YouTubers Recreate Iconic Lord of the Rings Forced Perspective Shot
The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001 to 2003) is often lauded as the greatest trilogy of all time. And some of the practical photography effects done in those films — especially in the first film — are still revered even to this day.
Right at the start of the film, when Gandalf visits Hobbiton in The Shire, director Peter Jackson employed some very clever techniques to ensure the audience always knew that the wizard was twice the size of the halflings.
Forced perspective is a technique well-known in photography. It’s an optical illusion to make subjects appear larger or smaller than they actually are. But it’s usually done as a static shot; what makes the Lord of the Rings so special is that it managed to use a moving pan shot while maintaining the illusion.
How Did They Do It?
Filmmaking YouTube channel Corridor Crew explains that forced perspective is pulled off by “hacking” people’s depth perception. This sometimes involves using large versions of everyday objects, or the subjects not making eye contact to maintain the illusion.
However, the steadfast rule of not moving the camera has always remained in place. Until Lord of the Rings that is.
“The idea for the effect is simple,” explains Corridor Crew. “As the camera moves one way, the actors move the other way. But Gandalf must move faster, thanks to the parallax. The solution? Cancel out the parallax by physically sliding Gandalf.”
While it sounds straightforward, it is not. The Corridor Crew had to first figure out how to move the subjects, and then add in props to sell the illusion, including sawing up a table to make two tables look as if they’re one.
It involves precise mathematics. The subjects has to slide at a specific speed relative to the speed the camera is moving to beat the parallax.
As you can see in the video, the Corridor Crew manages to pull it off. Although the YouTubers did use a tiny bit of VFX in their very short video.
Image credits: Corridor Crew, New Line Cinema
