Truman Show
Teachers’ Notes
This study guide examines Peter Weir’s film The Truman Show’ released on October 9, 1998. It is aimed at students of GCSE, A Level, Scottish Standard, Scottish Higher and GNVQ Media Studies and English
Language.
Areas covered in this study guide and the accompanying BBC Learning Zone television programme focus on representation and reality, forms and conventions within the film world, the popularity of docu-soaps and issues they raise and their place and effect within the media world.
Synopsis
Truman Burbank has the feeling that he’s being watched. He doesn’t know how right he is. Every second of every day, from the moment he was born, for the last thirty years, Truman Burbank has been the unwitting star of the longest running, most popular documentary soap -opera in history. The picture perfect town of
Seahaven that he calls home is actually a gigantic soundstage. Truman’s friends and family - everyone he meets, in fact - are actors. He lives every moment under the unblinking gaze of thousands of hidden television cameras. Welcome to ‘The Truman Show’. The whole world is watching. the TRUMAN show Director Peter Weir
Certificate
PG
Running time
103
mins
E-mail: postbox@filmeducation.org
Website: http://www.filmeducation.org
Introduction
‘The Truman Show’ is a film which charts the life of Truman Burbank, a boy adopted at birth by a fictitious television company - Omnicom. He is filmed twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days a year so every second of his life is recorded for ‘live’ television. Truman doesn’t know this. He doesn’t know that his friends and family are all actors. He doesn’t know that the events in his life are all carefully monitored and controlled by the production crew of the television network. He doesn’t know he is the star of a television show nor that he isn’t living in the real world.
As far as we know, the concept of this film is not yet a reality, as Peter
This study guide examines Peter Weir’s film The Truman Show’ released on October 9, 1998. It is aimed at students of GCSE, A Level, Scottish Standard, Scottish Higher and GNVQ Media Studies and English
Language.
Areas covered in this study guide and the accompanying BBC Learning Zone television programme focus on representation and reality, forms and conventions within the film world, the popularity of docu-soaps and issues they raise and their place and effect within the media world.
Synopsis
Truman Burbank has the feeling that he’s being watched. He doesn’t know how right he is. Every second of every day, from the moment he was born, for the last thirty years, Truman Burbank has been the unwitting star of the longest running, most popular documentary soap -opera in history. The picture perfect town of
Seahaven that he calls home is actually a gigantic soundstage. Truman’s friends and family - everyone he meets, in fact - are actors. He lives every moment under the unblinking gaze of thousands of hidden television cameras. Welcome to ‘The Truman Show’. The whole world is watching. the TRUMAN show Director Peter Weir
Certificate
PG
Running time
103
mins
E-mail: postbox@filmeducation.org
Website: http://www.filmeducation.org
Introduction
‘The Truman Show’ is a film which charts the life of Truman Burbank, a boy adopted at birth by a fictitious television company - Omnicom. He is filmed twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days a year so every second of his life is recorded for ‘live’ television. Truman doesn’t know this. He doesn’t know that his friends and family are all actors. He doesn’t know that the events in his life are all carefully monitored and controlled by the production crew of the television network. He doesn’t know he is the star of a television show nor that he isn’t living in the real world.
As far as we know, the concept of this film is not yet a reality, as Peter