Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Lord Of The Rings Filmmaking Secrets

Last night I was munching popcorn and watching "The Lord Of The Rings" with my sisters. They got into this big argument about how they could make Gandalf and Legolas one height, while Gimli was a bit smaller, and the hobbits were smallest of all.

April said that they actually searched all over the world for actors who were different heights, and had chosen some midgets to play the parts of Gimli and the Hobbits.

May just laughed at her and said, "No, that's not true. Peter Jackson has the latest version of Photoshop, and he just stretches out and shrinks the actors after they've filmed it."

June said they were both crazy, and pointed out that if Mr. Jackson had done that, all the trees and mountains would be stretched out too. She said that Gandalf, the elves and the humans were on stilts, while all the other actors had to crouch down. She said it was most obvious with the orcs; it was easy to see that they were hunched over.

By this time they were so engrossed in their argument that they'd forgotten all about the movie and the popcorn.

I listened to them for awhile, and then said that I disagreed with all of them, because I've done some studying on the art of filmmaking. I explained: "They have a machine that they put the actors into, that shrinks or expands them to the right height. While they're filming it, Elijah Wood really is shorter than the others, and when they're done for the day, they put him back in the machine and stretch him back out to normal size."

All three of my sisters laughed at me, and told me I was dumb. But I know I'm not. "After all," I said, "How else do you explain that they manage to fit all those people inside our television set if they don't shrink them?"

"Oh, right," April replied, with a roll of her eyes. "I never thought about that."

"What a nimrod," May exclaimed.

"Brothers are so dumb," June added.

"Excuse me, are you finished with that popcorn?" Pippin asked.

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