With the development and progress of the times, the difficulty of breaking box office records in the field of film has been declining.
After all, entering the new century, many film markets in the world have developed, plus now we have entered the so-called IP era, not to mention some political correctness and the like.
So now see some movies at the box office, many children's shoes have been seen strange.
However, if you turn back the clock to the 1970s, that's a different story.
In those days, it was unimaginable to make a movie that broke box office records.
For example, "Jaws" to be talked about this time is a typical example.
In 1974, Universal Producer Richard and David were looking for material that could be adapted into a film.
They saw a novel by Peter Benchley called Jaws in the literature section of Life Magazine.
Richard and David hit it off, feeling that the novel had great potential for adaptation, so they bought the film and television rights to the novel for $175,000.
Interestingly, David later said that he was indeed a little impulsive at the time, saying that if he read the novel a few more times, he might give up the idea of filming it.
Why? Because there are many links in the novel, it is simply difficult to make movies.
After getting the rights, Richard and David were very interested in the project, and they first went to find a director, and found Dick Richards, who had just directed the film that had recently been released, and the two producers had a very good opinion of him.
However, this matter soon turned sour.
Why?
Originally talking about the project, Dick said it was a story of a whale that we wanted to shoot?
Charlemagne and David thought he was wrong at first and explained to him: Dude, see clearly, this is a shark, not a whale.
Dick insisted, this is the whale, what is the difference between a whale and a shark?
Of course, if you rule out that the director's brain is not normal, it may be that he does not want to direct the film, so he deliberately describes the shark as a whale.
It may also be that he is mocking the two producers for wanting to make a shark movie, so why not make whales?
Anyway, Charlemagne and David were irritated by Dick, and they immediately chased the director away.
At this time, the future legendary Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, just in time to learn the news that the two producers wanted to make a shark movie.
Spielberg, who was only 26 years old at the time, was very interested in the project, and the response to the film he had directed not long ago was also good, so Charleid and David decided to let him direct the film.
Interestingly, when it was time to "play", Spielberg was still panicked, afraid that he would not be able to shoot well, just when Fox Pictures promised to let him shoot another film that he thought was less difficult, so he wanted to leave.
However, Charlemagne and David specified that it was him, soft and hard, one would move out of the contract law, one would say that after making this movie at Universal Pictures, you want to make other films, we will also support you, and finally Spielberg decided to direct "Jaws".
After the project is launched, the work that needs to be done is basically three.
Scripts, casting and filming.
The script is not very big, mainly Charlemagne and David, the two people are more discerning, when they first bought the copyright, they knew that it would involve the adaptation of the original novel, so the contract had regulations that allowed the production team to change at will.
Spielberg's changes to the script are mainly deletions, deleting some minor ones and paragraphs that he thinks cannot be filmed, and also allowing the screenwriter to polish the image of some of the characters in it to make them more brilliant.
In terms of casting, Charlemagne and David initially wanted to find some popular high-profile stars to star in, and although Spielberg agreed, he actually didn't like this practice.
There are several reasons.
First, he felt that the success of a film should not depend on well-known actors, even if all ordinary actors, if the quality of the film is good enough, it can be successful.
Second, Spielberg at that time already knew that the next shooting could consume a lot of money, and if the money was used to pay the stars, the scene would not be able to continue.
The final choice was still biased towards Spielberg's idea, and the actors selected were not the top Hollywood movie stars at the time.
However, although the problems of script and casting have been solved, the biggest difficulty is still in the shooting.
In the beginning, Universal was thinking of shooting in his own studio, making some indoor water tanks and so on.
However, the idea was rejected by Spielberg without hesitation.
Spielberg believes that "Jaws" is a film about humans wrestling with unknown dangers in nature, and it should be true in every way, so he decided to let the crew shoot in the real sea.
I have to say that this is a dangerous chess piece, but also very risky, "Jaws" is the first film in the history of cinema to be shot at sea, before which all the films about the ocean were shot indoors.
The reason is also very simple, when it really went to the sea, the production team found out how powerless human beings are in the face of nature.
The production team had no marine geography experts, was completely clueless about the movement of ocean currents, and had no idea about the timing of the tides.
What effect does the sea breeze have on the direction of seawater flow?
What changes does the weather cause to the color of the seawater?
I don't know at all.
This has led to repeated failure to shoot the desired effect, and the quality of the finished product is very poor, which makes the staff miserable.
Of course, what's even worse is the shark.
In that era, sharks could not be made with computer technology, and at first Spielberg even thought about whether to really train a real shark to assist in shooting in order to ensure the authenticity.
But he soon learned that the idea was too unrealistic.
In the end, you still have to use props.
The sharks made by the prop team at that time were three large-sized aerodynamic pillar sharks, and in order to allow the sharks to move in the sea, they were dragged by a 300-foot rope, and there were various facilities inside the shark.
However, the problem is that the sea is different from the indoor water tank, and these prop sharks can cope with the indoor water tank, but it is difficult to adapt to the tides of the sea.
As a result, the props were damaged one by one.
Shark props have to be redone if they break, but each one is very expensive and takes at least 3 to 4 weeks to complete.
In this way, it undoubtedly slowed down the work process, and also made the prop team work overtime to doubt life.
Of course, when there were no sharks, Spielberg also came up with a way to shoot more human footage to render the horror atmosphere of the great white shark.
Although it was a last resort, it proved to be very good.
In addition to the props, there is also because the outdoor weather is uncertain, many times a wave on the sea rushes over, and the things arranged by the production team are finished.
Then find the shooting point in the floating sea, but also let the staff have to be on the boat for a long time, and some of them are unwell because they are not adapting.
In this way, the shooting process, which was originally scheduled to take about 2 months, was finally completed in almost half a year.
The budget also doubled from the original $4 million to $9 million, a third of which was used in the production of shark props, and the prop team did not know how many sharks were made to make this movie.
At that time, Spielberg was simply a director who was hated by everyone in the eyes of everyone.
The staff resented him for having to shoot outdoors, which dragged on the work process.
The universal side saw that he not only overtime but also exceeded the budget, and his heart was also very panicked.
Even Spielberg later admitted that many people suffered because of his overly perfect pursuit of film, and he also believed that he did not have enough experience in filming at that time, and there were many things that did not need to be so troublesome.
However, the results of "Jaws" say that these hardships are worth it and meaningful.
Released in the summer of 1975, Jaws quickly exploded around the world.
In North America, there were long lines at the entrance of almost all theaters, and the lines stretched out to the corners of the street corners, which was unimaginable in the United States at that time.
These people who have to stand up to the scorching sun at the end of June are all in order to enter the theater to see "Jaws".
Similarly, "Jaws" has done very well at the box office in overseas regions, achieving quite amazing results in Japan, New Zealand, Mexico and other places.
In the end, Jaws grossed $260 million in North America, $210 million overseas, and $470 million worldwide.
The film also broke the box office record held by The Godfather in 1972, becoming the highest-grossing film in the history of cinema at the time.
I have to say that the difficulty of filming "Jaws" can be compared with James Cameron's "Titanic" later.
Interestingly, both films broke box office records.
Behind this is inseparable from the director's attitude to film production and efforts.
And, of course, there's the group of staff who, while complaining, have been doing their best to complete the task.