Since news broke that a film crew from Universal Studios would be making a movie on the Vineyard during the next two months, a subtle primping has been in the March wind. A few fishermen who are rarely seen in working togs have been hanging around Edgartown’s Main street with a cultivated crustiness. Waning Shakespeareans crib for an impromptu audition and casually mutter Falstaff speeches in grocery lines. Archtypal New Englanders develop brooding into a form of showmanship.

Who will the director pick? — the cry of callers to the Chamber of Commerce and the Gazette. What types does he need? If someone stops me on the street, should I do my Bogart imitation?

Steven Spielberg, the young director who will indeed select Islanders for his film of a great white shark’s attacks around a resort community, revealed the answer at the Kelley House Wednesday evening:

If you are grabbed by the idea of swimming off Cape Pogue in April, gay and frolicking as if it were State Beach in August, before shrieking with fear (not chill) and thrashing away from the jaws of a 24-foot shark, then stand by — your hour of stardom may be at hand. Mr. Spielberg is looking for 6,000 of you.

Starting in a Few Weeks

“Otherwise, we’ll be auditioning — with readings and acting tests — for a few parts, beginning within a couple of weeks ­­— but things will be very controlled,” he said. Sherry Rhodes, casting director, will be making announcements about specifics, but to avoid mobs the secret will be kept until then. Prospective stars should meanwhile busy themselves preparing resumes complete with pictures.

The real star of the film, however, needed no audition. He is a shark.

“I want this film to be quite an education for anyone who wants to learn about these fantastic creatures,” said Mr. Spielberg. “There are a lot of Believe-It-Or-Not fact about their lives...” whereupon he painted a picture of the boneless fish which, born without a swim bladder, must spend 80 years in constant motion to avoid sinking, growing until the day it dies, sensing blood in the water almost instantaneously from as far away as 10 miles...

Peter Gimbel, whose extensive studies of sharks resulted in a daring and successful film called Blue Water, White Death a few years ago, is a technical assistant for the film and has been shooting thousands of feet of white shark footage off Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. (One shark he lured to boatside even submitted to make-up applied by poles to render it scarred and bleeding.)

The film isn’t all sharks, though. “I’m very interested in the idea of a clash between the summery quaintness and relaxed gaiety of a resort and the terror of a sudden force from, really, another world.” Mr. Spielberg said he finds the Vineyard one of the most relaxing places he has been — “The quaintness is right out on the streetcorners” ­— and the perfect ground for conflict, and incongruous savagery.

Peter Benchley, who wrote the novel upon which his script for the movie is based, said the scenes in the book were taken from locations all over the world. But when he came to the Island, Mr. Spielberg found everything all together. He said, “I think we can film anything we could want to film right here on the Vineyard.”

The Island, called Amity in the film, will be portrayed as a one-town, one-beach spot, though footage from all over Martha’s Vineyard will be used to form the impression.

“We want a small island,” said Mr. Spielberg, “because we want to give the feeling that the shark is absolutely everywhere.”

So, a character named quint, who is a fisherman living in Menemsha, will stroll out of his house and down Edgartown’s Main street past ferry docks to end up at the foot of circuit avenue, whence he will step over to a friend’s house on West Chop to talk of the shark ­— plaguing the eastern shore of Cape Pogue ­— while gazing out at the Gay Head light.

Mr. Spielberg will also have to simulate July in April. “We’re hoping for an early spring,” he said.

Comparison Drawn

A comparison was drawn between Jaws — the novel — and William Peter Blatty’s book, The Exorcist (which inspired a film of infamous sensations). From both books, said Mr. Spielberg, one learns a great deal of well-researched fact (sharks in Jaws, demonology in The Exorcist). And from both books, one is terrified.

“I want to scare the hell out of the audience — it’s that simple,” he said. “If I can teach them about something while I’m doing it, so much the better for all.”

The film’s producers look forward to their relations — both business and social — with the Island. There have been good omens; one of them was narrated:

Foster Silva, overseer of the Trustees of Reservation land on Cape Pogue, took the director and producers around to see several spots they wanted to check out for beach footage. Nothing really thrilled them, but they went on looking.

Forster diligently took them everywhere. Then he confessed he had read the book. “And now I’ll take you to the beach where you’ll make the film,” he promised. Doubting, but interested, the men followed — to East Beach. Foster was right. They loved it.

“If we keep getting help like that,” said Mr. Spielberg, “this will be a beautiful filming experience. We’ll do our best for that.”