The two shots (underwater POV and beach tracking shot) that play under the opening titles set the scene, and the film's narrative only properly begins after the credits are over. Spielberg uses a classic
shot reverse shot to establish the connection between Cassidy and Chrissie. The camera ends its lateral tracking movement and frames the young man slightly to the left of centre of the screen. He is staring intently over his raised cup, his gaze directed off to the right. He inhales on a cigarette and as he blows out the smoke there is a cut to a medium close up of a young woman, partially obscured by a white vapour at the bottom of the screen. She is framed slightly to the right whilst her gaze is focused a little to the left. The positioning of the two characters (each occupying the space into which the other is staring) provides a perfect
eyeline match. In a classic shot/countershot they exchange a flirtatious smile, and the young man indicates his intention to make a move by draining his cup. The sound of a sea bird momentarily distracts the woman and, as she turns her gaze away from the man and looks to her left, there is a cut to a wide shot of the entire campfire scene.
We can see the pale margin of surf only a few yards away and beyond that the darkness of the ocean, which we already know from the opening POV shot contains danger. The camera looks down on the scene from the top of a grass covered sand dune, the slope of which occupies the lower right hand corner of the frame. The thin slats of a fence snake up the slope in an irregular pattern.
The cut from close up to wide shot reveals that the two characters are separated by a distance of several feet, the woman excluding herself from the social circle around the campfire. The young man gets up and goes over to her, kneeling down beside her. Between them is a large metal bin that is either smoking or steaming, and we realise that the vapour obscuring the first shot of the woman came from this source and not from the man's cigarette. A short dialogue occurs, but the camera remains atop the dune and we do not hear the exchange. Suddenly the woman gets up, turns towards the camera and runs up the slope with the young man in pursuit.
