Shot (le plan)

Figure 2: SHOT, Truman speaks to himself in the bathroom mirror, we observe him on a spycam (perception-image, crystal-image)

Figure 3: SHOT (ii), Truman attention is called by his wife (sonosign)

Figure 4: SHOT (iii), Truman responds

Figure 5: SHOT (iv), Truman sighs, realising he is returning to the real world, of Seahaven ( sono-sign), (affectation-image)

Figure 6: SHOT (v) Truman departs the bathroom, getting ready for the day ahead (action-image)

Definition...kinda

A shot is a continuous recording from the moment the camera starts rolling to when it stops it is a temporal unit. The Shot captures movement-in-duration (add deleuze’s French expression)) not just space, but movement through time. According to Deleuze, the shot is the image itself, not just a technical unit. The shot is where movement is expressed, and depending on how the shot is constructed (camera movement, duration, angle), it reveals different types of images (movement-image, time-image).

In Cinema 1 Deleuze saw the shot as a unit of thought. Through the shot, we don’t just see; we, the audience, think. In this shot we are understanding that Truman’s Walter Mitty-like fantasies are already taking him beyond the world of Seahaven, a world we already know to be constructed.

The affectation-image (demarked by the sonosign sounds of his sigh) tells us state of mind is already one of feeling trapped. We, the audience, know just how really trapped he is.