Revealing mistake: Just as Quint finishes scraping his nails on the chalkboard, the camera begins to move in closer when he takes the first bite of the cracker. On the right side of the screen under Harry's chin, Roy Scheider is ducking down while staring at the camera, as it pans toward Robert Shaw, and Roy then lifts his left hand up, cueing Robert's line. (00:20:55)
Continuity mistake: When Quint is up in the crow's nest, Brody tells him "Let Hooper take a turn" (regarding chumming the water). When Quint, while looking down at Brody, says "Hooper drives the boat, Chief", his right arm is across his body and looks to be resting on the safety railing of the crow's nest. When Brody looks up at Quint, his right arm is away from his body and is just holding onto the crow's nest railing with his hand.
Answer: Although the 1995 documentary "The Making of Jaws" claims that the shooting star was real, the fact is that the shooting-star background effect is a Steven Spielberg trademark in most of his films (first noticed in "Jaws," but also appearing in "Close Encounters," "E.T. The Extraterrestrial," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "Saving Private Ryan" and others). Spielberg has always had a fascination with shooting stars, dating back to his childhood, and he works them into almost every film. Http://americanprofile.com/articles/steven-spielberg-shooting-stars-movies/.
Charles Austin Miller