It is written that stuntman Kiran Shah was Elijah Wood's scale double in the Lord of the Rings movies. Now "scale double", what does it mean?

Is it like stunt double?

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0787449/bio

I think it means a person who stands in who is the relative height of the character that is being played. Elijah Wood is short, but he's not Hobbit-sized. They might be able to do some things with camera angles, tricks, etc. But in some shots, I reckon they need someone really short to make it look realistic.

According to his site, Kiran had to play all the main hobbits at one time or another. His body shape seems to be more normally proportioned than with many dwarves.

I believe there was also someone who is very tall, that played other roles, such as Gandalf, when the regular actors were in the scene.

*slaps forehead*

Ah of course... should've thought about it...makes sense. Thanks.

they used a lot of tricks, both new and old, to get the right effect. e.g., the cart that Gandalf rides into Hobbiton had Frodo's seat set much further back from Gandalf's, so perspective was used, instead of scale doubles.

Thank you all for this unfamiliar expression. That I don't find it in the usu dicts suggests wither that it's very obscure or that it's a neologism. Anybody know

Sounds to me like a new but natural extension, Dale - stunt double, body double and so on are all well-worn usages. The film technology used in this movie will have created demand for new techniques and therefore new language to describe the requirements.

mav: Likely you're right about its being new because http://us.imdb.com/find?q=scale%20double;s=all
doesn't define it, though it gives dozens of apparent instances of use, as if it just hadn't yet gotten around to writing a def

Can anybody yield further evidence of its existence as neologism or any menings outside the entertainment industry--Thanks kindly to all