One actress who plays identical twins.
How does Mzansi Magic's Sunday night drama
The Imposter pull off the scenes that feature Thishiwe Ziqubu as twin sisters Mantwa and Matshepo?
TVSA caught up with the show's director Andries van der Merwe who dished the answer by giving us the inside scoop on the techniques, challenges and magic it takes to make it happen.
This is what we discovered:
The cost
The process is so intense that Andries could hardly speak because his voice was gone. The cast and crew had nine days of filming left when we hooked up and the production had to take an unplanned break. Thishiwe was exhausted from the process and needed a day off. You'll see why...
4 x 45 minutes
Each scene that features both Mantwa and Matshepo takes approximately three hours to film. Regular scenes take 45 minutes which means filming takes four times longer per scene.
Spliced and diced
One of the techniques the show uses involves splicing and dicing two pieces of film into one.
Thishiwe acts a scene as Mantwa and then re-acts it as Matshepo and the footage is literally cut down the centre and stuck together.
Matshepo's scene will be played stage left and Mantwa's stage right and the two frames are combined into one in post production editing:
The green screen
The cage scenes are filmed against a green screen because of the challenges of the cage. As you can see in the pics above, the green screen allows for the background to be superimposed into the scene so that the background always remains exactly the same.
The crew setting up for the shot.
Hey, there are two people and not only one!
For some of the scenes, Thishiwe acts with a body double. This allows her to play off someone and also allows for both Mantwa and Matshepo to be in the same shot but from different angles. This technique is used in scenes where the camera looks over the shoulders and back of one of the sisters:
So who is Thishiwe's body double? Actress Nqobile Ndlovu (Ingozi, Uzalo), who was chosen because she's similar in size and stature to Thishiwe.
Word from Andries is that he's been so impressed with her, he's keen on casting her in a role on The Queen, which he directs too.
Both actresses have the exact same wardrobe and wigs to pull off these scenes.
One head on two bodies
The third technique the show uses is the most complicated of all and they're only using it Once.
This involves superimposing Thishiwe's face over her body double's body. Both actresses act the scene as Mantwa and Matshepo and then Thishiwe's face is superimposed over Nqobile's face in post editing.
The show brought out these big guns to film a fight scene so keep a lookout for it.
Split personality
Thishiwe always starts by bringing Mantwa to life first because of the intensity required to play Matshepo. She films approximately four scenes as Mantwa, takes a break and then re-films them as Matshepo.
Lights, camera, action, rest!
Now you know why everyone suddenly needed a day off nine days before the end of filming. It's clear that an extreme amount of thought, energy, technique, technology and emotion has gone into each moment of the twins' story.