It's an old movie FX trick. Put a model infront of some full sized scenery and trick the perspective. It makes the model look full size. It was used A LOT in the LoTR series to make the actors playing hobbits and dwarves look small by placing them further from the camera then the others. Here's a reverse angle pic of a scene from LoTR
http://img.scoop.it/6I02CHHlhjQAdjD27vlHNzl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVaiQDB_Rd1H6kmuBWtceBJ
See how Gandalf is sitting closer to the camera than Frodo and the table is split, items on Frodo's side of the table are bigger than the ones on Gandalf's to enforce the trick. From the camera's point of view the table looks whole and it appears that Frodo is sitting directly across from Gandalf, but is smaller.
BTW: When filming the Hobbit in 3D they used 3 cameras for these shots, one for the left eye perspective and two for the right eye (in this shot one would film Gandalf, the other Frodo) so in composite they would seem to be at the same depth.
http://img.scoop.it/6I02CHHlhjQAdjD27vlHNzl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVaiQDB_Rd1H6kmuBWtceBJ
See how Gandalf is sitting closer to the camera than Frodo and the table is split, items on Frodo's side of the table are bigger than the ones on Gandalf's to enforce the trick. From the camera's point of view the table looks whole and it appears that Frodo is sitting directly across from Gandalf, but is smaller.
BTW: When filming the Hobbit in 3D they used 3 cameras for these shots, one for the left eye perspective and two for the right eye (in this shot one would film Gandalf, the other Frodo) so in composite they would seem to be at the same depth.