The Jaws Log
Expanded Edition (Shooting Script)
by Carl Gottlieb
1 more
More Recommenders
“Holy cow. I?m so much enjoying reading ?The Jaws Log: 30th Anniversary Edition (Shooting Script)? A chronicle of the movie Jaws, from its original book, to acquisition, casting, filming. It?s amazing to read about how films are systemically created! | It is a daybyday account of the making of the movie. It is filled with the details of making a movie on location. It was incredibly inspiring to me. | One of my favorite books of all time is THE JAWS LOG, written by JAWS screenwriter (and the Amity newspaper editor) CARL GOTTLIEB! It tells the twisted tale of what it took to make an American classic. Indispensable for filmmaking fans! It's an excellent pageturner! #JawsAtHome”
Source →Recommended by 3 notable people, including Ben Stiller and Gene Kim
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Reading Profile
Should I read this?
A first-person, day-by-day style memoir from someone who worked on the Jaws shoot, heavy on practical problem-solving, crew conversations, and moment-by-moment set detail. Its strength is the granular reporting: which scenes changed, how teams improvised, and how small breakdowns shaped creative choices. Limits appear as repetition and a light touch on structured analysis—events are shown more than they are argued about. Best read as process-focused storytelling rather than a theoretical or critical handbook.
Read this if...
- •a film student preparing a production case study who needs concrete, scene-level examples of how shoots adapt under pressure and wants anecdotes to illustrate class points
- •a working screenwriter about to join a multi-location shoot who wants a practical sense of where scripts get rewritten, who holds influence on set, and what friction to expect
- •a line producer or production manager planning logistics for a tight schedule who wants real-world stories about improvising around equipment failures, weather, and personnel issues
Skip this if...
- •you'll likely put it down when the narrative circles the same mishaps and personnel rows—midbook sections can feel repetitive and bogged down in logistics
- •annoying if you prefer formal film criticism or big-picture thematic argument; the account offers little structured analysis or theory
- •frustrating if you expected a prescriptive how-to manual or hands-on exercises—this is recollection and description, not step-by-step instruction
Winner of three Oscars and the highestgrossing film of its time, Jaws was a phenomenon, and this is the only book on how twentysixyearold Steven Spielberg transformed Peter Benchley's numberone bestselling novel into the classic film it became.Hired by Spielberg as a screenwriter to work with him on the set while the movie was being made, Carl...
Before You Buy
Reading Specifications
Difficulty:hard
Audience Fit
- a film student preparing a production case study who needs concrete, scene-level examples of how shoots adapt under pressure and wants anecdotes to illustrate class points
- a working screenwriter about to join a multi-location shoot who wants a practical sense of where scripts get rewritten, who holds influence on set, and what friction to expect
- a line producer or production manager planning logistics for a tight schedule who wants real-world stories about improvising around equipment failures, weather, and personnel issues
- you'll likely put it down when the narrative circles the same mishaps and personnel rows—midbook sections can feel repetitive and bogged down in logistics
- annoying if you prefer formal film criticism or big-picture thematic argument; the account offers little structured analysis or theory
- frustrating if you expected a prescriptive how-to manual or hands-on exercises—this is recollection and description, not step-by-step instruction
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View available editions on AmazonKey themes
Why recommended
Recommended by 4 sources and appears in Most Recommended Books and Nonfiction.
Recommended by notable people
People and public figures who have recommended this book.
Recommendation Signals
Recommendation proof is sourced from public posts, interviews, reading lists, and cited references.
Kevin Smith
“Holy cow. I?m so much enjoying reading ?The Jaws Log: 30th Anniversary Edition (Shooting Script)? A chronicle of the movie Jaws, from its original book, to acquisition, casting, filming. It?s amazing to read about how films are systemically created! | It is a daybyday account of the making of the movie. It is filled with the details of making a movie on location. It was incredibly inspiring to me. | One of my favorite books of all time is THE JAWS LOG, written by JAWS screenwriter (and the Amity newspaper editor) CARL GOTTLIEB! It tells the twisted tale of what it took to make an American classic. Indispensable for filmmaking fans! It's an excellent pageturner! #JawsAtHome”
View sources (3) ▾80%
Appears In
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“Accidental Presidents offers eight narrative portraits of men who succeeded to the U.S. presidency without election, using anecdote-rich scenes and readable context to show how personality and circumstance interact with office power. It’s strongest as a set of self-contained stories that make succession stakes concrete for non-specialist readers; it does not prioritize dense archival argument or exhaustive methodology, so expect some interpretive generalizations and repeated themes across cases. Use it for fast historical orientation rather than scholarly deep-dives.”
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How recommendation signals are reviewed
Each recommendation is collected from a public source — interviews, articles, or curated lists — and linked to its original URL. Books with many verifiable recommendations from respected people rank higher.