VFX team create CGI tribute to JAWS actress Susan Backlinie

Hi my name is Steve Clarke and I am the co-owner and lead animator at CKVFX and we animated the Jaws The Revenge diver chase sequence a while ago. We wanted to carry this on back then but got caught up in work and it was something I only wanted to do when we could do it properly, and show the ideas we had in mind fully.

While still not perfect we hope the sequences put across some arguement for maybe updating the movies. We do not want them remade as the time period suits it, the actors are incredible and the way the film is shot is perfect.

A few years ago (And this lead to the Jaws 4 sequence being made), I planned a video night with my friend and he brought his 19 year old son. We watched the first Jaws film and the son had so many questions throughout that were annoying but also I could understand. Back in 1975 Great Whites hadn't been seen so much on TV and the suspense and vageuness made sense, but in this day and age they are common place so as someone of this day, he asked the following:

1) Where’s the shark?

2) Why are they being vague its a great white not a weird monster they have to reveal

3) OMG is that the shark? (He laughed), that sucks. Didn't they know what they looked like back then?

After he agreed the film was good and he particularly liked Quint saying he was funny and a lot of character to him. My friend had to explain the vagueness saying they couldn't get the shark to work so they kept it a mystery. His son just said then why not wait til they could because not seeing the shark was daft when its on the cover of the DVD.

My friend said, with us being Visual Effects Artists, have we thought of maybe updating the shots. I said Bruce was a beloved character, but he said thats fair enough but at the moment new ages won't enjoy it as much because they have so many other shark films to choose from.

I thought about it for a while and thought it might actually be cool to have old school people watch it like it's the first time and see new things and look forward to certain shots they knew had been updated and might add some new excitement to a new viewing. So I remade the diver squence as a test run and while it got some very mixed feedback on Joblo, it also had some very nice encouraging comments that made us want to try some more.

I'd heard in an interview they planned to show the shark from the begining and thought that might actually add something now, where it shows the audience what the town are actually dealing with and show that there are a lot of surprises in store.

When I was younger I had mixed feelings about the Chrissie death scene. Whilst I thought it was amazing and Susan was just phenominal in her performance, I thought it was leading to "Wow if thats the start then what will happen later" but I found the rest of the film wasnt as intense and they'd started a bit too strong for what was to follow. So if we had the chance to really play with the film we'd like to expand certain sequences to make them carry on from the Chrissie intro. So viewers would also get expanded version too.

I think if they deleted the first scene the rest of the film wouldnt seem so tame if that makes sense. But starting that strong for me was a strange idea. NOT bashing the film, I'm sure they had grander plans but maybe time and shark issues stopped that. But we have ideas to solve that.

A quick word about Susan (Due to her passing away). She set the bar too high! She was just incredible and I think she upstaged every single shark attack victim in any film and any that will ever be made. If I was making a shark film I'd say to the actor "Watch that scene, I want that or go home!". She was just brilliant and even now after seeing endless making of programs I still find it very disturbing because of her ability to make us feel it.

Susan Backlinie (Chrissie Watikins) with founder of The Daily Jaws, Ross Williams

We would love to hear from The Daily Jaws fans (because they are THE audience we want to please) about whether or not they like what we have in mind or not. We fully and I mean fully understand them not wanting us to damage their beloved movie. But we are curious if more would like to see just an update to the shark or just leave it knowing future generations may not watch it or when they do, laugh. We want this film to shine throughout history because it deserves too!

Words by Steve Clarke co-owner and lead animator CKVFX

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