Motion control became a mainstay of twin movies. This helped visual effects artists film clean plates with no actors in them and use those plates to help merge people into the scene in postproduction. This was groundbreaking for twin effects because directors could now program precise, repeatable camera movements to replicate the same shot over and over again. In this scene, for example, you see the twins walk and talk together while followed by a fluid moving camera.Īnd a shot like this was only possible because of innovations from 'Star Wars,' which, in 1977, was the first film to extensively use motion-control cameras. The movie was a big deal at the time because of how dynamic its shots were. In this film, not to be confused with the earlier Bette Davis movie 'Dead Ringer,' Jeremy Irons plays a disturbed pair of twin gynecologists. So, how did you get from that to a shot like this, from David Cronenberg's horror movie 'Dead Ringers'? The split screen also usually required filming with a locked and fixed camera, resulting in shot compositions that could look very designed, with a sort of butterfly symmetry. That's a lot of work for a handshake shot that's only a few seconds long.

After filming the scene, they ran the film backwards and filmed it again with the actor on the other side, this time matting out everything but his head and shoulders. The filmmakers put glass in front of the camera, part of which they covered in masking tape to matte out the head and shoulders of the actor's double. Take this scene from 'The Prisoner of Zenda,' where Ronald Colman shakes hands with his identical cousin.

Split screens got complicated when one twin had to interact with another. Or here, where the actor played twins again in 'Dead Ringer.' In these movies, you can also see the use of the classic over-the-shoulder technique, where the actor speaks to a stand-in filmed from behind. You can see that in 'A Stolen Life,' with two Bette Davises. To disguise the seam, filmmakers make use of background elements in the shot, like a doorframe. You shoot the scene twice, with the actor and a stand-in switching places, then combine the two strips of film into one.

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