OK, to decipher my (apparently cryptic) James Earl Jones crack back on the previous page...
...once the mask is on, anyone can be in the costume.
It's a Very Impressive Special Effects Trick that uses an advanced technology called editing.
Like so:
MEDIUM SHOT ON EVEY
EVEY
Oh woe! He has died, and I... am too small
to fill his shoes!
She picks up V's mask.
EVEY (con't)
But the people of England... they need me!
CLOSE UP ON EVEY'S FACE
She straps on the mask.
LONG SHOT, EVEY'S ROOM
The new and improved V strides purposefully to the dumbwaiter.
JIMINY CRICKET
But wait, Evey, you have suddenly grown by...
checks measuring tape
JIMINY CRICKET (con't)
...a whopping six inches! I would never
have noticed were I not so close to you.
I say, cameraman? Zoom in! Zoom in!
V
Shh, little bug!
JIMINY CRICKET
Yuh-your voice! It too has changed! Why,
you're not Evey at all!
ZOOM INTO CLOSE UP ON V
V removes the mask, revealing...
MARGARET THATCHER
Curse you, you little bug! I would have
gotten away with it, too!
But how could this have been filmed? Because almost every time you see one of those lines that are ALL IN CAPITAL LETTERS, the moviemaking professionals can actually turn the camera off and change things. It happens an awful lot.
They can also, like, change the sounds you hear from what they actually heard on the set, and unless you can see the thing that's making the noise (the spaceship going "whoooosh!" or the double-bass behind the shark going "da-DUM da-DUM DA-DUM DUM-DUM DUM-DUM," or the actor's mouth behind the mask) you really can't tell.
(Even then, you can't really tell -- the machine they use to capture the sound is a different machine from the one they use to capture the picture, so you can do things to the one without doing 'em to the other.)
If Portman is a full foot shorter than the actor in the suit, the rules would be:
1. Don't use a lot of two-shots, especially in the 10 minutes or so prior to the change-over,
2. If you really care, put someone in the suit who splits the difference in height.
If the camera is the equivalent of 10 feet away and the actor isn't, like, standing next to any measuring tapes or scraping under the tops of doorways, then you won't ever be able to notice six inches.
Much less the characters on screen noticing anything. They're paid not to. |
