Forced perspective is a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. It is used primarily in photography, filmmaking and architecture. It manipulates human visual perception through the use of scaled objects and the correlation between them and the vantage point of the spectator or camera. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with illusion. ... Photography [fәtɑgrәfi:],[foʊtɑgrәfi:] is the process of recording pictures by means of capturing light on a light-sensitive medium, such as a film or sensor. ... A film being made in Warsaw, Bracka street Filmmaking is the process of making a film. ... Section of the dome of Florence Cathedral. ... Trinomial name Homo sapiens sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Humans, or human beings, are bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin: wise man or knowing man) in the family Hominidae (the great apes). ... This does not cite any references or sources. ...

Forced perspective in filmmaking

Examples of forced perspective:

• A scene in an action/adventure movie in which dinosaurs are threatening the heroes. By placing a miniature model of a dinosaur close to the camera, the dinosaur may look monstrously tall to the viewer, even though it is just closer to the camera.

• A scene in which two characters are supposed to be interacting in the foreground of a vast cathedral. Instead of actually filming in a cathedral, the director mounts a large painting of a cathedral's interior in a studio and films the actors talking in front of the painting. This gives the effect on film that the characters are in the foreground of a large room, when in reality they are standing next to a flat surface.

Movies (especially B-movies) in the 1950s and 1960s produced on limited budgets sometimes feature forced perspective shots which are completed without the proper knowledge of the physics of light used in cinematography, so foreground models can appear blurred or incorrectly exposed. The term B-movie originally referred to a film designed to be distributed as the lower half of a double feature, often a genre film featuring cowboys, gangsters or vampires. ...

Forced perspective can be made more believable when environmental conditions obscure the difference in perspective. For example, the final scene of the famous movie Casablanca takes place at an airport in the middle of a storm, although the entire scene was shot in a studio. This was accomplished by using a painted backdrop of an aircraft, which was "serviced" by little people standing next to the backdrop. A downpour (created in-studio) draws much of the viewer's attention away from the backdrop and extras, making the simulated perspective less noticeable. Casablanca is an Oscar-winning 1942 romance film set during World War II in the Vichy-controlled Moroccan city of Casablanca. ... see dwarf, and for insular dwarfism and other meanings see Dwarf (disambiguation). ...

The example below, taken from Andrei Tarkovsky's Nostalghia, is one notable instance. Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (Андре́й Арсе́ньевич Тарко́вский) (April 4, 1932 - December 29, 1986) was a Russian film director, opera director, writer, and actor. ... Final shot of Nostalghia, a famous example of forced perspective Nostalghia (Russian: Ностальгия) is a 1983 film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and starring Oleg Yankovsky. ...

The shot begins at left, a closeup of a man and his dog, with the small house in the distance. A continuous slow pullback ends at right, revealing the man, dog, and the entire farmhouse setting to be enclosed in the columned courtyard. The shot was accomplished by building the farmhouse setting in miniature, and placing it closely behind the man and dog, shooting with lenses chosen to make the house appear distant at first. ImageMetadata File history File links Fpnostalghia1. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Fpnostalghia2. ...

Role of light

Early instances of forced perspective use in low-budget motion pictures showed objects that were clearly different from their surroundings: often blurred or at a different light level. The principal cause of this was geometric. Light from a point source travels in a spherical wave, decreasing in intensity (or illuminance) as the inverse square of the distance travelled. This means that a light source must be four times as bright to produce the same illuminance at an object twice as far away. Thus to create the illusion of a distant object being at the same distance as a near object and scaled accordingly, much more light is required. Look up point source in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Illuminance is the total luminous flux incident per unit area. ... In physics, an inverse-square law is any physical law stating that some quantity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from a point. ...

Opening the camera's iris lets more light into the camera, allowing both near and far objects to be seen at a more similar light level, but this has the secondary effect of decreasing depth of field. This makes either the near or the far objects appear blurry. By increasing the volume of light hitting the distant objects, the iris opening can be restricted and depth of field is increased, thus portraying both near and far objects as in focus, and if well scaled, existing in a similar lateral plane. A 35mm lens set to f/8; the diameter of the heptagonal diaphragm opening is 4. ... In optics, particularly film and photography, the depth of field (DOF) is the distance in front of and beyond the subject that appears to be in focus. ...

Since miniature models would need to be subjected to far greater lighting than the main focus of the camera, the area of action, it is important to ensure that these can withstand the significant amount of heat generated by the incandescent light sources typically used in film and TV production, as they may be prone to combustion.

Nodal point: forced perspective in motion

Peter Jackson's film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings employ an almost constant forced perspective. Characters apparently standing next to each other would be displaced by several feet in depth from the camera. This, in a still shot, makes some characters appear unnaturally small (for the dwarves and Hobbits) in relation to others. Peter Jackson CNZM (born October 31, 1961) is a three-time Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA winning New Zealand filmmaker best known as the director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which he, along with his long time partner, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens adapted from the novels... The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by the English academic J. R. R. Tolkien. ... In J. R. R. Tolkiens fictional universe of Middle-earth, Dwarves are beings of short stature who all possess beards and are often friendly with Hobbits, although long suspicious of Elves. ... In J. R. R. Tolkiens legendarium, a Hobbit is an individual member of one of the races that inhabit the lands of Arda. ...

A new technique developed for The Fellowship of the Ring was an enhancement of this principle which could be used in moving shots. Portions of sets were mounted on movable platforms which would move precisely according to the movement of the camera, so that the optical illusion would be preserved at all times for the duration of the shot. The same techniques were used in the Harry Potter movies to make the character Hagrid look like a giant. Note that props around Harry and his friends are of normal size, while seemingly identical props placed around Hagrid are in fact smaller. This article is about the Harry Potter series of novels. ... Rubeus Hagrid (born December 6, year ca. ...

The techniques developed centred around a nodal point axis, so the camera's panning axis was at the point between the lens and aperture ring where the light travelling through the camera met its axis. By comparison, the normal panning axis would be at the point at which light would strike the film (or CCD in a TV camera). Nodal point in an optical system, e. ... CCD can stand for: Cafe Coffee Day, a chain of coffee shops in India Charge-coupled device, an electronic light sensor used in digital cameras Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious die-off of commercial honeybees Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, a Catholic association devoted to teaching religion Carbonate Compensation Depth, a...

Peter Jackson enhanced this known effect by adding moving jigs to extend the pan to be effective outside the camera during motion, which is not possible to show in a still photograph.

The position of this nodal point can be different for every lens. However, on wide angle lenses it is often found between the midpoint of the lens and the aperture ring.

Digital effects

Another method is to film the actions of the "smaller" character on a set with normal-sized props, film the matching actions of the "large" character on an identical but smaller set, then combine the footage digitally. This is the most straightforward modern technique, and is most likely to be used with bluescreen filming in TV production due to its lower cost and quality requirements. The bluescreen setup. ...

Comedic effects

Forced perspective of giant beer can model shown "perched" on top of a person's hand.

As with many film genre and effects, forced perspective can be used to visual comedy effect. Typically, an object or character is portrayed in a scene, its size defined by its surroundings. A character then interacts with the object or character, in the process showing that the viewer has been fooled and there is forced perspective in use. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (480 × 640 pixel, file size: 58 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Andrew Kilpatrick, personal photos File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (480 × 640 pixel, file size: 58 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Andrew Kilpatrick, personal photos File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

The 1930 Laurel and Hardy movie, Brats, used forced perspective to depict Stan and Ollie simultaneously as adults and as their own sons. Laurel and Hardy, in a promotional still from their 1937 feature film Way Out West. ... Brats is a 1930 Laurel and Hardy comedy short. ... Stan Laurel (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson; 16 June 1890 – 23 February 1965) was an English comic actor, writer and director, famous as part of the comedy double act Laurel and Hardy, whose career stretched from the silent films of the early 20th Century until post-World War II. // Stan Laurel... Oliver Hardy (born Norvell Hardy; January 18, 1892 – August 7, 1957) was an American actor, most remembered for his role in one of the worlds most famous double acts, Laurel and Hardy, with his friend Stan Laurel. ...

An example used for comic effect can be found in the slapstick comedy Top Secret! in a scene which appears to begin as a close up of a ringing phone with the characters in the distance. However when the character walks up to the phone (towards the camera) and picks it up it becomes apparent that the phone is extremely oversized instead of close to the perspective of the camera. Another scene in the same movie begins with a closeup of a wristwatch. The next cut shows that the character actually has a gargantuan wristwatch. Top Secret! is a 1984 comedy directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker. ...

The same technique is also used in the Dennis Waterman sketch in the British BBC sketch show Little Britain. In the television version, oversized props are used to make the caricatured Waterman look just three feet tall (or even smaller in some cases, such as a series two episode which he is in a design of a set, which is a shoebox and he is the equivalent size to the objects). In real life, Waterman is of average height. Dennis in The Sweeney For the character in Little Britain, see Dennis Waterman (Little Britain). ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, which is usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion. ... Little Britain is a character-based sketch show first appearing on BBC radio and then television. ...

In the Channel 4 comedy Father Ted, the idea of forced perspective causes confusion. Father Ted attempts to explain to Father Dougal that the small plastic cows he is holding look larger than the real cows Dougal can see in the field because the real cows are 'far away'. Father Ted is unsuccessful as Father Dougal is unable to understand the concept of perspective. It has been suggested that Channel Four Television Corporation be merged into this article or section. ... Father Ted was a popular 1990s television situation comedy set around the lives of three priests on the extremely remote (and completely fictional) Craggy Island off the west coast of Ireland. ...

Perhaps one of the most famous usages of forced perspective involves the Leaning Tower of Pisa where one person will stand in the foreground with the tower in the background and appear to be holding it up. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

One of the recurring Kids in the Hall sketches featured Mr. Tyzik, "The Headcrusher", who used forced perspective (from his own point of view) to "crush" other people's heads between his fingers. The Kids in the Hall was a Canadian sketch comedy group, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Kevin MacDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson. ... Mr. ...

Forced perspective in architecture

New York-New York Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas. A reduced replica of the Chrysler Building in Manhattan employs forced perspective to appear higher from below. Elements of the skyscraper are constantly decreased in scale upwards.

In architecture, a structure can be made to seem larger, taller, farther away or otherwise by adjusting the scale of objects in relation to the spectator, increasing or decreasing perceived depth. Image File history File linksMetadata Nyny. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Nyny. ... New York-New York Hotel & Casino is a hotel and casino located on the famed Las Vegas Strip at 3790 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, Nevada. ... For further information, see Las Vegas metropolitan area and Las Vegas Strip. ... The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper in New York City, located on the east side of Manhattan at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. ... Manhattan is a borough of New York City, New York, USA, coterminous with New York County. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Section of the dome of Florence Cathedral. ... // Look up scale in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up depth in Wiktionary, the free dictionary In classical physics, depth is a distance measured vertically from top to bottom (height) or horizontally from outside to inside (thickness). ...

For example, when forced perspective is used to make an object appear farther away, the following method can be used: By constantly decreasing the scale of objects from expectancy and convention toward the farthest point from the spectator, an illusion is created that the scale of said objects is decreasing due to their distant location.

The Statue of Liberty is built with a slight forced perspective so that it appears more correctly proportioned when viewed from its base. When the statue was designed in the late 1800s (before easy air flight), there were few other angles to view the statue from. This became an issue for special effects technicians working on the movie Ghostbusters II, who had to back off on the amount of forced perspective used when replicating the statue for the movie so that their model (which was photographed head-on) would not look top-heavy.^[1] Liberty Enlightening the World (French: La liberté éclairant le monde), known more commonly as the Statue of Liberty (Statue de la Liberté), is a large statue that was presented to the United States by France in 1886, standing at Liberty Island, New York in the mouth of the Hudson River... Ghostbusters II is the 1989 sequel to Ghostbusters (1984). ...

Another instance of disproportionate figures is in Michelangelo's David. The sculpture has oversized hands and feet because it was meant to be up high and look proportional when viewed from below. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer. ... David by Michelangelo. ...

Forced perspective is extensively employed at theme parks and other such (postmodern) architecture such as found in Las Vegas, often to make structures seem larger than they are in reality where physically larger structures would not be feasible or desirable or to provide an optical illusion for entertainment value. Ferris wheel Amusement park is the more generic term for a collection of amusement rides and other entertainment attractions assembled for the purpose of entertaining a fairly large group of people. ... 1000 de La Gauchetière, with ornamented and strongly defined top, middle and bottom. ... For further information, see Las Vegas metropolitan area and Las Vegas Strip. ...

The France pavilion at Epcot in Florida is an example of objects and structures laid out in a manner to suggest increased depth. The street and planters get narrower toward the end to make the street appear longer and the buildings at its end larger when perceived from the pictured angle. The Eiffel Tower structure is a miniature replica of its Parisian counterpart, so placed to seem as large as the original but simply far away.

Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (768x1024, 246 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Forced perspective France (Epcot) Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (768x1024, 246 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Forced perspective France (Epcot) Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner... France The France Pavilion is part of the World Showcase within the Epcot theme park in Orlando Florida. ... Epcot is the second theme park built at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida. ... The Eiffel Tower (French: , ) is an iron tower built on the Champ de Mars beside the River Seine in Paris, France. ... Look up miniature in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) The Eiffel Tower in Paris, as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ...

See also

• Perspective distortion (photography)
• Optical illusion

In photography and cinematography, perspective distortion describes the appearance of a part of the subject as abnormally large, relative to the rest of the scene. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with illusion. ...

References