<P> The Fellowship of the Ring makes extensive use of digital, practical and make - up special effects throughout . One noticeable illusion that appears in almost every scene involves setting a proper scale so that the characters are all the correct height . Elijah Wood, who plays Frodo, is 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) tall in real life, but the character of Frodo Baggins is barely four feet in height . Many different tricks were used to depict the hobbits (and Gimli the Dwarf) as being of diminutive stature . (In a happy coincidence, John - Rhys Davies--who played Gimli--is as tall compared to the Hobbit actors as his character needed to be compared to theirs, so he did not need to be filmed separately as a third variation of height, and is quite taller than Orlando Bloom, who played Legolas .) Large - and small - scale doubles were used in certain scenes, while entire duplicates of certain sets (including Bag End in Hobbiton) were built at two different scales, so that the characters would appear to be the appropriate size . At one point in the film, Frodo runs along a corridor in Bag End, followed by Gandalf . Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen were filmed in separate versions of the same corridor, built at two different scales, and a fast camera pan conceals the edit between the two . Forced perspective was also employed, so that it would look as though the short Hobbits were interacting with taller Men and Elves . Even the simple use of kneeling down, to the filmmakers' surprise, turned out to be an effective method in creating the illusion . </P> <P> For the battle between the Last Alliance and Sauron's forces that begins the film, an elaborate CGI animation system, called MASSIVE, was developed by Stephen Regelous; it allowed thousands of individual animated "characters" in the program to act independently . This helped give the illusion of realism to the battle sequences . The "Making of" Lord of the Rings DVD reports some interesting initial problems: in the first execution of a battle between groups of characters, the wrong groups attacked each other . In another early demo, some of the warriors at the edge of the field could be seen running away . They were initially moving in the wrong direction, and had been programmed to keep running until they encountered an enemy . </P> <P> The digital creatures were important due to Jackson's requirement of biological plausibility . Their surface was scanned from large maquettes before numerous digital details of their skeletons and muscles were added . In the case of the Balrog, Gray Horsfield created a system that copied recorded imagery of fire . </P> <P> The musical score for The Lord of the Rings films was composed by Howard Shore . It was performed by the 100 - strong New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Voices, The London Oratory School Schola, and the Maori Samoan Choir, and featured several vocal soloists . Shore wrote almost four hours of finalized music for the film (of which just over three hours are used as underscore), featuring a number of non-orchestral instruments, and a large number (49 - 62) of leitmotives . </P>

Where were they going at the end of lord of the rings