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Before James Cameron came along, few Hollywood directors knew more about shooting a movie on the open sea than Steven Spielberg. Going against conventional wisdom, the filmmaker learned his lesson the hard way as he headed out to the shallow waters off Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, to make his 1975 feature film “Jaws.” His adaptation of Peter Benchley’s best-selling novel was the first major Hollywood picture to be filmed on the ocean, and Spielberg’s ambitious desire for naturalism almost\u00a0sank the movie and his career. With his knowledge, he was one of the best people to warn Kevin Costner as he was about to star in his infamous 1995 tentpole “Waterworld.”<\/a><\/p>\n Spielberg was lucky enough to get away with it, of course.\u00a0Despite a troubled production that ran over schedule and over budget, the director somehow wrangled an unfinished screenplay, an uncooperative mechanical shark, and an alcoholic Robert Shaw to create something close to pure movie magic. The finished film was a remarkably assured piece of filmmaking from the young artist and a critical and commercial success, not only becoming the first true summer blockbuster but also earning an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.\u00a0Spielberg\u00a0later confessed during an interview with Ain’t It Cool News<\/a>:<\/p>\n “I was na\u00efve about the ocean, basically. I was pretty na\u00efve about mother nature and the hubris of a filmmaker who thinks he can conquer the elements was foolhardy, but I was too young to know I was being foolhardy when I demanded that we shoot the film in the Atlantic Ocean and not in a North Hollywood tank.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n Almost 20 years after “Jaws,” Spielberg tried to pass his hard-won wisdom on to Costner and director Kevin Reynolds as they embarked on “Waterworld.” But the two Kevins didn’t want to listen.<\/p>\n\n