9. Forced Perspective
"They would be small. Only children to your eyes." Another in the category of practical effects in a digital world, one of the biggest areas that the Lord of the Rings trilogy had to innovate in was the application of what is known as "forced perspective." The principle is very simple: since 2D cameras lack depth perception, things that are farther away look smaller. In most cases this is something our eyes can fix by observing context. What the crew did, though, was to take advantage of this by creating sets and props of different sizes based on which actor was interacting with them. As an example, in the shot above, it appears that Frodo and Gandalf are sitting next to each other on the cart. However, look at it from
another angle and you see that Elijah Wood is actually sitting several feet back and the post he's holding on to is considerably larger than the one next to Gandalf. This form of visual magic allowed the company to hire average-sized actors to fill miniature-sized roles. The effects were more than just technological, though. Previously, in film history, if a character was meant to be below a certain height, there was a tendency both to cast them with either little people or children, and worse yet, to turn them into caricatures, pandering to stereotypes. The Hobbits and Dwarves of Lord of the Rings were given dignity and proper roles. They didn't merely exist to laugh at their impishness. While, ironically, the use of forced perspective camera tricks allowed the studio to hire average-sized actors to play the part, the perception of the diminutive characters did its part to pave the way for more serious roles, like Peter Dinklage's acclaimed role as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones. Of course, you can't really give Peter Jackson
all or even much credit for that particular role, but the approach was certainly a welcome change.
