I was shocked when I read that the elf "Willie" was a normal sized man. There isn't anything about how this was done (or why) in anything pertaining to the movie. Wouldn't that take a lot of trick photography or computer stuff to have him so small, playing along side of Vince Vaughn? Please, someone help me. J.
shareI would recommend watching the special features on the DVD that came out on Tuesday, the 25th, I believe. If there is a special features option, click on that and see if there's a making of the film and how Willie and the other elves were shrunk to their size in the film.
shareWell Now, aren't I in a pickle? Because I DID rent the DVD last Wed. And it took me two days to actually see the whole movie (busy with holiday stuff). I watched all the "deleted scenes", but apparently I must've missed the special features part where they wee making the film. I remember one part was with the dialogue from the director, and I really didn't have time to watch/hear all that. But thanx for responding. Anything more to add?
shareI just watched a rental version of the movie as well, and the only special features are deleted scenes and the feature length commentary. Maybe there are a few versions of the dvd? I was wondering the same thing - how did they shrink that guy LOL
shareI'm thinking they used a child or child's body and digitally added Willie's head onto it. Same with Ludacris as the DJ amongst other elves.
shareYou can see the matting process if you know what to look for, though it's done pretty well (especially during the dance/DJ sequence).
I'm assuming they used motion-control to capture two, three, and in one case possible four passes of a scene.
1. Shoot Fred on small set, possibly with green screen.
2. Shoot elves on large set. Motion control, focal lengths, lighting, sets/forced perspective all scaled to match pass 1.
3. Shoot, say, Santa, wife, and Kevin Spacey dude watching in the foreground against greenscreen
4. Shoot elf being thrown by wire (matched to look like thrown by Fred) for crowd diving sequence, against greenscreen.
Combine plates in post and voila. PIece of cake, today.
There's nothing up with the audio quality. It's 2008, and that's how we make records.
I thought I read somewhere that most of the elves besides Willie and Ludicrous were circus midgets.
Let me be the first to wish you a Merry Christmas! Ho, ho, ho!
I'm sure they used a combination of both. Keep in mind the ratio of the head, arms, and legs for most of the small people are the same as regular sized people. This is a dead giveaway that some sequences used normal-sized people and not dwarfs or midgets or children.
But until I see the behind the scenes, which I hope I never do cause I really don't care lol, then I don't really know what they did.
There's nothing up with the audio quality. It's 2008, and that's how we make records.
I was just as surpise to see that the actor that plays Wille is 5"11 in real life as well. But I guess that in today's movies, they can do things that was unheard of in the 1950's, and even later then that. I don't know hwo they did that, but I will check the dvd to see if there is a making of the movie, I know that there is a director's commentatory on the dvd as well, but I don't know if he mentions this. So this makes 2 of us, that is wondering this very same thing.
shareI can't believe everyone was surprised Willie wasn't a real midget!! Has nobody seen Arrested Development??!!
shareI don't think so, but usually they don't have tall people play the role of an elf, they would either go with kids, or small people that are adults. And elves aren't big, and maybe a lot of people here don't follow his work, this might be the first film that you really know him being in, I see that he was in the Break-Up With Vince Vouglin, but I don't know if he had all that a big part in it.
shareI'd never seen the actor that played Willie before, but you can tell right off the bat that he's not a midget, and that they were using trickery to make him look tiny. This is just a guess, but I noticed that he deidn't have a whole ton of actual contact with Fred, and the ones he did looked pretty fake. Notice that the elves that had a ton of contact with Fred, (like the SSS, or Santa Secret Service) were actual midgets. (And if you couldn't tell who in this movie was a midget, and who wasn't, you need help) So my guess is that when he didn't have contact with a normal sized human, they used mostly trick photography, and larger-than-life props. And I DON'T think they superimposed his head over a child's body. I think it was all him, just around larger props, and the camera was placed in ways that made him looks smaller than Fred.
Then the scenes where he had physical contact with Fred, I think was done via green screens or CGI or whatnot.
Just my 2 cents.
Ummm..."midget"? "Normal sized human"? Wow. How old are you normal sized people anyway? Let's try "little person" and "average sized person". Thanks.
Shove off with the PC crap. We will call the little buggers whatever we want.
Why on earth do you think that complete strangers are obliged to listen to you?
John Michael Higgins had done other stuff and currently is on the TV Land TV Series Happily Divorced with Fran Drescher. And he was also in the Break-Up where he played the brother of Jennifer Aniston. He also played David Letterman in the TV movie The Late Shift from 1996. Here is his imdb.com page http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0383422/ , but like you I don't know how they did it but I bet they knew how they were going to do it. Are you sure you might have seen him before but just didn't know it was him. And as well guest on TV series, and I bet a lot of pervious movies he might not have had a big part.
shareHasn't anyone seen The Lord of the Rings? Same deal there with respect to apparent sizes of the actors.
shareI know I thought that odd too. He's also on the new show Kath & Kim and a ton of Christopher Guest movies. I think he's a funny actor.
Have you kissed your rat today?
Having heard the director's commentary many times... (They're playing it on the tv's at the Walmart where I work, and it automatically goes to "play commentary" after the movie), I can safely say that, yes, this is on the commentary, and that yes, he does discuss the shrinking of the actors to Elven size.
Unfortunately, I DO have to work, so I don't really recall what he said, other than stuff about forced perspective and such. I don't think you need a second disc or anything, because as I said, on our copy, it simply goes to the option to play the commentary after the movie finishes the first time, and the credits roll, etc.
They changed his voice as well. It's not really that high in real life. I was sad that they didn't do a behind the scenes making of this movie on the dvd. I would have liked to have seen how they did it all. I'm just not sure why they went through all the trouble of shrinking normal sized people for the some of the elf parts though. Why didn't they just use all small people? There's a lot of a good actors that are a little people.
Have you kissed your rat today?
I couldn't agree with you more. Little people abound, and some are very good actors. If they felt the need to go thru all that computer wizardry, why not show it on the DVD and brag about their accomplishment? Lame.
shareThey used a combination of body doubles with CGI mattes to replace their heads and some scale photography tricks.
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Mary: So many bad ideas coming at me all at once, it's hard to know which one to reject first!
k well I heard or watched something about it.. I have no idea where or what. but they were saying how they used a small person as willie but then just digitally changed the head.. like they do in benjamin button with brad pitts head as the old/young man.
also they said that when they made the willie characters room that you see vince try and sleep in, that the small person body actor had never had furniture that was perfect size before so they let him keep it all after the filming was done.
:)
That's what I've been told as well. Thanx for taking the time to explain. J.
shareThe do it by a simple method. They have the full size actor sign an affidavit that he is a liberal. He immediately becomes 1/2 a man.
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