days were going by without any contact with sharks. The entire operation, was relocated several times. Each move involved cleaning up all the chum. Then moving the boats to the new location, and start chumming again. It wasn’t until the last several days left for the shoot, that they finally attracted a single shark. I can’t remember what species it was, and it wasn’t particularly large. But they needed a shark, so the competition commenced. I felt sorry for that shark, with six divers going after it with spears.
Luckily, it all worked out. There was enough video footage during the two weeks to make a reasonably good show. CBS was happy with the show, and they opted for a second show the next year. This time the shoot was staged at the Channel Islands, off of San Diego, California. Here, the problem was attracting too many sharks. There were dozens of Blue Sharks, and one Mako Shark, that could have been a problem. I think more cages were deployed, and the safety divers were very busy protecting the camera operators, and judges.
I’ve been asked by worried snorkelers going to St, Thomas, about the threat of sharks. I tell them not to worry, and if they actually see one, to be very happy that they have.
