Forced perspective

Forced perspective is a technique in film, art and architecture, which serves objects for the viewer to have larger, smaller, closer or appear farther than they really are. In what way the dimensions are so distorted depends on the position between the camera and filmed object, or position of the viewer and the object in question. The forced perspective creates an optical illusion that is mostly used to leaving things as appear further away from the camera when limited space is available. Film productions in the 1950s and 60s, are known for their widely used and often striking affinity to forced perspective.

Examples of the use of forced perspectives:

• Imagine in an action or adventure film a scene in which dinosaurs threaten the movie hero. By using a miniature model of a dinosaur is taken very close to the camera, the dinosaur can menacing big act for the audience, although the model is only closer to the camera.

The forced perspective can be shown more convincing if the environment in the studio the error in the perspective of ' hidden '. So an airport in the middle of a storm the entire scene was, for example, for the final scene of the movie " Casablanca " is selected as the scene, but shot in a studio. To make the airplane in the background appear further away, including Minderwüchsige were used as an actor for the maintenance personnel. The storm distracts from the scene, thus increasing their credibility.

Peter Jackson's film trilogy "The Lord of the Rings " takes almost constant recourse to forced perspectives. Explore supposedly opposing actors were positioned very differently on set close to the camera. In scenes without moving the camera, this can already, for example, the dwarves and hobbits compared to other appear to be very small.

As new technology and expansion of forced perspective, a procedure was for " The Fellowship " developed through which the forced perspective can also be used in scenes with camera movements. Pieces of equipment on the set were stored on mobile platforms, which have been moved exactly synchronized with movements of the camera so that the optical illusion was preserved.

In the slapstick comedy "Top Secret! " The effect of the forced perspective is caricatured in a scene. The scene begins with a supposed Closeup of a ringing telephone, the characters are can be seen in the background and at some distance. When, however, one of the characters to the phone ( and in the direction of the camera ) is, it is clear that the phone is greatly over dimensioned and is not particularly close to the camera.