In calling for the Olympics to run every two years, I suspect people are falling into what I’ve called the Jaws delusion, as discovered by Steven Spielberg (Letters, 2 January).
While showing an early cut of Jaws, Spielberg found a particular shock effect with the shark worked so well with preview audiences that he inserted a similar effect earlier in the movie. As he expected, audiences were nicely shocked by the new effect. However, to his dismay, when the original scene came along later in the film it had lost its power to surprise. He removed the new one.
Some things are valuable because they are rare and it’s a delusion to think that making them less rare will make them more valuable.
Charles Harris
Author, Jaws in Space: Powerful Pitching for Film and TV Screenwriters
