Interview: Diving Deep Into JAWS EXPLORED with Robin Block

CREATORVC's Robin Block has had tremendous success with the In Search of Darkness documentary series, along with deep dive documentaries like The Thing Expanded and Aliens Expanded. The next project for CREATORVC is Jaws Explored, their new documentary format helmed by Ian Nathan. I've been recently collaborating with CREATORVC, including authoring the upcoming Aliens Expanded companion book, and wanted to hear more from Robin on the work and thought process that goes into these documentaries. With the Jaws Explored pre-order campaign currently in progress, Robin discusses his approach to the "Explored" format, the importance of Jaws in his life, and much more:

I always like learning about that first experience someone had with Jaws. When was the first time you saw it?

Robin Block: I remember the first time I watched Jaws. I was eight years old, and I remember it being one of those formative visceral experiences that I wasn't prepared for. I remember being in bed later, absolutely frightened, petrified from what I'd seen, and not really being able to process it. This would've been like the mid '80s and parents were a bit more lackadaisical with what they allowed their children to watch. So I was getting exposed to lots of horror movies I shouldn't have been watching, but Jaws was a little bit special because it stayed with me. It made me more fearful of ocean swimming and I've never been entirely comfortable. Even in England, when we don't have any sort of dangerous sharks in the water, but I've always got this sort of paranoia in the back of my mind.

Can you talk about how you interacted with Jaws over the years and why is this an important enough film in your life that you wanted to go on this journey to make a documentary?

Robin Block: There are certain films that we encounter in our lives that have a very special quality: we can revisit them at various stages in our lives, and they grow as we grow. Jaws is one of those special films. I never get tired of watching it. Whenever it plays at a cinema near me, I'll make the pilgrimage to go and watch it.

It recently played last year in the local cinema; it was part of the 50th anniversary, and I took my wife to watch it. And every time I see it, I see something new. Great movies have this stickiness to them that pulls us back in, and not every film has that [quality]. There's just a little bit of magic sprinkled into it.

Was Jaws the first movie that came to mind when looking to create this new "Explored" format?

Robin Block: I was putting this new format together and, on paper, Jaws is the last movie I should have been covering with it because it's been so well documented by so many really fantastic documentaries. There are great film documentaries about Jaws, but at the same time, that made it the ideal candidate because we want to tackle this in a completely different way. I wanted to start it off with something that kind of transcended genre to a degree. People argue all the time about what Jaws is. How do you categorize it? It's Jaws... you can't. And that's the challenge.

One of the great things about Jaws is that it's scaring people who are seeing it for the first time today just as much as it did 50 years ago. My young nephew saw it last year accidentally, and it scared him ever since. Jaws could be released today and would still be a massive success.

You've built a tremendous audience with In Search of Darkness and with The Thing Expanded and The Aliens Expanded. How did this new "Explored" format come about?

Robin Block: I set up CREATORVC in 2018. It's 2026, we're eight years in, and Jaws Explored will be our 12th long-form release. Like you mentioned, we're best known for In Search of Darkness and our recent releases, Aliens Expanded and The Thing Expanded. We just finished doing the pre-sale for In Search of Darkness '70s, which was one of our most successful pre-sales ever. This is for a series which is now going into its sixth edition, and what drives the popularity of it is that people want nostalgia, but people also want to find new ways to engage with something they love, and so do I.

I watch tons of YouTube channels and am big on YouTube creators, but the challenge with YouTube is those creators are normally single people. They don't have the resources that you can deliver through having a very dedicated audience and crowdfunding and doing the things we've been doing for years now. So what really speaks to me and what drives me to develop these formats is: "I love this film. How can I get more out of it, and how can I engage with it in a different way?" That is the core of all of our work. We just want to find a new way to reach into this world [of cinema] and discover it.

The challenge with a lot of IP that is classic and has endured is you're looking at something that was made over 50 years ago. Most of the cast are no longer with us, and it's been really well-served by existing documentaries. But there's also an opportunity as well because we are not on the inside of Jaws looking out. We're on the outside looking in. And what I want to do is reengage with this film, and to see it through new eyes.

I want a new way to appreciate a film that I love because understanding it in different ways and seeing it through different perspectives is going to illuminate the film. And, ultimately, it's going to take something that we really love and give us more. If we execute on that, then everyone will be very happy because these films exist in their own time. They're kind of timeless. I'm not the same person I was when I was eight watching Jaws, and I want this documentary to fundamentally shift how I look at it, to take something I love and get even more enjoyment out of it. That is what "Explored" is all about.

And you're intentionally not focusing on the cast and crew behind Jaws.

Robin Block: We have to take a stance, which is that we're not going to try and interview Spielberg. We're not going to try and interview any of the remaining crew or cast, but I want the best minds in film to illuminate Jaws for us, to see it through their eyes, to understand what they're seeing. That's what Jaws Explored is.

CREATORVC has been hugely successful, and I put that down to the relationship we have with our backers. We're always talking to them. They lead us at this point, and, I can tell you, this format was the most nervous I've ever been for any of our projects ever. When we sent out our validation, which is where we do market research [with our previous backers], we emailed hundreds of thousands of people on our email list. We sent them an email saying, "Look, we've got this new concept. This is our approach. We want you to tell us, do you like it? And by the way, we're not going to interview any of the crew or cast, and that's by design."

I remember pressing send, and I thought, "Oh, man, I'm just going to get absolutely destroyed for this," but it was an amazing response.

You've built up such an incredibly passionate audience. A big part of the positive response is that people know the quality that you and your team produce. There's a trust that you're going to take the same care with this that you've taken on other projects, so people are happy and willing to follow you on that journey.

Robin Block: You're absolutely right. There's real pressure on us as always to deliver. We've been very direct about what this is trying to accomplish and what it's not. And in hindsight, I'm really glad we were very direct because this is new territory. This is something that I want to do with other films where there's still a massive fan base, but they've been starved of a new way to engage with it. That's the plan.

It also really helps that audiences engage with media differently than in past decades. There didn't use to be Twitch. We didn't have easily accessible bite-sized documentaries on YouTube. Now, that's commonplace.

Robin Block: There's value in that. I do it. I'm a terrible video games person in the fact that I'm very competitive, but I'm not very good. That's a bad combination. The only game that I play now is classic Halo. There's a YouTube channel that I watch just for Halo material, and I get a lot of enjoyment. And I love the horror and genre social media is brilliant at making me want to watch something I haven't watched in 15 years. I'm watching a lot that I haven't seen recently and going back and appreciating them in a new way.

One of the comments when we were doing the validation for Jaws Explored referred to the documentary Room 237, which is about The Shining. It is a fantastic documentary. And I just want to flag this: Jaws Explored is not going to be at all remotely like Room 237.

But why Room 237 works, if you're a big fan of The Shining, is because it takes the source material and this common ground, and it's going to take you on this bonkers journey. It's people projecting onto the movie and seeing things, and it's absolutely brilliant and bonkers.

I remember the moon landing conspiracy very well...

Robin Block: As a Jaws fan, I want to understand something I know [very well] in a different way. There is inherent value and entertainment and enjoyment. And our goal at CREATORVC is to get the best, most credible, educated, charismatic perspectives and go through the movie and create an indulgence. We get in trouble sometimes with people who are like, "I can't believe the documentary's five hours. Who does that?" It's by design. We don't care about broadcasters at all. All I care about is: can you set aside an evening and just have some snacks, have some drinks, and just be absorbed into this world?

It's a crazy world that we're living through at the moment, and I really feel the work that we're doing is a lovely distraction for a few hours where you can fully involve yourself in the subject matter. We certainly get comments on social media and emails, not just about In Search of Darkness, but all of our work because they're really in-depth. People just love getting lost in it. It's a very safe space.

It's highly educational. When we were growing up it felt like it was almost possible to catch up on the top horror movies made ever. Now, there are more and more horror movies released every year and it's harder for younger horror fans to know where to start. So someone who's 16 or 18, and wants to get into horror, could get a great education in horror movies by watching the In Search of Darkness films. It's a wonderful way for people to go to horror school.

Robin Block: You're exactly right. When I started putting these together, that wasn't the focus. I've learned so much from our audience about the value they see in it, and we lean into that now. But originally, with the first In Search of Darkness, I just wanted to zone in. It wasn't even about the content. It was about the feeling. So I wanted something which was going to make me feel really cozy, because I've got a short attention span, something where I could just go through a decade, and this is the highlight reel of '80s horror.

I was very fortunate enough to meet David Weiner when I was putting that together, and he really delivered well. I am so excited to see In Search of Darkness '70s. When David sends them to me, he doesn't send me early cuts. He'll send me something which is pretty well there apart from motion graphics and maybe some music, and I find it very hard to be critical as an exec producer. Normally, I'm just like, "God, that was just so much fun."

It's the same with "Expanded," to be honest. Ian Nathan is phenomenal and is helming this new format for me. He's the right guy to do it. Aliens Expanded and The Thing Expanded were big hits for us, and they were phenomenally difficult projects. Each one took a couple of years to put together. The problem with the "Expanded" format, and we're working on The Terminator Expanded right now, is that it just takes forever to assemble the remaining cast. But that's going to run out of road. This "Explored" format is a way to do the same thing, but without the cast reunion, and that's significant because it means that we don't have to spend two years doing it. We can do this in a year.

And I'm so delighted Ian is directing [Jaws Explored] because he will just make it lyrical. He just brings something out of these contributors. They know he's a great director now, but because of his background running one of the biggest film magazines in Europe and being a really accomplished author, the talent understand they're dealing with someone who is also talented.

One of the best moments in my career so far was being present at the interview between Ian Nathan and James Cameron. I was just standing around trying not to get in the way. Cameron is so razor sharp that he will spot if you are not on your "A" game straight away, and the respect that he showed Ian Nathan was remarkable. So Ian's a dream fit for this.

The world is changing in terms of viewership. We're seeing more movies and TV shows and video games coming out than anyone can possibly catch up on. And so you've really taken the approach of building a relationship with your viewers. Can you speak to that?

Robin Block: There's a lot riding on it because I don't just want this to be a good documentary. I want it to really speak to the backers. I want it to be something special that they feel that they're part of. Intimacy is very important and the relationship we have with our backers is unique. It's not like the relationship you have with stuff on Netflix or YouTube.

We really involve them in the development of these ideas, in requiring their support to make them happen, the dialogue we have with them all the way through, the assembly cuts that we send out to backers. They give us their feedback: What do you like? What do you not like? I don't care about Netflix, honestly, because those viewers are invisible because we don't know who they are. I care about delivering for the few thousand people that have gone, "I really want to be part of this," and I can't see beyond that. So that dialogue and that relationship is absolutely central to how we've built what we've built.

I've got an amazing team and I never want to take the credit for it. My job is to find the person that really wants to do the thing [we're working on] and none of this would've been even possible without the team. I've got a real vision of where I want to take it, and it's always going to be small. So I want to work with the same team. I don't want to grow [too much] or we lose something.

Also, in this world now, which is very precarious when it comes to AI, the documentary is one of the final forms that is inherently human. You are listening to human beings... You see their eyes: it's their expression, their humanity, their relationship to the subject they're talking about. That's really important as well and that's why demand for documentaries is going to increase, not go down.

Can you talk about what's included with Jaws Explored? It's pretty cool that there's a companion book with this one. It's closer to a high-end 4K UHD release. 

Robin Block: This was something which we developed initially for In Search of Darkness '70s. We had a vocal minority complaining that if they bought the Blu-ray and they got the posters and everything, because of how it's all shipped in the big box, the shipping fees can be quite high, especially if you're outside of America. Our audience buys physical media, so the main Blu-ray package we offer is the most popular package, hands down. So what I was trying to accomplish is: How can we add more value to this and at the same time reduce the shipping cost? And shipping costs are out of our control, unfortunately, but they vary. When you're doing everything using crowdfunding, that can be a real issue. You can't predict it. And we went and tested this new merchandising package with our In Search of Darkness backers, and they loved it. And that's going to be our standard format now [combining the Blu-ray with the companion book].

So there's the whole combination of having your name in the credits, being able to have access to see an assembly cut, the dialogue that we have with the backers, the production updates, the live streams that we do; that creates a unique set of circumstances which shifts your relationship to the work. If you went onto eBay right now and tried to find In Search of Darkness or any of our documentaries, they go for hundreds of dollars. People don't want to give them up because they have this intrinsic value.

I also wanted to call out the incredible artwork of Dave Merrell, who worked on this poster and most of your previous posters too. 

Robin Block: Dave Merrell, I'm never going to let him go... [laughs]. I was really struggling with [poster] ideas because how do you convey this idea? But instantly, [with Dave Merrell's artwork,] you're in the world of Jaws. He's just such a great artist. We invest huge amounts of money in real art for real people. We get accused of our posters being AI, and I'm like, "No, you can go and touch Dave Merrell. He's real. He's been doing our posters since 2020."

In this game, you can't please everybody all of the time, but we get a good balance of pleasing most of the people most of the time. And whenever we do a big release and we're coming off the back of The Thing Expanded, which was incredibly stressful to put together, but absolutely worth it because the feedback we've had has been remarkable, and it will be around forever.

This [success] is not something I take for granted. Every time we gear up for a new documentary, it's like a boxer getting prepared for a fight. It's like you go back into training.  I really care about this "Explored" format and how I want the audience to feel when they watch it. If that all marries up, then I will have done my job, and that's the best I can do.

Like I said earlier, I'm just so happy that Ian is directing because he will take it to another level. He'll take it beyond where I see it. I see in feelings and how I'm going to geek out in this moment, whereas he'll take it up a notch. And all the directors that I work with have that ability to take the baton and run faster with it. That's what I see happening with Jaws Explored, and I just feel really grateful that our audience has jumped on board.

---

[Editor's Note: Interview was edited for clarity]

"Written and directed by Ian Nathan (Aliens Expanded, The Thing Expanded) and produced by CREATORVC — Jaws Explored will guide viewers through Spielberg’s film moment by precious moment. What will also make the EXPLORED format unique are the fresh perspectives from acclaimed filmmakers, critics, and experts, deepening our relationship with the film. 

Jaws has been well served by traditional ‘making-ofs’ and a dedicated fandom over the past 50 years. With a brand new way of looking at the film, this latest documentary dives into influences, decades of appreciation, obsession, and the film’s cultural impact. The result will be an immersive celebration of a genre masterpiece that transcends cinema itself — not what happened but why Jaws still holds onto us and refuses to let go. 

Jaws Explored will be made with an ongoing consultation with the worldwide Jaws community. At its core, the ethos of CREATORVC remains: a documentary made by fans, driven by fans, on a subject adored by fans. 

Jaws is a perfect film. Now find out why…"

To pre-order now and for more details, visit: https://www.jawsexplored.com/