Hey Marty

Brody is interrupted in his shark spotting by Mrs Taft's husband. Mr Taft, a middle-aged businessman, interposes his tanned bulk between the chief and the ocean so that Brody has to look over the man's shoulder to keep his eye on the water activity. Taft's big head looms on the right of the frame and the tiny head of a girl swimmer - just a speck in the water - is in the far background on the left. The split focus gives a sense of depth and ensures that the viewer's attention, like Brody's, is held by the smaller of the two images within the frame.

The second false alarm occurs when the girl swimmer cries out as if taken by something below the surface. She rears up out of the water on the shoulders of her boyfriend, her scream more playful than fearful. Brody again raises himself out of his chair in reaction, settling back down when he realises his mistake. Taft, unaware of the threat, is more concerned with mundane matters. His little monologue of complaint about parking misdemeanours encapsulates the small town nature of Amity police work and also hints at the way those in authority are manipulated by those with influence ('You can take care of it. You've done it before.').

Taft's idiolect ('I've got some cats parking in front of the house') betrays his age as much as his greying hair, and his use of the overly-familiar form of Brody's first name may also be a hangover from the Fifties.