|
Making Short Stars Tall - 23rd October
|
|
|
An age old problem in Hollywood has been making a good actor that's vertically challenged appear taller than he or she really is.
There are many tricks of the trade that still get used to benefit the short guys in films. Here is
a quick list of the most common cheeky tricks a director or star might do:
In a star's contract, he (if he's ahem, big enough in box-office terms) might have a clause that
demands certain height ranges for his co-stars, so that he doesn't look out of proportion.
A director may ensure that the number of below-the-calf shots are kept to a bare minimum so that
a short actor can stand on something like a small platform or 'apple box', or even have the taller actor do the
scene without shoes or wear ballerina shoes. Sometimes little wooden triangle blocks are laid down so actors can put the back of their feet on them to look a couple inches taller for 'over the shoulder' shots. Its far easier to frame heads if both people are closer in height.
In a similar vein to the above, in the past some taller actresses have been known to walk in 'ditches' when doing specific scenes to make the short guy look 6ft+.
A classic technique that was once used on studio lots was undersizing one half of a set to accomodate a small star. In one movie a hero who is known to be short comes out of a bar (with the doorway built smaller) with his head scraping the top of it. Then across the street, the baddies come out with 8 inches distance above their heads in the doorway.
A director may position smaller actors closer to the camera to give the illusion of greater height
compared to co-stars. He may also use optical illusions like that of forced perspective. Wide angled lenses can be employed for compressing an image, to make actors look taller.
Similarly, when setting up over-the-shoulder shots, the distance between actors, elevation of camera and depth of field are used to sometimes
make the stars appear taller or shorter than they are.
The age old trick though is that of shorter actors resorting to wearing either lifts, or specially designed elevator shoes that can
give them anywhere from 1-3 inches advantage in height. In the case of Humphrey Bogart, in one film at least, he donned literally 5 inch wooden blocks to his own shoes so he could tower over others in many shots. If you ever spot Bogart looking near 6ft in a film where his shoes can't be seen in a shot, now you know why.
|
|
|
|
