Jaws and Dissertations
June 20, 1975 the movie, Jaws, was released. Do you feel like the sharks are circling your dissertation? Are you afraid to even get in the water?…
Jaws is an absolute classic. A copy of the movie has even been saved in the Library of Congress.
But, when it was first being filmed, it wasn’t really on track to be such a classic film. It wasn’t even obvious that the film was going to get made!
The director and cast had to deal with all kinds of setbacks. Ultimately, it was their pragmatic flexibility that enabled the film go down in cinematic history. Being flexible and adjusting on the fly led to greatness!
So, what went wrong? Well, for starters, the mechanical sharks didn’t work as expected. In a horror movie. About a shark. The sharks wouldn’t function properly!
You can imagine that everyone just wanted to throw their hands up in the air and quit. But, what they did instead was to rewrite certain scenes so that they showed a lot less of the shark. It was a wonderful case of addition by subtraction. The resulting film was much more restrained than originally planned, which is exactly why is exudes such a menacing feel.
In another case, the filmmakers were able to secure actual footage of a shark attacking an empty shark cage. In order to incorporate this footage, they rewrote the script again, completely changing the fate of one of the characters. The real footage made the film terrifying!
Are you able to roll with the punches on your dissertation?
Can you take advantage of an interesting finding?
If things don’t work as expected, will you be able to make adjustments and still move forward?
How you are able to roll with the punches will spell the difference between an unfinished dissertation, and a done dissertation!
Is your dissertation facing setbacks and you don’t know how to adjust? Click here to schedule a quick, 15-minute chat with me to see if you’re a good candidate for our Fast Track Your Dissertation Coaching Program. If you are, then I’ll invite you to join the fastest group of dissertation students out there and help you to reach graduation a good year or two faster than you would on your own.
