TASK 3 / GROUP DISCUSSION 1

WEDNESDAY 25/3/2020

6B CLASS OF INTRODUCTION TO FILM

NARRATIVE ELEMENTS OF FILM

Analysis Point Of View (POV) of “The Truman Show” Film

GROUP 4 : Andry Garcia (111702600000) ; Aulia Nugraheni Putri (111702600000) ;
Imtihanatul Qodariah (11170260000033) ; Kalfa Putri J. (111702600000) ; Siti Azizah
Dinda Kirana (111702600000)

_____________________________________________________________________________________

A film about a designed place to live and being recorded in a 24 hour

TV show production in consideration of such plot of the inventor of the show.

From https://www.storyboardthat.com/, Point of view is the vantage

point from which a story is told. It is the stance from which the action and
events of the story unfold. Point of View, or the kind of narration, as in the
written literary, deals with who is telling the story: first person (I, me, my) or
third person (he, she, they). First person narrators have many advantages,
including credibility and intimacy. A first person narrator is often more
believable because the reader gets access to his or her thoughts and beliefs.
However, there are disadvantages, too. The narrator’s characterizations of
events, people, and places will be colored by his or her attitudes, prejudices,
limitations, and shortcomings. In many ways, it makes them unreliable
because their observations may not always fully adhere to the truth. It is also
difficult for a narrator to directly characterize himself or herself personally;
instead, the reader must form an opinion based on how other characters
react to the narrator, and by the narrator’s actions, thoughts, and dialogue.

Third person narration can be split into two categories: omniscient and
limited point of view. An omniscient narrator is someone who can access the
thoughts and beliefs of many characters without limitations, and can explain
past, present, and future events to the reader. This gives an enormous
amount of freedom to the narrator, and it is advantageous because an
omniscient narrator can often interpret the motivations of characters or the
importance of events directly to the reader. It also has a disadvantage in its
loss of intimacy with the reader.

1
TASK 3 / GROUP DISCUSSION 1

WEDNESDAY 25/3/2020

6B CLASS OF INTRODUCTION TO FILM

NARRATIVE ELEMENTS OF FILM

Analysis Point Of View (POV) of “The Truman Show” Film

GROUP 4 : Andry Garcia (111702600000) ; Aulia Nugraheni Putri (111702600000) ;
Imtihanatul Qodariah (11170260000033) ; Kalfa Putri J. (111702600000) ; Siti Azizah
Dinda Kirana (111702600000)

_____________________________________________________________________________________
A limited third person narrator is restricted to one particular
character’s experiences and thoughts. It again allows a sense of intimacy
and credibility with the reader, but the author is still able to pepper in details
that the character may not otherwise know or realize. There is still room for
the author to interpret some things for the reader, and to characterize the
narrator in more detail.

Quoted from the Film Art. An Introduction 11th Edition (pp.87-92):

Range of The Story

 The narration of unrestricted, we can know more, we see and hear

more, than any of the characters can. Such extremely knowledgeable
narration is often called omniscient (“all-knowing”) narration.
 Unrestricted narration and restricted narration aren’t watertight
categories but rather two ends of a continuum.
 Filmmakers can achieve powerful effects by manipulating the range of
story information. Restricted narration tends to create greater
curiosity and surprise for the viewer. For instance, if a character is
exploring a sinister house, and we see and hear no more than the
character does, a sudden revelation of a hand thrusting out from a
doorway will startle us.
 An easy way to analyze the range of narration is to ask, “Who knows
what when?” This question applies to the characters and the spectator
as well. At any given moment, we can ask if we the audience knows
more than, less than, or as much as the characters do.

Discussion in the appearance of the film :

2
TASK 3 / GROUP DISCUSSION 1

WEDNESDAY 25/3/2020

6B CLASS OF INTRODUCTION TO FILM

NARRATIVE ELEMENTS OF FILM

Analysis Point Of View (POV) of “The Truman Show” Film

GROUP 4 : Andry Garcia (111702600000) ; Aulia Nugraheni Putri (111702600000) ;
Imtihanatul Qodariah (11170260000033) ; Kalfa Putri J. (111702600000) ; Siti Azizah
Dinda Kirana (111702600000)

_____________________________________________________________________________________
o The narration of this film is third point of view. Is it limited or
omniscient?

o The inventor (Christof, played by) followed by the actress (Meryl,

played by) of the production of “The Truman Show” facing the
camera (screen) telling insights about “The Truman Show” as we,
the spectator outside this film, can become his and her viewers
of the show.
But in the glimpse of this stage, people who watch this scene,
we, still can be titled as innocent about ‘what is going on in the
movie’, also we cannot say in the beginning that the first and the
second people appeared in the beginning of this movie is the
inventor and the actress of the tv show program itself.

o Followed by the scene of Truman as the protagonist of this film,

played by Jim Carrey, we cannot mention that the narration of
this film is fully in the state of unrestricted narration (also known
as omniscient or all-knowing narration). It is because there is no
appearance of such production except the little insights from the
inventor and the actress, then by the title that emphasize the
insights. Nevertheless, there is such an unexpected reveal
through the visual of the screen of the movie that we can identify
that it is a camera angle of the production of the show. This
implies that such scene is the intention of the Filmmaker and
part of the restricted narration, that gives what it is call as
suspense.
o Next up, the scene of people inside the movie watching the show
of Truman from a television in the café proving that the narration

3
TASK 3 / GROUP DISCUSSION 1

WEDNESDAY 25/3/2020

6B CLASS OF INTRODUCTION TO FILM

NARRATIVE ELEMENTS OF FILM

Analysis Point Of View (POV) of “The Truman Show” Film

GROUP 4 : Andry Garcia (111702600000) ; Aulia Nugraheni Putri (111702600000) ;
Imtihanatul Qodariah (11170260000033) ; Kalfa Putri J. (111702600000) ; Siti Azizah
Dinda Kirana (111702600000)

_____________________________________________________________________________________
as the filmmaker want to give insight to us, the real-life
spectator of the film, making us to be the omniscient spectator
that the plot is about running a show.
o Back to the terminology, considering Truman as the protagonist
(the lead of the story) inside the show so is in the film, it is about
how the story represented as the protagonist flows through the
film. As in “The Truman Show”, the story plot is about Truman
existence within consciousness and coincidence. However, the
consciousness of the protagonist does not value the range of
knowledge instead how the filmmaker want to give the value to
the spectator of the film itself.

Depth of The Story

 If a filmmaker restricts our knowledge to a single character, does that

restriction create greater subjective depth? Not necessarily. The Big
Sleep is quite restricted in its range of knowledge, as we’ve seen. But
we very seldom see or hear things from Marlowe’s perceptual vantage
point, and we never get direct access to his mind. The Big Sleep uses
almost completely objective narration. The omniscient narration of The
Birth of Nation, however, plunges to considerable psychological depth.
 with optical POV shots, flashbacks, and the hero’s final fantasy vision
of a world
 without war. To maximize suspense, Hitchcock’s films may give us
slightly greater

4
TASK 3 / GROUP DISCUSSION 1

WEDNESDAY 25/3/2020

6B CLASS OF INTRODUCTION TO FILM

NARRATIVE ELEMENTS OF FILM

Analysis Point Of View (POV) of “The Truman Show” Film

GROUP 4 : Andry Garcia (111702600000) ; Aulia Nugraheni Putri (111702600000) ;
Imtihanatul Qodariah (11170260000033) ; Kalfa Putri J. (111702600000) ; Siti Azizah
Dinda Kirana (111702600000)

_____________________________________________________________________________________
 knowledge than his characters have. But at certain moments, he
confines us to their
 perceptual subjectivity (usually relying on POV shots).
 For the filmmaker, range and depth of knowledge are independent
variables. These examples show that for the filmmaker, choices about
the range of knowledge can be made independently of choices about
depth of knowledge.
 Incidentally, this is one reason why the term “point of view” is
ambiguous. It can refer to range of knowledge (as when a critic speaks
of an “omniscient point of view”) or to depth (as when speaking of
“subjective point of view”). In the rest of this book, we’ll use “point of
view” only to refer to perceptual subjectivity, as in the phrase “optical
point-of-view shot,” or POV shot.

Discussion in the appearance of the film :

o The optical point of view shot of this film is using the camera of
the production of “The Truman Show”. Whether in such
interviews with the inventor, the cast, and inside the show itself
within 5000 cameras, as it mentioned inside the movie.
o Almost the whole plot goes with the optical point of view helped
by the camera of the production of The Truman Show tv program,
and few from the camera of filmmaker production toward the
spectator of this film, which shown in the Café scene, bathroom
scene, The Truman Show production scene, and Sylvia’s scene.

Conclusion :

5
TASK 3 / GROUP DISCUSSION 1

WEDNESDAY 25/3/2020

6B CLASS OF INTRODUCTION TO FILM

NARRATIVE ELEMENTS OF FILM

Analysis Point Of View (POV) of “The Truman Show” Film

GROUP 4 : Andry Garcia (111702600000) ; Aulia Nugraheni Putri (111702600000) ;
Imtihanatul Qodariah (11170260000033) ; Kalfa Putri J. (111702600000) ; Siti Azizah
Dinda Kirana (111702600000)

_____________________________________________________________________________________
o I consider range of the story as the state where the knowledge of
the audience (the spectator) in this film while depth of the story
is how the film is represented through camera angles and the
inclusivity of the characters.
o Whether kinds of range of the story (Restricted and Unrestricted)
can exist gradually in one film, or it can appear as only one kind
range activity that used in a film. It is optional as the filmmaker
decides, and it is considered to be the dynamic value and
richness of the film.
o Between the range of the story and depth of the story is one
continuum as the identity of how the story represented in the
film.
o The point of POV in the form of film and in the form of written
literature has quite difference and significance.

Reference :

Bordwell, et all. Film Art : An Introduction Eleventh Edition . Mc Graw Hill

Education, 2017.

Littlehale, Kristy. “Point of View vs Perspective”. Story Board That. Clever

Prototypes, LLC, 2020.
<https://www.storyboardthat.com/articles/e/point-of-view-vs-
perspective> accesed on Wednesday, March 25, 2020 7:25 PM