EXAMPLES OF FORCED PERSPECTIVE

BRAINDEAD (Peter Jackson, 1992)

Peter Jackson's third film - and easily my favourite - was this peerless splatter comedy. The effects were handled by Richard Taylor (who, as founder and head of Weta Workshop, still handles the effects in Jackson's movies); they were realised with typical 'kiwi ingenuity,' and include examples of most traditional in-camera techniques - including forced perspective, which was notably used in shots of the (supposedly) huge 'Mum-monster' in the final. She is placed nearer the camera, on scaled-down sections of the set, to increase her on-screen size. 

The above shot, where the protagonists appear in the foreground, has (I think) been carefully arranged to give the illusion that the monster is further from the camera than she really is.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS (Peter Jackson, again. 2001-03)

Forced perspective was one of the in-camera techniques used in the Lord of the Rings series to make the hobbits look small. Above is an example, where the actors are sitting in differently scaled halves of a cart - one positioned nearer to the camera. You can see how important the direction of the actors's gaze is in maintaining the illusion.

For the Lord of the Rings, a more advanced forced-perspective technique was also developed. Forced-perspective exploits the static position of a single lens to create its illusion. Having two eyes is one of the ways we are able to gauge distance (a 3D camera is essentially two cameras - or two lenses, at least - placed side-by-side at a distance equivalent to that of human eyes). So, everything has to line up; if you move the camera to one side or the other, you break the illusion. To allow for moving shots, whilst still maintaining the forced-perspective illusion, the differently scaled sections of the set were built on moving platforms, which could moved precisely according to the movement of the camera.

THE BEAST FROM THE EGG (The Chiodo Brothers. Don't know when)

The Chiodo Brothers are not a big name in the effects industry - probably best known for Killer Klowns from Outer Space (which does use some forced-perspective I think...) But anyway, this is an early production of theirs. Very early. And its interesting because it uses not only forced perspective but also pixilation as a low-tech way for the human stars to interact with their stop-motion-animated, forced-perspectivicated foe.