A Tale of Two Splitscreens: TWINLESS and the Revolving Door
creating the appearance of split in a single screen
It’s certainly appropriate that James Sweeney’s twisty tale of two twins uses two-blocked splitscreen shots in two totally different ways.
Today we’re looking at Implied Splitscreen; next, we’ll look at how Twinless uses a literal splitscreen for a longer scene, then brings it back and ‘seals’ it together.
Implied Splitscreen
In this scene, Bianca (Cree Cicchino) mistakes Roman (Dylan O’Brien) for his twin brother Rocky (also played by Dylan O’Brien).
It’s not a ‘true’ splitscreen, as the doorframe is what divides both the frame of the shot, and the two characters.
But if it looks and feels and acts like a screen, split, it’s a splitscreen.
The Setup
This revolving-door-cum-splitscreen scene is set up with a different type of faux splitscreen.
As Roman sits in the shower, there’s a shimmery line down the middle of his face; it looks like the seam of the shower glass, then a crossfade comes in and the split has a solid black line. After a moment, motion shows the shot is of a revolving door; then, when the second half of the shower scene fades away, we can see the solid line is actually a structural part of the revolving door’s centre beam.
Shooting Practicalities
Unless you have money to build a revolving door (or, I suppose, tear down most of a wall around an existing revolving door, etc), you won’t get a ‘true’ shot which exactly, equally bifurcates the interior and exterior of the door.
What you can do is find a revolving door which has a wall of glass on (at least) one side, and set the camera so it feels in the exact middle of the door, like so.
Why Split?
In terms of effect on the audience, having a door between Rocky and Bianca does three things at once:
it makes it much more believable that Bianca would not notice once she’s close and chatting that this is not actually Rocky, but his twin
it creates a visual line between them, which signifies Roman’s life being so distinct and partitioned from Rocky and Rocky’s friends
it means the audio of both characters is starkly different, which we as the audience pick up on as an additional disconnect
Takeaways
Not all splitscreens have to be ‘artificially’ created; shower doors and other architecture give plenty of potential.
The revolving door is a great use of a visual which serves not only the overall subject and theme of the film, but the individual needs of the scene.
Don’t forget to consider non-visual elements — such as acting difficulties, as your actors may have trouble seeing and hearing each other, and the potential for playing with audio — when you’re planning your splitscreen shots.
Film Details & Further Reading
Twinless (2025)
Director: James Sweeney
Cinematographer: Greg Cotten