Cinematography in The Truman Show

The scene I will be discussing the cinematography in is the scene where Truman’s ‘wife’ Meryl breaks character in front of Truman and tries to cover it up, also known as the ‘Do Something’ scene. The scene starts with a medium shot on Meryl. It then cuts so the camera is behind the counter, so you can see Truman sitting in a chair. This gives the viewer an overview of the setting. It then cuts back to the medium shot of Meryl and then jumps back to the over shoulder shot and then back to the medium shot. The same angles are used so the viewer doesn’t get confused with the way the ‘Truman show’ works. These shots don’t have a black circular rim around it, so we know it’s not the recording the people in the Truman show are watching. It then zooms in on Meryl as she speaks, who is holding a pot of cocoa powder. She’s looking at Truman but talking and holding it as if it were an advert. It then cuts to a close up of Truman to get his reaction as it is important to us as the viewer to understand Truman’s emotions. It then cuts to a close up of Meryl who continues to advertise the cocoa powder and then a close up of the container she’s holding is to further promote the product to the viewers watching the show. After that it cuts back to the behind the counter and then pans round as the actors move around the room. Then a close up of Meryl is shown through a button camera attached to Truman. We know that it is what is being streamed on Television because it has the black border around it and the camera moves with the characters to imply that that camera is part of Truman. A close up of Truman is then shown through a camera attached to Meryl, either a button or a badge she is wearing, the majority of the screen is taken up by the hole of the button showing that it’s a hidden camera. It then cuts back to the hidden camera attached to Truman. Meryl goes to pick up a knife and a close up of the counter is shown, displaying what she’s picking up along with the knife’s packaging, again advertising the knife. Then the hidden camera on Truman shows a close up of Meryl holding the knife towards the camera implying that she’s aiming for Truman. Then it switches to the hidden camera on Meryl to get a close up shot of Truman’s reaction to the knifes being wafted in his face. Then it switches between the two hidden camera which move according to the actor. A high angle shot is then used as this zooms out from the close up’s so the viewer can see their full movements and what’s going on. It also implies that because it’s zoomed out, so you can see everything, the actors are about to do something that the hidden cameras cannot see so a high angle shot is used to look down to get a clear view of what’s happening. The same angle is used but placed inside a TV implying that someone is watching them and it’s at that point that Meryl looks directly at the camera and says, ‘Do something’ and the camera then zooms in for a close up.