Zanuck demanded that real shark footage be used in the movie, and Spielberg used it sparingly.
He hired experts Rodney Fox, Ron and Valerie Taylor to shoot underwater footage of 4 metres sharks off the coast of Eyre peninsula, Australia.
For scale, they hired a 4-foot, 11-inch actor named Carl Rizzo to appear as Hooper in the shark cage.
As TIME magazine explained at the time, “Since the real shark is about 4.4metres long, and the fictional great white in Jaws no less than 7metres, Rizzo’s diminutive height would make the real shark look bigger.”
In the museum we have a wonderful display of memorabilia and props from the Jaws movies.
The tanks and fins below are so tiny, this is what Rizzo used in the film.