The Truman Show

Discuss how cinematography is used to create meaning in one scene from The Truman Show.

Scene : Good afternoon, good evening and good night - The Truman Show

This scene begins with a wide shot this helps the audience establish a initial idea of the size of Truman and it also acts as an establishing shot as you can see the front of the house behind him. The house looks rather artificial and very idealistic which sparks ideas in the audiences head as to why everything appears to be some what fake. After the initial wide shot we get the reverse shot of that, this helps the audience gain an understanding of what is happening. If we didn't have this shot we wouldn't know anything about what the characters looked like including components such as costume and character expression/movement nor would we know where they were standing which helps the audience understand what is going on and it helps "set the scene". Following this we have a zoom shot, this intensify Truman's over exaggerated expressions.

The next shot is a dolly/Tracking shot, the way the shot is filmed was by attacking a hidden camera to a bin. This gives a sense of movement allowing the audience to keep up with the action it also makes the audience question whats going on. Next there is a low angle shot and straight away followed by a high angled reverse shot, normally having a high angle shot makes the audience realise that the person at the same level as the camera is in power however in this part of the scene that is not the case. Despite Truman's size through his movement the audience realised he was scared of the dog that was smaller than him. Therefore the high angle and low angle had opposite effects. Followed by this the low angle shot and the placement of it implies the camera is hidden. It also creates a wide shot so the audience can see the house and the sky which we interpret to be very artificial which starts to ignite ideas in the audiences head such as Truman is being watched or he’s in a strange place.