Along with production designer Dennis Gassner (Waterworld, The Hudsucker Proxy) Weir and Biziou even researched the field of covert video surveillance. It was determined that while the various lenses and systems used in that field created an effective look, "most of them were too strong and obvious for us," Biziou explains. "Peter wanted us to use the simplest methods to imply surveillance, so that he would be free to be as dramatic as he wished in telling the story."
To suggest the "surveillance" feel, Biziou used "slightly unusual camera angles and positions, and framing foreground elements in a stronger way, which seemed to support the uneasy feeling" that was inherent in the story.
Weir saw The Truman Show as a chance to utilize the long-abandoned silent-era cinematic technique of vignetting the edges of the frame to emphasize the center. He used this technique to suggest that the cameras watching Truman were indeed hidden behind or contained within various objects. He offers, "I had become hooked on vignettes, as used by people like D.W. Griffith. I love the technique purely on its own, as a simple but highly effective cinematic device. It was somewhat surprising to me that vignetting hadn't yet been revived."
To create the vignettes, which Biziou says also helped convey "a more obvious, menacing feel," the cinematographer used a variety of gobos placed in front of the lens. Some of the effect was also added or enhanced digitally by postproduction supervisor Mike McAllister, whom Biziou credits with "doing a great deal to subtly enhance the look of the film."
Naturally, the overall look of The Truman Show was influenced by television images, particularly commercials. Weir offers, "We took a lot from the current vogue for extreme wide-angle lenses in commercials, where characters often lean into the lens with their eyeballs wide open. And we borrowed our high-key, somewhat glossy lighting approach from commercials and situation comedies. We often used a lot more light in interiors than one would normally use, to keep it all sparkly and clean. We were always reminding ourselves that in this world, everything was for sale." The director specifically refers to the story's winking conceit that the fictional Truman Show series is supported entirely by advertising revenue generated by in-your-face product placements staged by Truman's friends and associates.
Other influences also shaped the look of the film. Weir notes, "We began to adopt a combination of imaging styles from the bold graphic framing of television commercials to the more obvious, somewhat menacing feeling of surveillance, using static, long-held angles. We combined these with the predictable visual routine of TV soap operas." Subtlety ruled the day, however: "The public is so aware of what is going on with TV that we only had to infer these various feelings."
While interiors showing Truman's domestic life were filmed in a way that was "a little too well-lit and sort of glossy," Biziou didn't want the lighting to be overly brash. Seeking to retain some of the filmic quality that is expected in features, the cameraman says that he modified the television-style lighting by sculpting it with "a lot of black flagging and drapes, to control the soft light and keep it from being too flat."
Truman's world was created by the filmmakers in the real-life municipality of Seaside, Florida, a "planned community" created by developers on 78 acres of beachfront property on the Gulf Coast. The real town of Seaside (called Seahaven in the film) was designed so it would maintain a distinctly Rockwell-esque look, recalling small-town, pre-suburban America. (According to a report in The New York Times, all Seaside homes are required to have a front porch and a white picket fence.)
Needless to say, Seaside was chosen for its slightly unreal, too-perfect look. For Biziou's purposes, however, the town was far from perfect. As he details, "Seaside consists of rows and row of similar houses, all of which were white or pale pastel, and it faces south. That [color scheme], bathed in strong, glistening sunlight all day long, naturally created extremes of contrast and shadows. It was only by putting in a tremendous amount of fill light that we achieved the quality that really suited our needs.
"In adding the fill, we got this lovely bright sunny feel without any craggy harsh shadows anywhere," Biziou elaborates. "It began to take on this very slightly super-real feel, almost looking like a controlled environment, which was exactly what we were after. It is often by accident, perseverance and accepting what you've been given that you do things you never quite expected.
"This huge amount of fill also gave us very good apertures f8 or f11 on daylight exteriors and the depth and sharpness added to the hyper-realistic feel."
Producing such an abundance of bright daylight fill was a major technical undertaking. "We used enormous 40'-square scrim reflectors and diffusers, several of them at a time, which could be moved into place quickly via cherry pickers," Biziou recounts. "We would aim several 12Ks at or through these scrims, which would produce volumes of lovely, powerful, soft fill. Combined with the bright blue skies, this look helped imply that there was something unreal going on, but one never knew quite what."
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