Split Focus in "Dangerous methods"

[Ken Diewert]

I just saw David Cronenbergs 'Dangerous Methods'. Lately I've been really watching for focus pulls, and sure enough there about 4 scenes in this movie that must have used some kind of split focus technique. In one particular scene, Keira Knightly (foreground) and Michael Fassbender (about 10 feet behind) are both clearly in focus, while the hair around Knightly's ear is soft. Definitely a split trick of some kind, maybe a blur added to her hair as well. Anybody have any insight?

[Brian Drysdale]

Not having seen the film, but a spilt dioptre is one technique that's used.

Tilt focus lens is another method that can be used, the latter having a receding plane of focus, whereas the spilt dioptre, has two planes and you have to be careful about hiding the join, .

[Ken Diewert]

I did find this while googling the question;

"Finally, it's also fun to watch Cronenberg and Suschitzky experiment with split-diopter compositions. This is the only film I can think of that makes such extensive use of the technique aside from De Palma. And unlike De Palma, Cronenberg seems to prefer to integrate the two halfs as seamlessly as possible, which I think is so much more effective."

And This:

Cronenberg and his DP have come up with technical experimentation (split-diopters without an out-of-focus section, especially when Jung first treats Spielrein by talking to her from behind, which makes me wonder whether they just spliced together a normal shot with a foreground shot-on-green-screen) that doesn't feel as in-your-face as when Fincher does it in "Social Network" or "Zodiac."

Looking at the shot described above, I had also wondered whether a green screen was used. Regardless, it was a cool shot, and a very good movie.