What was filmed on the first day of shooting JAWS

It's 9am on Thursday 2 May, 1974, South Beach on Edgartown, and the first day of filming on JAWS has just begun.

The sun is up, but there is still a distinct chill in the air, which in no doubt a mix of the early morning and sea breeze, as well as anticipation from all those gathered for the first planned day of 55 days of shooting by director Steven Spielberg and his assembled cast and crew.

That shooting schedule eventually extended to 158 days and the making of JAWS would become as famous as the film itself.

But none of what was to come was evident on that very first day of filming with Roy Scheider (Chief Brody), Jeffrey Kramer (Deputy Hendricks) and Cassidy (Jonathan Filley), filming on Universal Pictures' production of JAWS was open and people were having a wonderful time.

Not that any of that stopped Kramer from filming nerves, although that not feeling so great probably added to the believability of him finding the remains of Chrissie Watkins. Kramer told The Daily Jaws: “I was so nervous I could have really thrown up.”

The scene in question being filmed was one of those near the start of the picture, with Brody and Cassidy walking and talking along the beach, before they race to a clearly exasperated Deputy Hendricks, who has discovered the remains of the missing young woman.

It may have looked like they were the only three (and a bit) people on the beach that day, but behind the camera were trucks, generators, lights and masses of people – many with walkie talkies.

JAWS co-screenwriter recounted the setting up and filming of the scene in his book about the filming of JAWS, The Jaws Log. He wrote: “Steven decided to do it with a long tracking shot, following the two men as they walked along a ridge above the beach, then following them as they run up the beach toward a beckoning deputy who's just caught their attention with a shrill. The track took a long time to lay, but the first takes were completed before noon.”

And of course, after each subsequent takes crew had to sweep the sand so you could no longer see the footprints where Scheider and Filley had just trodden.

In the book Jaws: Memories From Marthas Vineyard, Filley recounted the support he got from both Scheider and Spielberg in that scene.

He said: “Steven and Roy really helped me out and offered me a lot of advice. I didn’t feel it was my place to work the dialogue around too much, but I was able to pepper it with at least some of my own stuff. I threw in the line about Trinity College to goof on some friends who went there.”

JAWS may have been Filley’s only foray into feature films in front of the camera, but he and Spielberg would cross paths again 30 years after filming those beach scenes on the set of War of the Worlds (2005). Spielberg was still directing, but this time Filley was Production Manager

That very first scene, and day of shooting, went without a hitch, as Gottlieb attested: "The first day went swimmingly, with everything finished on schedule. We wrapped around sundown."

Cast and crew may have spent future days treading water, and Spielberg - on occasion - must have felt like he was drowning, but for now the troubled mechanical shark and filming issues on JAWS were beneath the surface.

Recalling his experience on making the seminal shark film, Jeffrey Kramer told The Daily Jaws: “What an experience, and who knew it was going to turn out like it did. It was like a creative perfect storm, everything just worked. And what really helped us was that the shark didn’t work, so you had to rely on character.”

And what a memorable introduction for the character of Len Hendricks that very scene was.

Anyway, they delivered the first day of filming on JAWS, May 2nd, 1974.

Words by Dean Newman

If you would like to write for The Daily Jaws, please visit our ‘work with us’ page

For all the latest Jaws, shark and shark movie news, follow The Daily Jaws on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.