The Truman Show (1998)
• Mise en scene
• This French expression is used to refer to the
‘look’ of the film, particularly the sets and
locations in which the action takes place, the
costumes and other objects on view (props),
the use of colour and lighting and the specific
shot types and framing being deployed.
The Truman Show (1998)
• Mise en scene – sets, locations and narrative space
• The Truman Show (1998) is unusual in that it is not only
dominated by ‘sets’ – both internal and external – but
that these are so stylised
• Many films are use ‘real’ locations to give a feeling of
‘authenticity’, or at least backlot sets that mimic real
cities or other spaces
• The Truman Show (1998) does the reverse. It provides
viewers with visual spaces that are all homogenised into
a Disneyland-style prettiness
• “The town needed a feeling of
having been purpose-built, and
built all at one time as with any
television or movie set.”
• Peter Weir (Director)
The Truman Show (1998)
•
Mise en scene – sets, locations and narrative space
•
Peter Weir, the film’s director, initially thought of using Los Angeles studio backlots to create
the town of Seahaven from scratch however, as the previous quote reveals, this idea was
quickly scratched..
•
The actual town used in the film is Seaside, a 90 acre planned community in northwest
Florida USA, founded in 1980. Comprised of over 300 cottages, it is used by all-year-round
residents and guests on vacation.
•
Seaside features its own local post office, art galleries, antique shops, boutiques, bookshops
and restaurants all within walking distance of each house.
•
The residents of the community all conform to a specific building code to create the
‘storybook’ cottages they live in, and each of Seaside’s streets leads to the ocean.
•
“It looked like it had been built far our show. I knew we could enhance it to create the ideal
setting for Seahaven,” notes director Peter Weir.
The Truman Show (1998)
• Mise en scene – sets, locations and narrative space
• The major set, and dominant ‘space’ of the film is
‘Seahaven’, a town of wide, tree-lined streets, cute
houses, brand new office buildings and shops
• Interiors are the same – homely, discreetly luxurious,
with cheery colours and all the fittings – like what you
find in a housing display or mock home
• Seahaven is the visual embodiment of the all-American
dream of a perfect small town
The Truman Show (1998)
• Mise en scene – sets, locations and narrative space
• Christof states about the town that it is, ‘the way the world
should be.’
• However, although it pretends to be ‘reality’, it is an idealised
small town as imagined by Hollywood
• The only serious alternative to Seahaven is the Lunar Room
(Christof's space high above the Seahaven sound stage,
behind the ‘moon’ that hangs in the Seahaven sky)
• This is designed in a minimalist ‘heaven’-like way – all bright
light and airiness – to connote Christof's God-like power over
the show (and implicitly the control the media have over our
lives in general)
The Truman Show (1998)
• Mise en scene – sets, locations and narrative space
• There are a number of ‘cutaway’ scenes showing the show’s
audience in what purports to be the real world – the garage, the
bar, the lunge room of the two old ladies, the bathroom of the fat
man – but these are few and far between because they are not the
central focus
• A significant alternative space is Sylvia’s apartment , which is full of
lifelike clutter, its walls plastered with ‘Save Truman’ posters and
suchlike.
• The visual and styling of these ‘real’ world spaces in in strong
contrast to the bland prettiness of Seahaven, subtly underscoring
Christof's point that the real world is disorderly and uncontrolled
The Truman Show (1998)
•
Costume
•
Wendy Stites, the film’s visual consultant, took her inspiration for the costumes
from a variety of sources including Norman Rockwell paintings, Jean Cocteau, a
book containing ‘Everyday Fashions of the 1940s’, the Saturday Evening Post
magazines and photographs of the actor James Stewart.
•
Working with costume designer Marilyn Matthews, Wendy set out to create
clothing to reflect Truman’s world.
•
Marilyn Matthews says, “Our challenge was to avoid making the costumes too
cartoonish and also not to make them too tied into a specific period of time.”
•
With this in mind Wendy and Marilyn avoided colours such as lime green and
orange - which would have given the film a contemporary feel. They concentrated
on using colours such as red, black, yellow and checked patterns, and rather than
buying or finding ready-made garments, the costumes for the film were made to
order.
The Truman Show (1998)
• Costume
• Wendy Stites says, “Truman Burbank is the only person on
‘The Truman Show’ that dresses himself- the others are all
dressed by the wardrobe department of the television show
- so I wanted his look to be a bit different, not quite as
polished.”
• Peter Weir says, “I always thought of the film as taking place
twenty years or so in the future, and that Christof the show’s
creator would hove created an idealised environment for
Seahaven based on elements from the past that he
particularly admired.”
The Truman Show (1998) - Discuss
• Costume in The Truman Show (1998) – Discussion Points
• What elements from the past can you identify in the film?
•
In what ways does Seahaven look like a storybook town?
• Would you like to live in Seaside (the real town)? Explain your answer.
• In what ways might the costumes be perceived as ‘cartoonish’?
• Do you think Truman’s costumes are different from the others? In what
ways?
• How do the costumes reflect the personalities of the people within the
community of Seahaven?
The Truman Show (1998) - Discuss
•
Discussion Points
•
There is another constructed world within the film The Truman Show (1998);
that of the production centre and the audience watching the television series.
•
Examine the image of the production centre. What sort of world is implied by
the costume and set design? From where do you think it takes its inspiration?
Does this confirm Peter Weir's vision of the film? How?
•
How does this contrast with the world of Seahaven and the 'real' world of the
television audience? What sets and costumes do we see from the world of the
television audience?
•
Redesign the world of Seahaven from its seemingly cosy, comfortable world
and give it a sinister, nightmarish quality. Describe your ideas on how to
achieve this. If you wish, start completely afresh, or use the existing sets and
costumes and alter them.
The Truman Show (1998)
•
Mise en scene – Film style
•
Film style, particularly the use of camera angles, is an important indicator of where the
action is taking place. One of the conventions of film is that we never see the camera.
This works well in portraying the world of the production crew and television audience
of ‘The Truman Show’ as it gives us the feeling that we are watching a ‘real’ world.
•
Peter Weir wanted to convey the idea that Truman was being filmed under surveillance
and enable us, the target audience, to distinguish when we are observing the world of
Seahaven. To do this he used a variety of techniques:
•
•
•
· wide angle lenses
· unusual camera angles (not used in dramatic filming)
· shooting through oval or circular ‘masks’ giving the impression that these hidden
cameras are built into various parts of the landscape
· special ‘cameras’ hidden in more mobile and surprising places (in a ring which Truman
wears, another in his wife Meryl’s necklace and the ‘buoy cam’ bobbing along the
surface of the water ready to capture Truman should he venture offshore)
•
The Truman Show (1998)
•
Mise en scene – Film style – Discussion Points and Tasks
•
The idea of having hidden cameras for surveillance scattered around the town of
Seahaven influenced the way in which the town of Seaside was adapted to function as a
film set. Certain buildings had architectural features added so that the miniature hidden
cameras could shoot the story.
•
The elegant piece of sculpture near the entrance of the insurance building, where
Truman works, was specially designed so that not only could it house a camera, but also
act as a sentry for the nerve centre of production for the ‘The Truman Show’ television
series.
•
•
•
What unusual camera angles can you remember in the film?
Comment on the camera angles displayed in the images used to illustrate this section.
Draw a diagram of the inside of Truman’s house in Seahaven. Mark up any places in
particular where you can remember there is a camera positioned. Now indicate on your
diagram all the other places where a camera would need to be. Think carefully about
the positioning of certain cameras to give Truman some amount of privacy in his own
home and not offend network audiences. Design a prop for the Truman set which
would house a hidden camera.
The Truman Show (1998)
• Mise en scene – camera angles and point of view
(POV)
• Placement of the camera is an important film
technique. Most often the camera is placed at eye
level with the actors to give the audience a sense of
participating in what is going on and being said
• However, shooting a character from above or below
is also used to make subtle points
The Truman Show (1998)
• Mise en scene – camera angles and point of view (POV)
• When we are outside Truman’s house for the first time and
we see him dressed for work as he greets his neighbours, we
see Truman from high above – as the studio light crashes
down onto the set beside him
• This startling change of viewpoint is one of the early
indications that Truman is a creature on a show, controlled
from ‘above’
• Another such example is the crane shot used when Truman is
driving Meryl to Fiji and he drives around the roundabout.
Again his powerlessness – and indeed the absurdity of his
situation (round and round meaninglessly) is visually
reinforced
The Truman Show (1998)
• Mise en scene – camera angles and point of view
(POV)
• Point of view (POV) is strongly underlined often in
this film, and it reminds the audience that Truman is
the object of people’s continuous gaze
• The very first scene in which we see Truman shows
his face inside a screen (which is itself onscreen). It is
the bathroom mirror camera and he is looking into a
camera lens – in other words it foregrounds the idea
of a lens of spectatorship
The Truman Show (1998)
• Mise en scene – camera angles and point of view (POV)
• A number of shots are taken from highly unusual viewpoints
• Think of the distorted ‘fisheye’ angle showing twins Don and
Ron, obviously taken from the camera clearly visible at the top
of the Kaiser Chicken advertising billboard, or the deskcamera
showing Truman on the phone (but shot from below the desk)
• At intervals throughout the film, particularly once the ‘secret’
is out (and Truman knows his life is being filmed), we see how
Christof deliberately chooses a point of view.
• Other unusual examples include the dashboard camera, the
pencil sharpener camera and the mast camera.
The Truman Show (1998)
• Mise en scene – shot types and framing
• Long shots show a whole scene. They are typically
establishing shots, as when we see Seahaven town
square for the first time, or when we see Truman and
Lauren (Sylvia) on the beach
• These enable us to locate the context for the action
to be shown in medium shots or even close ups
• Extreme long shots are very rare
The Truman Show (1998)
• Mise en scene – shot types and framing
• Medium shots (the most common in the film) show
part of the scene. They may be whole figure shots, as
in many scenes involving Truman and Meryl or
Truman and Marlon, or the shots inside cars.
• Medium shots are a half way point between long and
close-up shots, and are the most common to help
carry the plot or narrative forward
The Truman Show (1998)
• Mise en scene – shot types and framing
• Close-up shots are for significant detail, or for highly
involving moments. In these the camera moves right up
to the characters, as if we could touch them.
• They are used to great effect in the library scene in which
Truman meets Lauren and the embrace scene in which
we as the audience are only centimetres away from the
lovers
• In watching their reactions we are led to share in them,
thereby enormously heightening our emotional
involvement in the film.
The Truman Show (1998)
• Mise en scene – shot types and framing
• Framing can mean what type of shot is used , but it can also
refer to what the director puts inside the view he presents
• Truman is often shot in images with framing devices, like
doorways and windows. While these items are naturalistic
features and perhaps do not draw attention to themselves,
they position him as ‘confined’ and controlled
• Even more significant perhaps are those shots where the fact
that a camera lens is involved is deliberately underlined.
There is a long shot where a camera follows Truman in
telephoto mode and in vignette (an area of black in a circle
around the central image)
The Truman Show (1998)
• Mise en scene – shot types and framing
• During the scene where Truman buys a ferry ticket
there are four separate vignette angles:
• The approach to the jetty
• The view of Truman at the ticket window taken from behind the
ticket man’s head in the booth – the latter planning to follow
Truman and revealing a glass prism effect around the image
• The bollard camera (on the jetty next to the sunken boat)
• The overhead camera (as Truman stops on the sunken boat)
The Truman Show (1998)
• Mise en scene – shot types and framing
• Most of the early shots when Truman visits the hospital to tell
Meryl he is going to Fiji involve deliberate prism or dark
vignette surrounds (to remind us that Truman is being filmed)
• Most of the shots in the travel agency are taken from very
strange angles, as if from hidden cameras built into the décor.
These self-consciously stylised shots are reminders that
Truman is the object of voyeuristic scrutiny
• It is not normal for filmmakers to draw attention to their art.
Characters do not look into the lens. Lenses are ‘signposted’ –
they are used (‘invisibly’). The Truman Show (1998) breaks
these rules as a way of pointing out the act of viewing itself.
The Truman Show (1998)
• Editing
• Joining two shots together makes a connection between
them in our mind. It is also a key element in the way the
director paces the narrative
• It links the shots in time and space
• The scene detailing the abduction of Sylvia is followed
immediately by the bar cutaway scene in which the
waitress explains to her colleague how Truman wanted
to follow Sylvia but was prevented by his mother’s fake
illness
The Truman Show (1998)
• Editing
• As the secret of Truman’s fake life is revealed and the connection
between Christof and the plot is made explicit, we see some
striking uses of editing known as cross-cutting
• During the scene when Marlon declares to Truman ‘I’d never lie to
you’ the audience are startled by hearing the same words uttered
by Marlon and Christof, as Christof feeds his actor lines
• Editing also has to do with a scene’s tempo. Consider the ‘storm at
sea’ scenes which are ‘cut’ very rapidly to convey a sense of drama
and peril.
• In contrast the interview with Christof is long and leisurely to
suggest control and power
The Truman Show (1998)
• Sound
• Films have a powerful visual and an auditory dimension. Sound is a
signifier of meaning and a further way of manipulating the audience
• Dialogue is important within this film as key psychological or
thematic information is often located from exchanges between
characters – the radio transmissions, the marvellous duplication of
dialogue between Marlon and Christof – both making important
points about artificiality
• Non-verbal sound elements are equally important – the sound
effects - the rip sound when Truman’s boat punctures the sea
cyclorama; the music of the romantic piano track over the red
cardigan scene; or the synthetic ‘weepie’ music over the reunion.
These are all parts of cinematic language