Steven Spielberg Research Paper

Steven Spielberg has been directing movies since 1959, developing his own ways of directing movies. He is an intelligent film maker, selecting only the best shots to use in his films. He’s strategic, choosing specific cinematic techniques to provoke an emotional response in the audience. Among these are his choices in lighting, framing, music, and even the length of his takes. Some movies that particularly convey this are Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and E.T. the Extra Terrestrial; some of his most iconic. These films are so famous because the audience is pulled in by his sneaky techniques without even knowing it.

For example, Steven Spielberg used different cinematic lighting to create the same sense of foreboding in his films Jaws

The soundtracks of his movies help the audience become engrossed in the film. He collaborated with John Williams to create iconic soundtracks in movies that people of all ages will recognize, such as the Jaws theme and the adrenaline-based beat of Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Case in point, Spielberg’s Jaws theme is recognizable by people who haven’t even actually watched the movie. His suspenseful buildup of dunun...dunun- and you know the rest- put Jaws on the list of top soundtracks. In (nearly) every scene involving the dangerous shark, this theme is repeated again and again, so that the audience knows, not when the shark will strike, but that it will. This is enough for most people, revealing the danger, but not quite exposing its entirety. So there 34,637 (rough estimate) times Spielberg used the theme song and one time he did not. It made the audience believe in safety again because every other time it played, they were expecting something bad. He repeats the use of music to entice the audience in Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. The soundtrack is fast, following the movement of Indy as he runs and fights. While in a rigorous fight with a Nazi trying to grab at Indiana, the music strikes according to their punches. The strategic soundtrack in these films represent how cunning Spielberg is as each sountrack allows the audience to be more invested in his