Research into the use of split screens in music videos.

Split screen is when their is a visible division of the screen in a film or video production. Usually the split in the screen is in half, however it is evident that it can be split other ways. Before the arrival of digital technology in the 1990s, a split screen was previously achieved by using an optical printer to combine two or more actions filmed separately by copying them onto the same negative. The technique, also allows one actor to appear twice in one scene; as if they had been cloned or travelled through time. The easiest way to achieve this is to lock down the camera and shoot the scene twice, one version with the character appearing on the left, the other on the right, the seam between the two shots is invisible, which makes the duplication seem realistic.

Split screen has become very popular, due to several studio made films during the 1960s using split screen, within their films. These films include; John Frankenheimers, Grand Prix (1966), Norman Jewisons, The thomas crown affair (1968), Richard Fleishers, The boston strangler (1968), Airport (1970), Woodstock (1970) and More american graffiti (1979).

The 1964 New york worlds fair, was very influential for split screen movies, Ray and Charles Earnes has a 17 screen film, they created it for the IBM`s "Think" pavillion, and the 3-division film "To be alive", by Francis Thompson; it won the academy award that year for best short film. The pavillions success, then ifluenced the 1967 Unviersal exhibtion in Montreal, also reffered to as Expo 67, the multi screen highlights included "In the Labyrinth, which was reffered to by Time magazine as "stunning visual display".

The split screen technique, can also be commonly used to portray both characters in a telephone conversation, or a long standing convention which dates back to early silents, which is hsown in Lois Webers triangular frames in her 1913 film "Pillow Talk".

In 2002, "The rules of attraction", by Roger Avary used an unusual and revolutionary use of the split screen, where two seperate halves of the split screen were folded into a seamless shot through the use of motion control photography.

Split screens have aslo been used to show twins in films such as; Wonder man (1945), The dark mirror (1946), The parent trap (1961 original + 1998 remake) and Adaptation (2002).

Abel Gance, a french director, used the term "polyvision", to describe his three camera, three projector technique to both widen and divide the screen in his 1927 silent epic, "Napoleon".

Sugar Water by Cibo Matto (1996), is very famous for its use of split screen. It shows elements of what we want to achieve in our own music video, because of the similarities of the use of two characters, within our video the boy is ahead of time, whilst the girl is behind, this then allows us to avoid the characters meeting within the video, and so they do not meet back up in the video, therefore similar to "sugar water", we are using two different time frames, but the use of the split screen allows us to show both characters at the same time.

As well as split screen being used in movies, it also has an extensive use in the television show 24. Split screen is also used in sports on tv, because it shows the instant replay, highlights package or a featurette all on one screen.

Sugar Water - Cibo Matto video.