How SIN CITY has influenced Kremena Dimitrova;
Illustrator-as-Historian, Storyteller, Lecturer and Researcher.
From a creative and comics-based perspective, as someone who makes comics, Sin City interested me for a number of reasons. For example, the movie is not considered an adaptation but more of a translation of the original comics. If you pay attention to Sin City's opening credits, you will notice that the movie doesn't have a screenwriter’s credit. The only mention of writing is Frank Miller as the creator of the comics.
The original comic panels were even used as storyboards for the making of the movie. Here is one example.
Below are more examples of the original drawings in the comics and the movie scenes based on them. The producers used the original art from the comics as guidelines to plan out all the shots. The comics’ panels serve as episodic snapshots that are very similar to the pictures on screen – the only difference is that comics are still and are meant to be read whereas movies are meant to be seen in motion.
Sin City was one of the pioneers of shooting on a digital backlot. This gave a lot of freedom when it came to staging the scenes. Most of Sin City was shot in front of green screens with the backgrounds and sets being added digitally during post-production. Throughout the whole shoot, only four sets were constructed: Hartigan’s jail cell, Kadie’s bar, Shellie’s apartment, and the hospital seen right in the beginning of the movie.
Owing to the digital process, actors didn't need to be filmed together in order to interact with each other. They could be inserted into scenes that were shot separately. One of the most surprising things about this is that Mickey Rourke and Elijah Wood never met on set and yet they share a fight scene together. Marv even handcuffs himself to Kevin at one point. Mickey Rourke and Elijah Wood first met at the movie’s premiere.
Like many other movies, Sin City is not without its goofs… Try to spot…
1. When Nancy is dancing, she is alternately wearing/not wearing gloves between shots.
2. The blood on Marv’s chin appears/disappears when he is being interrogated by Wendy and the girls.
