MovieChat Forums > Wimbledon (2004) Discussion > Courts too small?

Courts too small?

posted 16 years ago by ogettob
8 replies | jump to latest

I haven't seen this movie because I'm an avid tennis player and the preview just made the tennis action look so fake, that I didn't want to see it. Anyway, I know it came out a long time ago, but I was wondering if anyone else thought the court looked way to small in the shots that showed both players at once. Maybe I'm just not used to seeing it filmed at the angle it was, but I've played and watched tennis most of my life, and the court just seemed tiny. Is there any way to find this out for sure?

[–] ogettob 16 years ago

I'm sure of it now. I just looked up that Paul Bettany is 6'3" tall. I paused a clip of the movie when he is serving and it shows the whole court at an elevated angle (http://youtube.com/watch?v=7C1wevsvBjc ; it shows the same clip at the very end of the video as well), and since he is 6'3", if you set him on his side (in your imagination) on the court he would stretch almost to the end of the singles court. The problem is the baseline of a singles court is 27 FEET LONG! They're playing on a court that is a little more than half the size of a real court. COME ON! I'm glad I didn't see this movie; I would have been seriously peeved.

The hurdle I was trying to get past was why would they recreate the whole stadium instead of just shooting on location. I know that they used CG for the scenes where both players are shown hitting balls, though. I'm guessing they just used the actual stadium as a background and shot the players, ball boys, and officials on a green screen and added them to the shrunken court.

[–] cook699 16 years ago

Whether or not the Courts are too small, for the quarters and semis Centre Court is used or at least Court number one - clearly in the quarters one of the smaller Courts was used which was just not realistic. At least centre Court was used in the final.

[–] exellentfilms 16 years ago

Ive seen the film atleast twice before, and i have noticed that. The court does look small in that angle, or maybe it is Paul Bettany's height. Or maybe, the Production Designer didnt do his homework.

[–] sinfield13 16 years ago

well they deffinately filmed em at wimbeldon, i should know, i was there. At the end of the womens finals in 2004 they both came out and started playin imaginary tennis, we were a tad confused they looked like retards just hitting nothing back and forth to one another. Only later when the film come out did it actuali make any sense :D XxX

[–] kenny356 15 years ago

Yeah not sure what you mean by 'too small' as for the actual size of the tennis court itself, regardless of it being filmed on centre court all tennis courts are the same size, profesionally anyway. I think you may be imagining things.

[–] ally87-1 15 years ago

Plus on some of the courts they are using the nets for doubles matches, and not the standard nets used in single player games

"peyton, I hate you" ---- best line ever

[–] ogettob 15 years ago

I think I have to swallow my pride and admit that I was wrong about this whole thing. I'm not sure why it looked so skewed, but I'm pretty sure I was wrong.

[–] Mex5150 14 years ago

the court looked way to small in the shots that showed both players at once

These were shot with long lenses which give the impression of distances being compressed, a quick google of lens comparisons should give you some examples of this. The actual courts were standard size.

~Mex

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