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The Long and Short of It is a short film that was written and directed 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 pickup scenes. It debuted on the DVD release of The Two Towers in August 2003, and was an official entry at Sundance 2003.

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. Then suddenly a bus pulls up behind them, the bus driver (Peter Jackson) lets them come on, and they drive away. The camera pans to the bin and we see that there is the Grisely Painter's roller and pad.

• 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.
• Billy Boyd chose the song which was played throughout the film.
• The story was written by Sean Astin and Dominic Monaghan.

• Grisely Painter: Andrew Lesnie (Cinematographer for the LOTR series)
• Small Woman: Praphaphorn Chansantor (She was one of the stand-ins for the hobbits)
• Tall Man: Paul Randall (He was a stand-in for human-sized characters, including Gandalf)
• Bus Driver: Peter Jackson
• Cyclist: Perry Norris

• Astin's Long and Short webpage