The Shark Is Still Working (2007) (1 Viewer)

[Jake Gove]

The official release date is August 14, 2012. The Shark is Still Working will be on the JAWS Blu-ray release. The version Universal wanted was our one hour forty minute cut.

 

[BrettB]

Congrats Jake! Finally. It's been a loooong road for you. I can't believe I'm finally gonna be able to see this (wasn't able to make the Tulsa showing)
Are you happy with the 1:40 cut?

 

[Johnny Angell]

The official release date is August 14, 2012. The Shark is Still Working will be on the JAWS Blu-ray release. The version Universal wanted was our one hour forty minute cut.

Can you say why they wanted the shorter version? Why not go for the whole (fish) enchilada?

 

[NY2LA]

Well if we have the actual filmmaker here I'd love to know the details of the Uni sale.
Did they buy all the footage outright? Do they now own the rights to the full 3 hour version and the outtakes?
Why would they take over the website as well? It almost seems as if they'd rather people not know it was produced independently of them.
Care to share your experiences in getting the people together and creating the film?

 

[Sam Favate]

Looking forward to seeing this. Heard good things about the doc, and glad to see it will be on the Jaws BD.

 

[Tino]

Will we ever see the full documentary?

 

[Jake Gove]

Some more details. Universal only bought the 1:40 cut of the documentary that we had been showing at film festivals. We cut it down from the original version ourselves after being told by many people in the industry it was too long and the fan centric / JAWSFest section dragged. It was a long, hard road to get this released. The cost of licensing stills and footage is astronomical. We could not have released it without Universal allowing us to use their footage and stills. We had other offers but licensing (and no money to pay for it) always got in the way. A year ago we went down the Fair Use route with another company, but they wouldn't advance us money, so we couldn't pay to get people to sign off on their stuff, which killed the deal. An earlier deal was killed for similar reasons. So, we had to wait until Universal wanted it or start over from scratch (which we considered).
Although we are VERY happy that it is on the JAWS Blu-ray (which was where we always wanted it to be), we lost a lot of money (mostly me) on the project.
Since we have 60+ hours of interview footage, including interviews with people that have since died, I feel it would be great if we could release it somehow to recoup expenses, and allow fans to see it . At this point, however, there isn't much enthusiasm from my fellow producers. It would need to be a "from scratch" process. Capturing, editing, and reassembling take time and money and equipment we don't have. Everyone is busy with other things.
Despite my negativity about the business side of things, it was still an amazing journey for all of us. Being able to meet and interview Spielberg and the people involved with our favorite movie was a once in a lifetime thing for four Jaws fans.
We hope that people enjoy the documentary.

 

[NY2LA]

As long as we have you, Jake... What's the deal with the Windowbox?

 

[Jake Gove]

It was edited on Sony Vegas instead of Avid or Final Cut, and pieces were stored on various hard drives over the years. Hard drives failed, most of the editing timelines were lost forever, so sections could not be re-edited unless they started over from scratch. No money or enthusiasm to do that after years had already been spent on what it was. So most of it was letterboxed from the start (poor editing choice to be sure) and could not be re-edited and so the rest of it had to be letterboxed to match. It was shot on multiple cameras, and only one was HD. So, only part of the interviews were filmed in HD. The first offer we had, we would have broke even or made a little profit. Each subsequent offer was lower. Like I said, it was a long hard road to get this released.

 

[NY2LA]

Letterboxing is fine, but I don't see any reason to for Uni to make the whole picture smaller by WINDOW box the entire doc.

 

[Felix Martinez]

Some more details. Universal only bought the 1:40 cut of the documentary that we had been showing at film festivals. We cut it down from the original version ourselves after being told by many people in the industry it was too long and the fan centric / JAWSFest section dragged. It was a long, hard road to get this released. The cost of licensing stills and footage is astronomical. We could not have released it without Universal allowing us to use their footage and stills. We had other offers but licensing (and no money to pay for it) always got in the way. A year ago we went down the Fair Use route with another company, but they wouldn't advance us money, so we couldn't pay to get people to sign off on their stuff, which killed the deal. An earlier deal was killed for similar reasons. So, we had to wait until Universal wanted it or start over from scratch (which we considered).
Although we are VERY happy that it is on the JAWS Blu-ray (which was where we always wanted it to be), we lost a lot of money (mostly me) on the project.
Since we have 60+ hours of interview footage, including interviews with people that have since died, I feel it would be great if we could release it somehow to recoup expenses, and allow fans to see it . At this point, however, there isn't much enthusiasm from my fellow producers. It would need to be a "from scratch" process. Capturing, editing, and reassembling take time and money and equipment we don't have. Everyone is busy with other things.
Despite my negativity about the business side of things, it was still an amazing journey for all of us. Being able to meet and interview Spielberg and the people involved with our favorite movie was a once in a lifetime thing for four Jaws fans.
We hope that people enjoy the documentary.

Just saw this today. Fantastic work; kudos!

 

[NY2LA]

Jake: on a similar thread I took issue with this movie being referred to as a "fan documentary" while the old laserdisc doc definitely seems to get more of the spotlight on the new disc.
While you may not have been seasoned, experienced pros with all the best technical advantages, it seems to me that all the time and effort you put into this project elevates you above being just a fan.

 

[Jake Gove]

It's a fan documentary. We are not industry professionals, we are not in the industry at all. We all had day jobs, we self-funded this thing. We didn't know what the hell we were doing in terms of releases, licensing, getting interviews, etc. We flew by the seat of our pants and that's why it took forever for it to come out.

 

[NY2LA]

It's a fan documentary. We are not industry professionals, we are not in the industry at all. We all had day jobs, we self-funded this thing. We didn't know what the hell we were doing in terms of releases, licensing, getting interviews, etc. We flew by the seat of our pants and that's why it took forever for it to come out.

Well, feeling a little stupid for having argued the point earlier, but I still hold to the fact that LB was the ultimate Spielberg fan when he did his doc, (which is how they did most Laderdisc sups back then) and you, with less advantages, made a more current and more interesting one. I also still think Uni gave it the short end of the stick, especially by windowboxing it. So anyway props to you, and I hope they treat it better next time.

 

[Tino]

I enjoyed this documentary more than the 2 hour LB one.
Kudos to you Jake and your fellow producers for doing an excellent job! :tu::tu:

 

[TravisR]

I saw Jaws when was I way too young and I've been a fan ever since. The love that the producers have for the movie just oozes off the screen and matches & probably even exceeds (gasp) my own love of the movie. It took a long time to see it but it was worth the wait. Great job to all involved!

 

[Jake Gove]

Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed it!

 

[Johnny Angell]

I liked that the film spent some time on Percy Rodriguez, who narrated the trailers, and the artist who did the book cover. How many movies have two such influential works of art, that aren't the film, but still contributed greatly to the film's success?

 

[Jake Gove]

Percy was great, he even did the narration for OUR trailer, with his words echoing those he spoke for the JAWS trailer 37 years ago. We were fortunate to get to know him briefly before his passing.

 

[NY2LA]

Mycopy finally arrived. Played the old doc first, its languid pace took its toll. Then, when I woke up, played yours. From the first second this sounded much better, I used my TV's zoom feature and it looked fine, so shame on Uni for windowboxing. This one is WAAAAY better than the first one, it's engaging, much nicer to look at, the narration top notch, just great. Frankly looks more professional than the first.
The from the producers at the beginning makes a point of saying "presented in its original aspect ratio" which appears to be about 16x9. I wonder if someone at Uni thought they meant 4x3 and just didn't pay attention, otherwise I just don't get why they windowboxed it. I used a proportional zoom in steps and "cinema zoom 14" appears to fill the screen exactly so I don't see what the problem was in the mastering and authoring.