The Truman Show Visual Techniques

Describe an important setting that was used and visual/verbal techniques that portrayed this

In “The Truman Show” directed by Peter Weir a variety of visual and verbal techniques are used to portray the important settings like Truman’s house and the bridge in Seahaven. The audience is able to see how important the setting are though the use of verbal and visual techniques like framing lighting and sound affects.

An important setting in “The Truman Show” is Truman’s home. Since birth Truman’s life has been documented by around 5000 cameras so the idilic sea side house is full of them. The audience is shown the importance of this setting through the use of framing, for example Truman is first seen in the movie during the bathroom mirror scene, the scene shows a head shot of Truman that is framed by the outline of a mirror. This framing technique makes it look like the audience is seeing Truman through the mirror. The director uses this technique to show the audience how our surroundings

The director uses the long shots and birds eye views which show all of Seahaven to communicate to the audience how controlled and confined Truman’s life is because of the artificial nature of the t.v show.

Dialogue is a verbal technique used in “The Truman Show” to show how important the setting of Seahaven is to controlling Truman. When Truman is in his car traveling from his home to his work while he is listening to the car radio the radio host states “You’re not thinking of flying anywhere are you” and talks about “the danger of flying” this shows the audience how Truman is manipulated into staying in Seahaven because it is where Christof needs him to stay so he can keep controlling and manipulating him for his own personal and material