Summary
One major question viewers of Ryan Coogler’sSinners—or any other film that features the same actor in different roles simultaneously—have is how it achieves its twinning effect. The vampirehorror-thriller’s VFX supervisor has an answer for them.
Sinners’ features not one but two Michael B. Jordans, playing twin brothers Smoke and Stack (with some fans calling them “Michael A. and B. Jordan”) as they return home to open a juke joint, only for their community to be plunged into chaos by a sudden vampire outbreak.The film opened with $45.6 million domesticallyand $15.6 million from 71 overseas markets, ousting fellow Warner Bros. titleA Minecraft Movieas the top dog in the U.S. Also ousted was Jordan Peele’sNope($44.4 million) as the strongest domestic debut for an original horror film, although the director still holds the ultimate record withUS($70.3 million).
Chatting with the Academy Originals on YouTube—the official channel of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on YouTube—Sinners’ VFX supervisor Michael Ralla, explained how Michael B. Jordan got to play twins in the film: it’s a combination of the traditional split screen/locked-off camera technique—where the camera is still as the actor performs each role in different parts of the frame and the footage is combined—and a multi-camera harness rig.
“At least half of the shots, we went with a classic split screen approach where we shot Michael [B. Jordan] twice, and combined the two passes. The other 50%, shots or scenes where there’s a lot of physical interaction between the twins, we developed what we call ‘The Halo Rig’. That’s a harness that has a ring of ten or sometimes twelve cameras. That allowed us to use his head performance, not just the face, and put that on a stunt double.”
Sinners’ Twinning Techniques Aren’t Revolutionary
They’ve Been in Use For A Long Time, So Don’t Expect Any Visual Effects Accolades
Although achieving seamless results, both techniques are far from revolutionary. Split screens were used as early as 1898 by Georges Méliès inThe Corsican Brothersand, famously, in 1998’sThe Parent Trap.Digital doubles were used on Ronald Colman inThe Prisoner of Zenda(1937) and on Eddie Murphy inThe Nutty Professor(1996).Loganalso used a similar techniquefor the X-24 clone in 2017.
As with all visual effects, the goal is to achieve a convincing realism that makesviewers unfamiliar with Michael B. Jordanthink he’s a twin. Still, two Michael B. Jordans in a film means fans of the actor get a double-treat, which may be one of the many factors contributing to its unprecedented staying power. On that last point, the film dropped just -6% in its second weekend in North America, one of the softest drops for R-rated film—or any genre at all—in recent Hollywood history.
Michael Ralla, for his part, has already built what is perhaps the most impressive portfolio a VFX artist can dream of, having worked in various such roles in many blockbusters, includingBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever,John Wick: Chapter 4,Pacific Rim,Divergent,Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,Thor: The Dark WorldandThe Avengers
