How do they make them so small?

[Elvenrider]

I'm not sure about the Hobbits (Elijah and Sean could of been small)

but I watched the special features of FOTR and I saw Gimli and he was taller than Gandalf!!! I was just wondering if anybody knew how they made them so small...

[Saruman]

They actually used virtually every trick in the trade to make the hobbit actors shorter than they actually were.

When the only characters in a shot were hobbits or dwarves, no trickery needed to be used. It was useful that Jonathon Rhys Davies (Gimli) is so tall, as dwarves are meant to be taller than hobbits.
So, for example, when you see the Fellowship standing together at the conclusion of the council of Elrond: Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir and Legolas were shot without Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin and Gimli, and vice versa, and the two shots were combined. When only the characters' heads could be seen, the actors playing short characters may simply have kneeled!

There were also scale doubles: actors who were, in real life, the height of the hobbits or dwarves. Jonathon Rhys Davies' double, Brett, was used in all the wide shots of Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli dashing across the landscape in search of Merry and Pippin, for example. The scale doubles spent time with the main actors to learn the mannerisms of the particular character they played. One or two times they had to don masks. For example, for the scene of Arwens flight from the Nazgul, Liv Tyler (Arwen) had to hold Elijah Wood's (Frodo) scale double, Kieron, who wore a Frodo mask, which apparently whirred constantly while changing expressions. The tall scale double was nicknamed Tall Paul, for obvious reasons. He often was recruited to play Gandalf quite frequently. When Gandalf follows Bilbo outside, both types of doubles are used; shots where Gandalf is facing us use a short double for Bilbo, and shots where Bilbo is facing us use a tall double for Gandalf.

The rest of it is mostly down to clever camera work. Believe it or not, some of the shots of Frodo with Gandalf in the cart were not altered digitally; the seat was specially shaped to make Elijah Wood seem shorter. Another shot using the same method is when Bilbo is having tea with Gandalf.

[Stormcrow]

Wow. That is very interesting, Saruman. A very interesting read, indeed. ;)

[Elvenrider]

Wow, thank you so much, wow trhey were pretty smart...or tricky to do that.

[Cuiel Rilwen]

The rest of it is mostly down to clever camera work. Believe it or not, some of the shots of Frodo with Gandalf in the cart were not altered digitally; the seat was specially shaped to make Elijah Wood seem shorter. Another shot using the same method is when Bilbo is having tea with Gandalf.

The wagon was in fact two half wagons...one huge one for Frodo and a normal sized one for Gandalf! They were shot separately and then merged by some clever trick. My friend and I could have had our picture taken like that when we visited the Science Museum in London for the LotR exhibit, but the queue was so long so we couldn't be bothered. Regretted it afterwards ofcourse. :( I think there is a piccie somewhere in here of Bonos Girl in it tho. *goes to look*

Edit: BG seems to have taken the piccie off here, but in fact I found a place where there were a lot of great piccies from the exhibit, including some piccies from the cart right here! (http://flickr.com/photos/gandalf_the_grey/) You gotta look at all the pages, they're wonderful!

[Saruman]

I remember going there! I did get some photos taken with my sister; hopefully they're lying around somewhere... lol

I also remember a 'peep-hole' which showed the method of foreshortening.

[Stormcrow]

Wow, those were really fun to look at. Thanks for posting, Cuiel. ;)

[Cuiel Rilwen]

You're welcome hon! :)