FARGO SERIES / SPLIT SCREEN ANALYSIS

Split screen is an a effect that filmmakers usually avoid because it was overused in 60's and 70's, along with the zoom lens, and after 80's and 90's was mostly seen in music videos, and even do it was used in some films masterfully to advance the narrative and give original visual information like for example film director Brian De Palma or iconically in 24 hour series, it still became a synonym for a lazy and empty stylistic effect even do it really wasn’t used that frequently to deserve to qualify as an annoying trend.

Fargo uses split screen so originally that it became visual language of the show, a great stylistic devise used to illustrate the story, and it stays consistent with its chosen direction from beginning to end.

Split screen was used in almost every episode of the second season, and it’s not just visually striking in a l'art pour l'art way, split screen works particularly well because it draws attention to details that may otherwise be overlooked and it creates great exposition of characters, especially in the case of the three Gerhardt brothers.

But, we’ll get back to analyzing second season use of split screen, first I wanted to show you the most striking and ‘’on point’’ use of split screen in the first season where it was used to display relationship between Betsy and Lou, the split screen in their home represent ‘’the wall’’ between them, the distance because of Betsy’s cancer.

They went so far to visually evoke this emotion that they put Betsy inside cold and blue room, and Lou in a warmer hue colored room with Molly (and it almost looks like it’s not a split screen, that the rooms are next to each other). This also gives us information about the way they cope. Lou is concerned about Betsy and she is trying to isolate herself from the family because of the sickness.



Similar use we have in the second season with the relationship of Peg and Ed.
We also have a lot of shots with splits screens where is Peggy alone, consumed with herself, or how she puts it ‘’I want to be the best version of me’’, isolating herself from the idea of a domestic home with children, which is what Ed wants.



Much later we see them in the same car in the split screen, a smart shot that announces how their relationship will end.



Noah Hawley said in one interview about the split screens:
“We’re tracking so many characters, and we have so many threats coming from so many angles, you want to keep pressure on the audience. I’m just trying to tell the story better. But the execution has to be perfect if you’re bringing people into a story in way they’re not used to.”

And yes, they are not used to, Fargo took use of split screens on another level, it's amazing how easily and originally they play with this effect, they are dividing scenes instead of screens, and even play with time, like in the scene where Bear Gerhardt, after killing daughter of his brother in the woods stands beside his truck for a moment. The screen divides, splitting the scene between the present and seconds in the future, and we are seeing Bear before the killing and just after the killing. In this scene director is visually telling us that he is no longer the same person.



Here is a link for all combined split screens in Fargo by Zackery Ramos-Taylor

And for the end, here is a segment of an interview with Hawley :
“It’s getting harder and harder to make something timeless. There’s so much now and it’s thrown at you so fast. Everyone has The Godfather or Citizen Kane at the top of their lists of best movies, but if they were made today would they still be on the list? Those movies became iconic because they stood alone. Now you sit in Transformers 5 and you’re seeing things the human eye has never seen and yet you’re bored. My goal is to do something … more.”