Editing L.A. Confidential (film) (section)

===Pre-production===
To give his cast and crew points and counterpoints to capture Los Angeles in the 1950s, Hanson held a "mini-film festival", showing one film a week: ''[[The Bad and the Beautiful]]'', because it epitomized the glamorous Hollywood look; ''[[In a Lonely Place]]'', because it revealed the ugly underbelly of Hollywood glamor; [[Don Siegel]]'s ''[[The Lineup (film)|The Lineup]]'' and ''[[Private Hell 36]]'', "for their lean and efficient style";<ref name= "amy"/> and ''[[Kiss Me Deadly]]'', because it was "so rooted in the futuristic '50s: the atomic age."<ref name= "sragow"/><ref name= "amy"/> Hanson and the film's cinematographer [[Dante Spinotti]] studied [[Robert Frank]]'s 1958 photographic book ''[[The Americans (photography)|The Americans]]'' and felt that the influence of his work was in every aspect of the film's visuals. Spinotti wanted to compose the shots of the film as if he was using a still camera and suggested Hanson shoot the film in the [[Super 35]] widescreen format with spherical lenses, which in Spinotti's opinion conveyed the feel of a still photo.<ref>{{cite web|first=David E.|last=Williams|url=https://ascmag.com/articles/wrap-shot-l-a-confidential|title=Wrap Shot: L.A. Confidential | publisher=American Society of Cinematographers|date=May 3, 2018|access-date=September 27, 2018 }}</ref>

Before filming took place, Hanson brought Crowe and Pearce to Los Angeles for two months to immerse them in the city and the time period.<ref name= "veniere"/> He also got them dialect coaches, showed them vintage police training films, and introduced them to real-life cops.<ref name= "veniere"/> Pearce found the contemporary police force had changed too much to be useful for research and disliked the police officer he rode along with because Pearce felt he was racist.<ref name= "hemblade">{{cite news
 | last = Hemblade
 | first = Christopher
 | title = Breaking the Mould...
 | work = [[Empire (film magazine)|Empire]]
 | date = December 1997
 }}</ref> He found the police films more valuable because "there was a real sort of stiffness, a woodenness about these people" that he felt Exley had as well.<ref name= "veniere"/> For six weeks, Crowe, Pearce, Hanson and Helgeland conducted rehearsals, which consisted of their discussing each scene in the script.<ref name= "arnold">{{cite news
 | last = Arnold
 | first = Gary
 | title = Casting for ''L.A. Confidential'' went in unexpected direction
 | work = [[The Washington Times]]
 | pages = D3
 | date = September 21, 1997
 }}</ref> As other actors were cast they would join in the rehearsals.<ref name= "amy"/>