The Long and Short of It
| The Long and Short of It | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Sean Astin |
| Produced by |
Sean Astin Jamie Selkirk (co-producer) Zane Weiner (co-producer) Peter Jackson (executive producer) |
| Written by |
Sean Astin Dominic Monaghan |
| Starring |
Andrew Lesnie Praphaphorn Chansantor Paul Randall |
| Cinematography | Rob Marsh |
| Edited by | Jo Priest |
Release dates |
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Running time | 5 minutes |
| Country | United States |
The Long and Short of It is a 2003 short film directed, co-written and produced by Sean Astin. The five-minute film was shot in Wellington, New Zealand in a single day when the cast and crew of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers had reunited to shoot pick-ups. It debuted on the DVD release of The Two Towers on August 26, 2003, and was an official entry at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.
Plot
It's another day in Wellington. The Grisely Painter (Andrew Lesnie) is putting up a poster, but has a bad back and his ladder is broken. He is about to give up when a small woman (Praphaphorn Chansantor) comes by and helps glue the lower part of the poster to the wall. This catches the attention of a very tall man (Paul Randall), who glues the top part of the poster to the wall.
When they finish, all three step back and admire the poster, which advertises a sports car that none of them can drive: it is physically unsuitable for the small woman and the tall man, and clearly unaffordable for the working-class painter. A bus pulls up behind them, the bus driver (Peter Jackson) lets them on, and they drive away. The camera pans to the bin and we see that there is the Grisely Painter's roller and pad.
Trivia
- The bus has two The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring posters on the sides.
- The cameras used were High Definition Digital Video which were about to be packed away, but Astin used them for the rest of the day.
- Sean Astin added P.S. I Love You Christine to the end of the credits.
- Elijah Wood was the 1st assistant director.
- Andy Serkis was assistant location manager. (On the "Making Of" documentary, he can be seen working his way up to the position of producer, deciding that the job was boring, then working his way back down to assistant location manager.)
- Billy Boyd chose the song which was played throughout the film.
- The story was written by Sean Astin and Dominic Monaghan.
Cast
- Andrew Lesnie (Cinematographer for the LOTR series) as Grisely Painter
- Praphaphorn Chansantor (She was one of the scale doubles for the hobbits) as Small woman
- Paul Randall (He was a scale double for human-sized characters, including Gandalf) as Tall man
- Peter Jackson as Bus driver
- Perry Norris as Cyclist