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How to frame 'short' actors with 'tall' actors?
  • azza_actazza_act

    Hey guys, might be a silly question but I'm shooting my first feature in a couple of months and we had to recast the lead. He's much taller than the original actor. The lead actress is fairly short so when the new lead is standing next to her the height difference is really noticeable. I read that you can use 'apple boxes' or trenches (can't see this working on cement) to make the height difference less noticeable but how would you shoot wide shots etc? Cheers

  • 9 Replies sorted by
  • ahblezaahbleza

    Apple boxes. Short ones stand on them. For wides, use forced perspective.

  • shianshian

    ^^^^ :)

  • azza_actazza_act

    @ahbleza how would you focus?

  • shianshian

    Also take this into consideration when casting.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    /++++++

  • azza_actazza_act

    We did originally, but because of people's timetables etc, we had to use this guy.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    Write it into the story maybe? That way if a scene looks odd, your audience already knows you've acknowledged it and it won't pull them out of the story. If you don't mention it anywhere, it might become the elephant in the room. It's an old Hollywood trick.

  • azza_actazza_act

    @vicharris Great idea! Thanks.

  • ahblezaahbleza

    @azza_act Focus by using larger depth of field... stop down. use as wide a lens as you can, and stop down a lot.

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