h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yep that's how I remember the description; but what are they gonna do in the movie?

I guess I was mistaken.

From what I remember reading on Iam Mcellen's site they are playing with camera angles for the most part. I do know that Elijah Wood is playing the role of Frodo if that gives you any idea.

Who?

I thought they may be better off employing actors of small stature such as Kenny Baker.....(R2D2)

or any of those guys from Time Bandits......well, whichever ones are still alive.

If you used them for Hobbits what are you going to use for dwarves? Midgets are generally the same height, you would need something in between.

They are only going to have to find two (Gloin and Gimli)
I am SURE they have found a couple of actors by now!

When is the film coming out anyway?????

I was told Christmas 2001, but don't take my word for it.

Children can't act the part of adults, hobbits or otherwise. And yet stunted people aren't quite the answer either... as it was pointed out, they don't quite fit the description. Puppets would make it a Jim Henson flick, and human flesh is tricky to simulate by computer (we're just too use to seeing the real thing every day to be fooled).

Using short, youthful actors makes the most sense, I think. Look at it this way: if they can use camera angles to make Tom Cruise seem tall, they can use camera angles to make Elijah Wood & Co. seem hobbit-sized.

Yeah possibly.
But could someone please tell me who Iain Mackellin is? and what hes been in?

They can still use computer graphics tricks to make hobbits and dwarves. While fully computer-generated hobbit "puppets" wouldn't look real enough, you could still use CGI to alter the apparent stature of a normal-sized, adult human actor. Alternately, you could use CGI to make a child appear aged, without changing his or her height.

What I meant by not being able to use child actors, is that children cannot replicate the mannerisims of adults. Their movements, their voice patterns... again, we're all too use to seeing these things in real life to be genuinely fooled at the theaters. I know that hobbit adults aren't human adults, but we'd expect them to be.

Well, voice pattern would be simple enough to overcome in a film production. Movement...that IS a problem. I don't see anyway you could fake that.

One more thing, though, I'm trying to imagine how CGI could efficiently be used to make a normal-statured person seem hobbit-sized. Cut, resize, and paste?

What about the proportions of limbs? You wouldn't expect a creature that evolved to live in burrows to have the same proportions of limbs in relation to their bodies as a human. You might expect shorter legs and longer arms (for digging) etc. If you just comptuerised a human actor it would look frankly naff. But if you used animetronics and then touched them up with a computer it could look believable.

<"Cut, resize, and paste?">

Well, actually, something like that, but I'm talking about a more involved operation than something you'd do in Photoshop. Think about it. As you pointed out, the biggest problem with creating an entirely CGI hobbit would be getting the skin (and hair!) to look right. But since these hobbits are going to be fully clothed (geez, I hope they are, anyway!), the only skin and hair that we'll need to see will be the actors head, hands, and feet. Those would be easy enough to matte in, and the clothing would cover up any "seams" it might create. Now, obviously this method won't fly for closeup scenes. There's too many little details to be taken care of. I'm only talking about any wide shots of Frodo and company, with tight shots being pulled off using camera angles, as discussed earlier.

What's all the excitement about making a film of "Lord of the Rings"? Some books do not translate very well on to film (TV/video). Look at the first attempt of filming LOTR. Then there's the TV adaptation of HHGTHG itself. Not exactly a resounding success was it? Unless there are talented & creative people involved, then forget it. Money or "big names" are no substitute for talent/creativity. Hate to sound too negative but the two books mentioned are among my all-time favourites.

Cut, resize and paste was a bit of joke, of course... I think it would just be too much to do that for that many hobbits, for that much screen time. Okay, let's say the first movie opens with the scene of Bilbo's birthday/farewell party. That's a huge number of hobbits! "Well, for that scene they can all be normal-sized, and Gandalf will just have to wear platforms or something." Fair enough, but there will probably be a moderately large amount of screen time devoted to scenes mixing the hobbits and larger statured folk, and with four hobbits to deal with, and with CGI clothes being what they are (remember Star Wars' Boss Nass, with his 'flowing' robes? They looked pretty rubbery, didn't they?) it would still take an uncalled for amount of tinkering in final production to get it to look decent. (Unless hobbits started wearing spandex... I know! They can use the costumes that X-Men didn't!)

Quick thought: they could just use a whole lot of tight shots of all the actors, and rarely cut away to a group shot (using the CGI method)... but something tells me it would look too choppy and melodramatic.

You saw the online trailer, right? You remember the shot of the black riders and the VERY hobbit-sized looking hobbits cowering? THAT was what made me thing that this thing could work. In fact, in the scenes I saw, it was almost completely beleivable that the actors were indeed small... maybe not EXACTLY hobbit-heigth, but close enough that I don't think many fands will mind the hobbits being, oh, 4' 1".

No, no. I'm not talking about doing CGI clothes. I'm talking more along the lines of Rehash's (at least I think that was in his posting) suggestion of animatronics touched up by CGI. Don't hold me to the animatronics, by the way. What I'm saying is that the hobbits' main bodies and clothing would be something real and solid, whether they're animatronic, or midgets, or whatever. Then, the head and hands of the actors would be superimposed over them, thus eliminating the need to create realistic faces and skin with CGI (Yes, I knew you meant cut, resize and paste as a joke, but I just meant that something ALONG THOSE LINES might work. Actually cutting and pasting in a graphics program would be hell, but I'm sure there are efficient methods of doing it).
Now that I think of it, the technique I'm describing would probably HAVE to use animatronics (I wasn't seriously considering the midgets anyway, I just didn't want someone to shoot down the animatronics), as they're the only thing you could sync up with the real actors' movements. I don't know the actual name for that dot-tracking system they use, but I know you could rig it up to an electronic puppet.

And like I said, I WOULD primarily rely on camera angles to "create" hobbits. This puppet-actor thing is only to allow greater freedom in the types of angles you could use. I wouldn't intend for it to be used in every shot that includes a hobbit, just some of the wide, flat shots.

PS: Yes, Sutz, just as there is a daily possibility for me to get T-boned (hit from the side) at an intersection, there is a very real possibility that this movie will suck. But I'm willing to shell out five bucks for a matinee to find out for my self. The pay-off would be a highly enjoyable two hours, the risk being disappointment and wasting five bucks. Come to think of it, that's a MUCH better deal than driving, where I pay TEN bucks in gas just to run the risk of being T-boned.

It still seems like a lot of work, but I'll hand it to you, Emar... it would work, if done right. But like I said, it seems like a LOT of work. (Brace yourself!) I don't think they'd go through all that trouble to eliminate those last couple of inches.

Thought: Have you ever seen attack of the fifty foot woman, or even that new 1-800-collect commercial with the four inch tall guy sitting on top of the phone booth? It's done by carefully lining the camera up with a) the forescene, where the "larger" person acts, which literally has half of it missing and b) a scaled set that contuinues the foreset seamlessly, where the "smaller" appearing person acts, placed a far ways back. (You probably know this, but for the sake of anyone who doesn't...) Putting the hobbits 50 or so feet behind the other actors would certainly take care of the whole height problem, without complicated post-production mess or ornate anamatronics. There are only so many scenes that can be done like this, but it works.

ps Just seeing what all the buzz is about is almost worth the five bucks! It's gotta beat that awful version from the seventies!