I'm gonna need a bigger boat,ORCA

I also have many scalpels. We don’t use exato knife in the UK
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Basic boat-building question - why did they build the casting platform as a set of individual planks?

My first thought is that a series of planks would resist getting warped better than a single big one.

The gaps would also let standing water drain through (like treads on a tire) but that doesn't seem like a very effective way to get it done.
 
But where's the dramatically-crushed styrofoam cup...?


Otherwise, looking fantastic. ;)

I rewatched Jaws all the way through for the first time in many years last night, and even despite the at-sea segment taking up a smaller portion of the overall film than I recalled, it definitely helped to more fully remind me why this vessel is so adored. You really get to know Orca inside and out, and when the engine ultimately fails, you sort of feel for it almost as much as for the crew. Having spent several years frequently at sea on boats around that size, it also just feels refreshingly believable.

[Certainly more believable than the hoax dorsal fin scene's conclusion; seriously, how did those kids not get shot??]
 
I rewatched Jaws all the way through for the first time in many years last night, and even despite the at-sea segment taking up a smaller portion of the overall film than I recalled, it definitely helped to more fully remind me why this vessel is so adored. You really get to know Orca inside and out, and when the engine ultimately fails, you sort of feel for it almost as much as for the crew. Having spent several years frequently at sea on boats around that size, it also just feels refreshingly believable.

I always thought the Orca was too small & overloaded with stuff for the kind of fisherman that Quit ostensibly was. But that goes part & parcel with the character and movie.

The crew said the real thing was not very safe. The wooden mast (added for the movie) was too tall & heavy. They loaded the bottom of the hull with lead ballast in attempt to stabilize it.

They switched to a second 'stunt' Orca once the shark jumped onto the back end. It was a fiberglass mockup version of the main Orca (with an alloy mast). Below the waterline it had a metal framework with air tanks so they could sink it halfway and pause it there.
 
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batguy I should've qualified my statement. I don't mean the vessel itself is necessarily fully realistic; simply the atmosphere and experience of being on a vessel that size feels more believable than in most movies (of course probably largely because most aren't shot at sea).

The commercial vessels in the 40 ft. range that I was on targetted cod and halibut (and generally were pretty stuffed with gear and supplies), but I'm unfamiliar with shark hunting, so it could be poorly suited to that purpose. I don't doubt the mast impacted stability. Though I will say there are sketchily-modified boats and safety-negligent fishermen out there, and I'm not sure what Coast Guard inspections were like in the 1970s.

They loaded the bottom of the hull with lead ballast in attempt to stabilize it.
Maybe this is why Quint says he'll take Hooper for ballast!
 
@batguy I should've qualified my statement. I don't mean the vessel itself is necessarily fully realistic; simply the atmosphere and experience of being on a vessel that size feels more believable than in most movies (of course probably largely because most aren't shot at sea).

The commercial vessels in the 40 ft. range that I was on targetted cod and halibut (and generally were pretty stuffed with gear and supplies), but I'm unfamiliar with shark hunting, so it could be poorly suited to that purpose. I don't doubt the mast impacted stability. Though I will say there are sketchily-modified boats and safety-negligent fishermen out there, and I'm not sure what Coast Guard inspections were like in the 1970s.

The open ocean absolutely makes the movie IMO.

I think it's mainly the wave action and the boat's movement. The boat is rocking in the waves the entire time and it shows. Smaller bodies of water don't move like that. Oceans have bigger waves and they are spaced farther apart.

The guys are also shown motoring the boat around like a pickup truck in a field. You see it moving in a casual way. That's hard to do in a tank. A movie filmed in a tank would show the boat usually parked. It would only be shown moving when it's a plot necessity. It would be more like a car chase, where they cut back & forth between soundstage car dialogue shots vs stunt people racing on real streets.


Even if they did the movie today I doubt it would look as good. They would certainly do most of the Orca stuff in a studio tank. I suppose they could fake the rocking ocean waves with a big hydraulic rig under the boat on a sounstage, but it wouldn't be as convincing as the real thing.

But if I try thinking like an executive producer, I can't blame them. It would have been colossally easier to film the movie in a big controlled tank somewhere with an ocean horizon to one side. Like the place James Cameron built for 'Titanic' on the Mexican coast.
 
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The open ocean absolutely makes the movie IMO.

I think it's mainly the wave action and the boat's movement. The boat is rocking in the waves the entire time and it shows. Smaller bodies of water don't move like that. Oceans have bigger waves and they are spaced farther apart.

The guys are also shown motoring the boat around like a pickup truck in a field. You see it moving in a casual way. That's hard to do in a tank. A movie filmed in a tank would show the boat usually parked. It would only be shown moving when it's a plot necessity. It would be more like a car chase, where they cut back & forth between soundstage car dialogue shots vs stunt people racing on real streets.


Even if they did the movie today I doubt it would look as good. They would certainly do most of the Orca stuff in a studio tank. I suppose they could fake the rocking ocean waves with a big hydraulic rig under the boat on a sounstage, but it wouldn't be as convincing as the real thing.

But if I try thinking like an executive producer, I can't blame them. It would have been colossally easier to film the movie in a big controlled tank somewhere with an ocean horizon to one side. Like the place James Cameron built for 'Titanic' on the Mexican coast.
I don't know if they still use that trick for making the waves a little more "real" while shooting ships in a tank, but old Hollywood was using a bit of soap to make the crests of the waves more "fluffy" to the camera...;)
 
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