Peter Biziou: Vignettes

From American Cinematographer, This Is Your Life by Eric Rudolph (June 1998)

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.

"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."

- Peter Weir

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."