The horrifying film Jaws came to theaters in 1975, and is known as one of the most famous summer thrillers. In Jaws, a giant great white shark lurks off the coast of a small island eating many of the beach goers, causing the town to break out into a panic. A reward is posted to the public to whoever can catch the beast, and mad search breaks out and many men take to the sea to catch the giant shark. The movie poster adverting this blockbuster was strategically designed to catch the publics eye. This movie poster is very simplistic and easy to understand, it was successful due to color, contrast, texture and perspective. 

Color is a key component in this poster. The eye immediately is drawn to the title, JAWS, which is in blood red. The red pops and is the first thing the viewers will see because it is contrasting against the white background and the blue water. Red is associated with danger, violence, power, and passion. This film can easily be associated with danger because there is a man eating rouge shark endangering the peaceful island. Violence is also present throughout the film starting even in the first scene. The big red letters have a very symbolic meaning because of the common association to the color red.

 The blue color also has a large effect on how the viewers see this poster. The color blue symbolizes water, depth, calmness, and stability. The color blue is obviously used to symbolize the ocean, but blue is the most dominate color in this poster. The human swimming on the surface is completely unaware of the monster swimming below her, so she may find this scene calming and relaxing. This is ironic because the viewer can see the shark coming from the depths to attack her. The color of the shark is also very symbolic because it blends into the deep blue ocean.  The human swimming on the surface is oblivious to the man eating shark just feet below the surface. The color blue sets a mysterious tone in this scene. 

Contrast is also used to catch the viewers eye. The white teeth contrast against the black depths of the shark's mouth. Hundreds of teeth are portrayed because the teeth are layered on one another in many rows. This makes the shark even more intimidating due to the size and large number of razor sharp teeth. In the dark depths of the ocean, the only bright color that can be seen are the razor sharp white teeth of the shark.

The black background of the entire poster is also very important to how a viewer will see the advertisement. Black represents emptiness and darkness. The emptiness of the background draws the viewer into the scene that his occurring in the middle of the poster. The eye is naturally drawn to color, so the blackness in the background with the information on it is disregarded at first. 

Texture played a large role in making this poster come alive. Movement is a key aspect in this scene and it is portrayed using different colors and textures to show movement of the water. The main example is the water below the girl swimming. It is a lighter blue to show that it is being moved around and it can also be seen that the area around her appears to be a bit chaotic from her movement. Another main area where texture is used is on the surface of the water to show little waves that the swimmer is going into. Texture can also be seen around the shark's mouth when the bubbles are coming out from the sides. This indicates the shark is moving upward at a fast rate, and the texture of the bubbles are used to show that. Without texture, dimension and movement would not have been as prominent, and these are very important details to this scene.

Perspective is also very important to how this poster is portrayed, there are three view points to consider. First, the person swimming on the surface cannot see below the water more than a few inches. She is unaware of anything that lurks below the surface, making her an easy target. From the shark's perspective, the only thing it sees is the surface and a moving object for it to attack. Lastly the most important perspective from the viewer's eye. The way this poster is set up gives the viewer a strong idea about what this film is about. The viewer can see a monstrous shark swimming up from the depths at an incredible speed (shown by the bubbles surrounding the shark), targeting the person swimming on the surface. Her fate is inevitable and viewers are shown how helpless humans are in this situation. The perspective is very powerful due to proportion of the massive shark and the tiny human. 

Another important aspect to consider is the proportion and layout of the poster. The majority of the poster is the ocean, and the depth can be shown due to the darker blues used at the bottom of the scene indicating a deeper area. The proportion of the shark compared to the human is horrifying, and another sinister fact is that the shark takes up almost three-quarters of the scene.

Without the use of the colors, contrast, and perspectives, this poster would not have been successful. A major component of selling a film are the advertisements shown to the public, engaging them and getting them hooked. The colors were carefully chosen to show fear, danger, water, and mystery. Contrast was also used to make important features stand out, such as the title, which was in blood red. The teeth were also meant to contrast against the depths of the shark's throat. Texture makes this poster come alive and portrays the shark and the swimmers movement through the water. Perspective was used to make the readers fear for the girl in the poster, and make them curious about what this massive animal would do. All of these aspects together made this poster, and movie very successful and thrilling. 

