Backup Film Inspiration - Legend

The main inspiration for my backup film is Legend, Directed by Brian Helgeland and starring Tom Hardy. The film has Tom Hardy play two characters, identical twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray, who are successful London gangsters. While the film itself is rather lackluster due to the main focus on Reggie Kray's marriage with a background focus on the much more entertaining and interesting gangster life and the relationship between the two twins; the film does still have merits due to Tom Hardy's performance and some well made and interesting scenes in the movie. In particular, any fight scene in the movie is very well made with good choreography and good cinematography. The movie is especially notable for the way that scenes are made with Tom Hardy on the screen twice, which makes the fight scene between the two twins very interesting to watch.

Unfortunately, none of the fight scenes are on YouTube, but this scene shows how the film has two characters on screen at the same time. It is achieved very well and blends smoothly to the point where the viewer cannot tell that it is two separate shots.

This is the type of effect that I would like to achieve in my backup film as it is very effective, and if it is done simply, it can be a very effective and easy effect to achieve.

The effect is achieved by having an actor and a stand in act out the scene on camera, then the actors swap places and read out the opposite lines. The only way this can work is to have the camera in the exact same place in each shot so the they can be edited seamlessly on top of each other. Then, during post-production, you can edit out the stand in and replace them with the actor to make it seem like they are having a conversation with themselves or a twin. As long as the actor has a stand in to read lines and the camera is kept in the same place, it is a relatively easy effect to edit and achieve which is why I have chosen this effect to be in my backup film as it still demonstrates a lot of skill without being too complicated.