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Use of Split Screen in Film

 What is Split screen?

Split screen is an editing technique in which the shot is split in to two or more different images to create a single shot. In 1898 George Melies created an magic trick which baffled the audience of the time using editing in his film the 4 troublesome heads. The illusion used multiple exposures combined with matt painting to duplicate the magicians head. Soon after, many filmmakers took inspiration from Melies technique and started combining images in order to tell more complex and engaging narratives. A famous example of this was "The Queen of Spades", a Russian silent film which used split screen to juxtapose the characters dreams with what was going on in reality. The same technique is still used to this day, for example it was used in "500 Days of Summer" in order to reflect the main characters perception of how a night will go at a party compared to the sad reality of how the night plays out. 

The use of the technique of juxtaposing images has been played around with for centuries and can be seen originating in art; "The Garden of Earthly Delights" which was produced by Hieronymus Bosch between the 1490s and 1510s. Bosch created three triptychs which were designed to be read from left to right, the triptychs depict many different ideas and themes which juxtapose each other. The left panel depicts the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve joining together, there is no sin in the garden, it is portrayed as a utopia. In the centre Bosch reflects upon life on Earth, it shares a similar look to the Garden of Eden however, as mankind was created with free will it reflects the reality of the situation, a mixture of sin and holy all in one place. In the third panel we see a world that has succumbed to evil, otherwise known as Hell, it is dark and chilling, there is imagery of torture and sin which is a wide contrast from the first two panels. 

In the late 1800s director begin creating multi screen systems that would allow multiple projectors to simultaneously show images onto adjacent screen this technique was called "Polyvision" however this technique proved quite expensive and difficult to maintain therefore filmmakers tried to focus on combining images in the same scene. The invention of the split focus dioptre allowed half the camera lens to focus on the foreground and half the image to focus on the background. The result of this was that different images which would be impossible to be seen in the same frame now could. In modern day we use post production to create split screen editing, a famous example of this is in "Parent Trap", in this movie Lindsay Lohan plays herself and her long lost twin sister. In order to capture shots of the two twins together they would basically re-photograph different shots, and combine them into a single images called the composite if combined seamlessly it can create an effective optical illusion. "Parent Trap is an example of an invisible split screen where you cannot even notice a visible split where they have placed two shots together, there are more obvious examples of split screen which are used to create many different effects. For example in "Annie Hall" the use of split screen allows the director to show both characters juxtaposing emotions and ideologies whilst they are in a therapy session. In "Ocean's Thirteen" the use of a split screen is to show a large amount of information in a short amount of time; the shot splits into multiple splits all of different sizes, in each you see what each specific character is doing, the size of the split screen reflects the importance of the character or the movement of the narrative, it allowed the audience to infer who they should be focusing and engaging with. 

References

Luers, E., 2018. The Greatest Examples of Split Screen Throughout Cinema History. (Online)
Available at: https://nofilmschool.com/2018/03/split-screens-watch 
Basso, R., 2016. The 15 Best Uses of Split Screen in Cinema History. (Online)
Available at: http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2016/the-15-best-uses-of-split-screen-in-cinema-history/2/


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