Split screen (video production)


In film and video production, split screen is the visible division of the screen, traditionally in half, but also in several simultaneous images, rupturing the illusion that the screen's frame is a seamless view of reality, similar to that of the human eye. There may or may not be an explicit borderline. Until the arrival of digital technology, a split screen in films was accomplished by using an optical printer to combine two or more actions filmed separately by copying them onto the same negative, called the composite.
In filmmaking split screen is also a technique that allows one actor to appear twice in a scene. The simplest technique is to lock down the camera and shoot the scene twice, with one "version" of the actor appearing on the left side, and the other on the right side. The seam between the two splits is intended to be invisible, making the duplication seem realistic.

Popularisation

Several studio-made films in the 1960s popularized the use of split screen. They include Indiscreet, John Frankenheimer's Grand Prix, Richard Fleischer's The Boston Strangler, Norman Jewison's The Thomas Crown Affair, Airport, Woodstock, The Andromeda Strain, Sisters, Carrie and More American Graffiti.
In Indiscreet, the technique was famously used to bypass the censors and allow Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman to be in bed together, and even to appear to pat her on the bottom.

Influences

An influential arena for the great split screen movies of the 1960s were two world's fairs - the 1964 New York World's Fair, where Ray and Charles Eames had a 17-screen film they created for IBM's "Think" Pavilion and the 3-division film To Be Alive, by Francis Thompson, which won the Academy Award that year for Best Short. John Frankenheimer made Grand Prix after his visit to the 1964 New York World's Fair. The success of these pavilions further influenced the 1967 Universal exhibition in Montreal, commonly referred to as Expo 67, where multi-screen highlights included In the Labyrinth, hailed by Time magazine as a "stunning visual display," their review concluding: "such visual delights as Labyrinth... suggest that cinema—the most typical of 20th century arts—has just begun to explore its boundaries and possibilities," as well as A Place to Stand, which displayed Christopher Chapman's pioneering "multi-dynamic image technique" of shifting multiple images. Directors Norman Jewison and Richard Fleischer conceived their ambitious split-screen films of 1968 after visiting Expo '67.
It's also common to use this technique to simultaneously portray both participants in a telephone conversation, a long-standing convention which dates back to early silents, as in Lois Weber's triangular frames in her 1913 Suspense, and culminating in Pillow Talk, where Doris Day and Rock Hudson share a party line. So linked to this convention are the Doris Day/Rock Hudson movies that Down With Love, the only slightly tongue-in-cheek homage, used split screen in several phone calls, explicitly parodying this use. In the 1971 Emmy Award-winning TV movie "Brian's Song" which portrays the story of former Chicago Bears running backs Brian Piccolo and Hall of Famer Gale Sayers, it's the night after Piccolo's second surgery and Piccolo is talking to Sayers on the phone. There is a diagonal split screen from upper left corner to lower right corner. The BBC series Coupling made extensive use of split screen as one of several techniques that are unconventional for TV series, often to a humorous effect. One episode, 'Split', was even named after the use of the effect. The acclaimed Fox TV series 24 used split-screen extensively to depict the many simultaneous events, enhancing the show's real-time element as well as connecting its multiple storylines.
An unusual and revolutionary use of split screen as an extension to the cinematic vocabulary was invented by film director Roger Avary in The Rules of Attraction where two separate halves of a split screen are folded together into one seamless shot through the use of motion control photography. The much acclaimed shot was examined and detailed in Bravo Television's Anatomy of a Scene.

Digital technology

The arrival of digital video technology has made dividing the screen much easier to accomplish, and recent digital films and music videos have explored this possibility in depth. Sometimes the technique is used to show actions occurring simultaneously; Timecode, by Mike Figgis, is a recent example where the combination is of four real time digital video cameras shown continuously for the duration of the film. Split-screen can also be used to the extent that it becomes part of the narrative structure of a film, as in The Boston Strangler.

Usage

In films

Early use of split screen can be seen in the Russian silent film The Queen of Spades, directed by Yakov Protazanov, where one screen depicts reality and the other a character's inner desires. This technique has been used to portray twins in such films as Wonder Man, The Dark Mirror, The Parent Trap, and Adaptation. In the 1961 version of The Parent Trap, conversations between the twins were simulated by filming the actress as she stood at the left of the frame facing right, then filming her again, standing at the right and facing left. The negative of the first action was placed into a printer and copied onto another negative, the composite, but this other negative was masked so that only the right part of the original picture is copied. Then the composite was rewound and the negative of the second action was copied onto the right side of each frame. On this second pass, the left side was masked to prevent double exposure. This technique is then carefully hidden by background lines, such as windows, doors, etc. to disguise the split.
Hans Canosa's 2005 film Conversations with Other Women made extensive use of split screens. Conversations juxtaposed shot and reverse shot of two actors in the same take, captured with two cameras, for the entire movie. The film was designed to enlist the audience as perceptual editors, as they can choose to watch either character act and react in real time. While the shot/reverse shot function of split screen comprises most of the running time of the film, the filmmakers also used split screen for other spatial, temporal and emotional effects. Conversations' split screen sometimes showed flashbacks of the recent or distant past juxtaposed with the present; moments imagined or hoped by the characters juxtaposed with present reality; present experience fractured into more than one emotion for a given line or action, showing an actor performing the same moment in different ways; and present and near future actions juxtaposed to accelerate the narrative in temporal overlap.

By filmmakers

The visionary French director, Abel Gance, used the term "Polyvision" to describe his three-camera, three-projector technique for both widening and dividing the screen in his 1927 silent epic, Napoléon. The filmmaker Brian De Palma has incorporated split screens into many of his films, most notably in Sisters and they have since become synonymous with his filmmaking style.

In technology

The "Interactive Olaf" bonus feature from the DVD release of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events shows Jim Carrey's makeup tests from the movie in a four-way split-screen. Viewers can split the audio by selecting which one to listen to, then pressing "ENTER" on their DVD remote. The split screen has also been simulated in video games. Most notably Fahrenheit where it is used to allow a player to keep track of multiple simultaneous elements relevant to the gameplay.

In music video

A number of music videos have made creative use of split screen presentations. In Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" video a number of freeze frames are shown in split screen. Video and film director Michel Gondry has made extensive use of split screen techniques in his videos. One notable example is "Sugar Water" - Cibo Matto, where one side of the screen shows the video played normally, and the other side shows the same video played backwards. Through careful and creative staging the two sides appear to interact directly - passing objects from side to side and visually referencing each other. The music video for "Doo Wop " by Lauryn Hill was filmed using a split screen technique, the video features Lauryn, performing the song at block parties in two different eras: the mid-1960s and the late-1990s.

In television

The split screen has also been used extensively in television programs. Newscasts often show two reporters in a split screen frame. The sitcom That '70s Show, Nickelodeon teen sitcom Drake & Josh, Disney Channel teen sitcom Lizzie McGuire, USA Network's Burn Notice and Fox's 24 made extensive use of split screens. It is sometimes used in game shows to show two contestants simultaneously, and on cable news shows, when participants in a discussion are in different locations.
Split screens are frequently used in motor racing, especially during safety car pit stops in the IndyCar Series and NASCAR, where four way splits are used, most often with three leading cars or trucks' pit stops shown on the left and a shot of the pit exit on the right, with some featuring just four different cars or trucks making pit stops. Often these pit stops can change the entire outcome of a race. In sports, an instant replay, highlights package, or featurette on a specific subject relating to the play may be shown in a corner while the main play is happening.
Split screens are sometimes used during commercial breaks, as in ESPN's "Side-By-Side" coverage of racing, where one side of the screen shows race footage and the other shows advertising. This allows commercial to be shown while not interrupting coverage of race action.
Split screens are also common in advertising, often to show comparison.

Notable uses of split screen

TitleYearDirectorNotes
Santa Claus1898George Albert Smith
Life of an American Fireman1903Edwin S. Porter
Suspense1913Lois Weber
The Queen of Spades1916Yakov Protazanov
Napoléon1927Abel GancePresented with three projectors in Polyvision
Pillow Talk1959Michael Gordon
To Be Alive!1964Short film produced for the 1964 New York World's Fair, presented on multiple screens
Chelsea Girls1966Presented side by side with two projectors for film's entirety
Grand Prix1966John Frankenheimer
A Place to Stand1967Christopher ChapmanOriginally presented at Expo 67
In the Labyrinth1967Originally presented on multiple screens at Expo 67; later reissued in a single-screen format
Col cuore in gola1967Tinto Brass
Charly1968Ralph Nelson
The Thomas Crown Affair1968Norman Jewison
The Boston Strangler1968Richard Fleischer
Eagles Over London1969Enzo G. Castellari
Airport1970George Seaton
Dionysus in '691970Brian De PalmaPresented side by side through optical printing for film's entirety
Multiple Sidosis1970Sid LavarentsShort film
Woodstock1970Michael WadleighDocumentary of the Woodstock Festival
The Andromeda Strain1971Robert Wise
Sisters1973Brian De Palma
Wicked, Wicked1973Richard L. BarePresented side by side through optical printing for film's entirety
Phantom of the Paradise1974Brian De Palma
Carrie1976Brian De Palma
Twilight's Last Gleaming1977Robert Aldrich
Dressed to Kill1980Brian De Palma
Blow Out1981Brian De Palma
Sammy and Rosie Get Laid1987Stephen Frears
Wall Street1987Oliver Stone
The Bonfire of the Vanities1990Brian De Palma
Repossessed1992Bob LoganUsed for comedic effect in a telephone conversation scene where one character crosses the "split" after the other person leave their phone off the hook.
Boogie Nights1997Paul Thomas Anderson
Jackie Brown1997Quentin Tarantino
"Closing Time"1998Chris ApplebaumMusic video for the Semisonic song
Snake Eyes1998Brian De Palma
Run Lola Run - Lola Rennt1998Tom Tykwer
The X-Files1998Chris CarterEpisode Triangle
The Virgin Suicides1999Sofia Coppola-
SpongeBob SquarePants1999Stephen HillenburgUsed on Missing Identity episode.
The Boy Who Saw the Iceberg2000Paul DriessenAnimated short
Requiem for a Dream2000Darren Aronofsky
Snatch2000Guy Ritchie
Timecode2000Mike FiggisScreen is split into quadrants, each showing a different sequence
242001–10, 2014Stephen Hopkins, VariousTelevision series
Femme Fatale2002Brian De Palma
Adaptation2002Spike Jonze
The Rules of Attraction2002Roger Avary
Spooks2002VariousTelevision series
Down with Love2003Peyton Reed
Kill Bill2003Quentin Tarantino
Pretend2003Julie Talen
Hulk2003Ang Lee
Sexual Dependency2003Rodrigo Bellott
Sideways2004Alexander Payne
Conversations with Other Women2005Hans Canosa
The Tracey Fragments2007Bruce McDonald
A Wednesday!2008Neeraj PandeyHindi film
Days of Summer2009Marc Webb
127 Hours2010Danny Boyle
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World2010Edgar Wright
Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions2012Tatsuya IshiharaAnime series
Dhoom 32013Vijay Krishna AcharyaHindi Film
R... Rajkumar2013Prabhu DevaOne Scene / Hindi Film
Kalyeserye2015-2016Bert de Leon, Poochie Rivera, Rich IlustreA soap opera parody aired live during the "Juan for All, All for Juan" segment of Philippine noontime variety show Eat Bulaga! on GMA Network in the Philippines.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.2015Guy Ritchie
Fargo2015Randall EinhornSeason 2
The Mindy Project2017VariousFinal Season
The Indian Detective2017VariousMini-series