seaside
The Truman Show and Seaside’s Filming Locations
SeaSide Fl (
SEASIDE®, built on 80 acres on Florida’s Gulf Coast, is located on South Walton County’s Hwy. 30-A, between Panama City Beach and Destin. Acclaimed world-wide as one of the iconic examples of New Urbanism, SEASIDE® offers a thriving town center with shopping and dining, all within walkable distance to homes, cottages and offices. Consisting of more than 300 homes, many of them vacation rentals, the community offers more than 12 restaurants and eateries, and 41 shops and galleries.
The Truman Show and Seaside’s Filming Locations
The Truman Show was a film following Truman Burbank after he unexpectedly became famous due to being followed by concealed cameras for 24-hours a day. The community’s pastel homes and white picket fences made Seaside the picture-perfect town film producers were looking for. Computer-generated effects included adding upper levels to downtown building and a concrete entranceway to Truman’s office. Truman’s home is actually owned by Florida Senate President Don Gaetz and his wife, Vicky Gaetz. The only modifications film makers made to their home was paint the exterior a bright color and different furniture on the interior. When filming wrapped, Don and Vicky Gaetz found their home restored to it’s original state. Talk about picture-perfect! Although, one thing does remain.. the Truman’s house number 36. Vicky Gaetz has a theory on why film makers decided to change the house number, “It might have been more visually pleasing to see a number 36 on the house, rather than a 32.” Cast and crew also enjoyed Seaside’s local businesses which included the bar Shades (now Great Southern Cafe), where the crew would join daily and talk about previous projects and stories of movie stars. In addition to local businesses, The Truman Show also shot on the beaches, which meant large mats needed to be used so vehicles could move over the soft sand.
The Truman Show is one of the most popular movies to be filmed on the Gulf Coast, but our locations and resources don’t stop at the picture-perfect community of Seaside. Take a look at some of the other filming locations along the Gulf Coast such as Destin and Fort Walton Beach.
