Finally, an Oakenshield in scale to other figures

This is intriguing. You can see suddenly how Armitage could be a short dwarf.

~ by Servetus on September 18, 2012.

Posted in absolute utter unadulterated joy!, acting, Armitage's body, gravitas, heterosexual utopias, if I could interview Mr. Armitage, me, objectification, Peter Jackson, reality, Richard Armitage, status transactions, the Armitage morass, the beard, the chin, the energy, the face, the hair, The Hobbit, the hype, the nose, the profile, Thorin Oakenshield, TORn, why Armitage?

32 Responses to “Finally, an Oakenshield in scale to other figures”

Good things come in small packages (but not necessarily with small packages). Sorry, couldn’t resist. In a cheeky mood with all this Thorin/Hobbity goodness.

fedoralady said this on September 18, 2012 at 9:39 pm | Reply
- yeah, well who knows what a dwarf package even looks like. This is just really fascinating in terms of creating authority as a short person. This was a question that was in the back of my mind. Armitage is tall and imposing and if he wants that’s built into his repertoire. I had been wondering how he’d deal with being short, or rather create authority when he didn’t have that to rely on.
  
  servetus said this on September 18, 2012 at 9:41 pm | Reply
Gosh…I’m so used to seeing him tall that’s quite bizarre! Not in a bad way at all…just think I need to see the film to fully appreciate. With all the vlogs we’ve never seen anything that shows the size differences so I think in my head I’d been unconsciously imagining Thorin as being 6″2 1/2′ And Bilbo looks minuscule!!

kathrynruthd said this on September 18, 2012 at 9:45 pm | Reply
- yeah, me too, and the full length shots we’ve seen haven’t made him look dwarfy because they haven’t shown him against tall “races.” It’s shocking enough to keep you looking, isn’t it?
  
  servetus said this on September 18, 2012 at 9:50 pm | Reply
  - Yes! Had to click on the pic to enlarge and then remove my glasses so I could look at it really close up for quite some time! Am very shortsighted – often seen with iPad about 4 inches away from my nose! Lol!
    
    kathrynruthd said this on September 18, 2012 at 9:56 pm | Reply
    - What a punishment, having to look at it really close up for quite some time
      
      I was mediating between my glasses and the prayerbook the whole last two days. (High holiday prayerbooks are notorious for small print, and they’re in Hebrew.) Time to find a local optometrist, I guess. Sigh. I’d hoped this prescription would last for several years.
      
      servetus said this on September 18, 2012 at 10:00 pm | Reply
      - It’s a tough job…
        
        My prescription gets steadily stronger…it’s now too strong for close-up work which is so annoying! But I have to get my eyes every year…glaucoma in my family
        
        kathrynruthd said this on September 18, 2012 at 10:11 pm | Reply
- Me, too! It’s a good thing to see this photo, because I really didn’t have a sense of the shortness of the dwarves–we haven’t seen a lot of images of them with the elves and such.
  
  saraleee said this on September 18, 2012 at 10:40 pm | Reply
  - I think it’s a lot clearer after seeing the trailer yesterday — some of them are really short. (I know, what a silly thing to say.) But you’re right, up till now they have looked mostly normal-proportioned.
    
    servetus said this on September 20, 2012 at 4:52 pm | Reply
Either the perspective is deceiving or they messed something up. Thorin is supposed to be 5’2 (not that short after all!) and Hugo Weaving in 6’2″ but the difference looks more than one foot.

Jane said this on September 18, 2012 at 10:14 pm | Reply
Now he’s my size! Snap!

Gratiana Lovelace said this on September 18, 2012 at 10:26 pm | Reply
- Finally, fantasy Grati doesn’t have to step on her tippy toes to kiss a fantasy Armitage chaRActer …
  
  servetus said this on September 18, 2012 at 10:28 pm | Reply
Absolutely fascinating! He still commands the attention with his posture!

Judit said this on September 18, 2012 at 11:08 pm | Reply
- totally!
  
  servetus said this on September 20, 2012 at 4:51 pm | Reply
I’m having a bit of a hard time with this–I expect a small Martin, but mini-Richard looks so strange to me.

simplegirl said this on September 18, 2012 at 11:14 pm | Reply
- the incongruity is stark.
  
  servetus said this on September 20, 2012 at 4:51 pm | Reply
Here’s a pic from Fellowship to compare:

http://lordoftheringstrilogy.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/members-of-fellowship-of-ring.html

Gimli does look a bit larger. Who knows, maybe they’re still working on it.

What REALLY caught my eye about the picture, however, is that giant slab of ice. Where did THAT come from, huh? It reminds me of something out of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude.

UK Expat said this on September 19, 2012 at 12:34 am | Reply
- The pic looks weird. I hope they don’t have a problem putting it together in a way that looks natural. And having the characters have the same height in every shot.
  
  Jane said this on September 19, 2012 at 7:17 am | Reply
  - I have to say it didn’t bother me, but I may not be quite as demanding
    
    servetus said this on September 20, 2012 at 4:48 pm | Reply
I love it.

Faboamanto said this on September 19, 2012 at 1:30 am | Reply
- yeah, definitely catches the attention!
  
  servetus said this on September 20, 2012 at 4:49 pm | Reply
He loks like a dwarf ..shocking! and I fear he will be moving like a dwarf!
I bet that he was delighted with this acting task.

Joanna said this on September 19, 2012 at 4:38 am | Reply
- A real challenge.
  
  servetus said this on September 20, 2012 at 4:49 pm | Reply
Peter Jackson used life size doubles for the actors (5ft 4in in Thorin’s case) do you remember seeing in one of the early vid/blogs a latex face mask of Thorin on a stand. That’s what I presume they used.

mersguy said this on September 19, 2012 at 7:28 am | Reply
- At Comic Con RA described how they filmed all the actors against a green screen and later put them together in (hopefully) the right proportions. I think that is what they did with dialogue scenes like the one above because they get pretty close to the actors’ faces. With a scene like that on a huge screen a full-face-mask would be visible, even if it is not the face in close-up. I think the scale doubles were used when they are running around in the landscape and stuff like that.
  
  I’m just sceptical about Thorin being too short in relation to Elrond to be 5’2″. And 5’2″ is what RA said. If he hadn’t said that, I would be perfectly fine with him looking 4′.
  
  Jane said this on September 19, 2012 at 8:15 am | Reply
  - yeah, I think that’s definitely him — when you look at it in the trailer, the Thorin figure has one of Armitage’s signature body vibes in terms of head motion — the shame/pride move.
    
    servetus said this on September 20, 2012 at 4:48 pm | Reply
- I think this is actually him, at least in this cap.
  
  servetus said this on September 20, 2012 at 4:48 pm | Reply
Neither Grati nor I have to stand on tiptoes now. Or Blahniks. Actually, 5′ 2″ is just a fantasy wish to me. And is that Blahniks or Bhlaniks? Whatever. Equally bad for the feet…Blah…

fitzg said this on September 20, 2012 at 1:04 am | Reply
- hard to imagine yourself as Thorin’s companion while wearing Manolo Blahnik
  
  servetus said this on September 20, 2012 at 4:47 pm | Reply
Great things come in small packages!

katie70 said this on September 20, 2012 at 5:32 am | Reply
- yeah — compressing all that Armitage greatness into such a small package must be really hard!
  
  servetus said this on September 20, 2012 at 4:46 pm | Reply
[...] physicality as it plays into the physicality of Thorin. My curiosity over this explains partially my excitement over the stills that showed Armitage’s Thorin in proportion to the other actors. This question has lurked in the back of my mind for a very long time, because I’m not sure [...]

Coming to terms with The Hobbit, trailer 2 « Me + Richard Armitage said this on September 22, 2012 at 4:54 am | Reply