Split-Screening Your Phone Call: THE FALL GUY
Getting Doubly Meta With It
All this week, our socials are full of famous split-screen phone calls from the 50s til present day.
This four minute scene from 2024’s The Fall Guy combines history and variety, referencing plenty of classic films while utilising the format in a few different ways.
So let’s break it down!
Setup
Cody and Jody (Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt) go full meta from the start, the screen wiping into a split as Jody says the words “how do you feel about split screen?”
The Fall Guy (bottom photo) splits its widescreen to approximate two old-school 4:3 frames, just like callback-to-classic-romcoms Down With Love (top photo) does.
Unlike Down With Love, The Fall Guy doesn’t use a yellow bar to make the sides distinct; instead, it plays with artificially creating barriers between Cody and Jody, using objects in one of both of their environments.
Their conversation proceeds to work on two levels, talking about their relationship in terms which the image makes literal.
As Jody says “I like that they’re on screen together but they are in seperate worlds, you know, visually and emotionally,” the screen shows red for Jody and blue for Cody.
As she says “You’ve got this very prominent divide between the lovers” shelving on Cody’s side of screen forms a literal barrier, a thick line between the split screens.
As Jody says “You’re going to see this bright line between them, that you’re going to ache to see blur,” the camera moves so the bright red art installation / lampshade on Cody’s side of the screen is framed between them.
The red creates that ‘bright line’ which we want to disappear.
Meanwhile, they seem to be making eye contact . . .
Eye Contact
As Jody and Cody proceed to discuss both their relationship and the film-within-a-film they’re working on, the split screens set up some fun mis/alignments.
The alignments often includes eye contact (same as Indiscreet played with).
We ‘know’ they can’t see each other, but often it feels like they can.
This visually demonstrates just how close Jody and Cody are to truly communicating, and yet they are not quite there.
Simultaneous Actions in Two Contexts
Emphasising Similarities
As Cody tries to demonstrate how well he knows Jody’s favourite movie, their actions mirror each other; we all know what it’s like to pick up mannerisms of someone we spend a lot of time with, and they don’t just go away!
The split screen edits and long conversation enable Jody and Cody to show their similarities in multiple locations and shot sizes.
Emphasising Differences
On the other hand, some comedy comes from stark differences in a split frame.
Emphasising ‘same same but different’
The use of Jody’s dinosaur hand allows Cody and Jody to be doing similar despondent actions, while having a drastically different hilarious effect.
Cross-cutting between these images (such as we looked at in the opening sequence of He Got Game) would not have quite the same humorous effect as seeing them both at the same time.
A match cut (like this one in Audition) would visually demonstrate the similarities of their actions, but the split screen means we can see the entirety of the action from both characters.
The humour of the stark similarities (facial expression, gesture) and differences (dino hand!) is really driven home by the split screen device.
Getting Out
Because of the splitscreen sliding away as Jody looks at / touches her screen, we know the moment Jody hangs up, but Cody doesn’t.
And we know that Cody doesn’t because he continues talking, then does the universal ‘hello?’ before finally realising what’s happened.
The wall detailing creates a ‘false split’ between Cody and the unicorn. What ‘breaks’ the illusion and gets us out of this scene is the first actual ‘crossing’ of the splitscreen, when Cody leans across the artificially created break (0:19 in video).
Takeaways
A split screen is already calling attention to the artificiality of the scene and the medium, so it’s a perfect place to really go for some crazy stuff.
The split really enables visualisation of connection and disconnection between two people; take advantage of that!
Film Details & Further Reading
The Fall Guy (2024)
Director: David Leitch
Cinematographer: Jonathan Sela