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Here's the skinny on actors who are short

Time for another edition of Movie Maniac Mailbag: Dear Movie Maniac: Could you please tell me how short actors like Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise are made to look taller than they really are? --Larry

Dear Larry: Talk about short subjects! Filmschoolrejects.com reports that Cruise is 5 feet 7.75 inches tall, while Hoffman clocks in at a whopping 5 feet 5 inches.

There are several ways to make an actor appear taller onscreen. He could wear specially designed shoes that add a couple of extra inches to his height.

Or the actor could stand on a platform or "apple box" (an empty crate).

Or the shot could be at a high or low angle so there is nothing in the background to distinguish how short the actor is. Or, really, you could just hire taller ones in the first place.

Dear Movie Maniac: As I begin to watch a movie, the opening credits include multiple names of film companies that apparently had something to do with the film. Why are there so many of them? Do they do different things for the production, or is one a subset of the previous one like those Russian dolls, each one smaller than the one just opened? --C. Evans

Dear C.: Yes, those are logos of the production companies or distributors, and since it is so expensive to make a movie and many production companies could be involved, it's now commonplace to see multiple logos run before the movie starts. It does seem like it's getting out of hand, though. You know it's bad when the logos are more exciting than the movie.

Dear Movie Maniac: Good suggestions on movies about making movies. Three other outstanding movies on the subject: "The Stuntman" starring Peter O'Toole, Robert Altman's "The Player," and on an Ed Wood-esque note, "Bowfinger." --Maniac Part Deux

Dear Deux: Excellent recommendations. Here's yet another, which shows just how bad it can get on set: "Lost in La Mancha," the 2000 documentary that showed the collapse of director Terry Gilliam's attempt to get "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" made. Ouch.

E-mail your movie questions to rpocowatchit@wichitaeagle.com.