CW: Opening EG 4: The Truman Show

The Truman Show

Peter Wier, 1998 (Sci-Fi/Drama, PG)

Produced by: Paramount Pictures

Distributed by: United International Pictures

Budget: $60M

Box Office:$240M (worldwide) £9M (UK)

Trailer, Wikipedia

Rotten Tomatoes: Scored 94%

Opening Length: Approx. 5 mins

Opening Shot:

The fake credits

The opening shot shows the creator of the Truman show, christof, in an interview. It is solely him on screen. This shot is very basic, designed to set up the movie as a documentary of sorts. The next shot is of Truman talking to himself, this shot has been edited to appear as though it is on a TV. The shot has clutter, such as perfume and other toiletries, along the bottom of the shot. This is atypical to the types of shots often found in reality shows and has been made to show the way in which the camera's are placed on the show. We then see some fake opening credits, they introduce the characters and the character's characters. Clearly this has been set up like this so that the people watching the movie feel like their watching the TV show instead. 

The cluttered shot

Later Shots:
When the light falls the camera is at a slight high angle, this shows truman's worry and powerlessness over the situation. As he goes to examine the light the angle moves to ground level, showing that Truman has now realised the light poses no threat. The next shot is of truman in his car, this shot has been edited to show numbers infront, highlighting the hidden camera style of the show. The shot is now low angle, this shows that truman is calm and seems to be back in control. By gradually changing the camera shot (going from high to middle to low) it demonstrates that truman isn't instantly in control but is instead slowly regaining control, in a tentative manner.  

The slight high angle