Editing Double Indemnity (section)

===Filming===
[[File:Double indemnity screenshot 1.jpg|left|thumb|Neff confesses into a [[Dictaphone]].]]Filming ran from September 27 to November 24, 1943.<ref>[[Richard Schickel|Schickel, Richard]]. ''Double Indemnity'', BFI Publishing, 1992. 60.</ref> [[John F. Seitz]] was the premier director of photography at Paramount, having worked since the silent era. Seitz was nominated for an Academy Award for Wilder's ''[[Five Graves to Cairo]]'' (1943). The director praised Seitz's willingness to experiment. They gave the film a look reminiscent of [[German expressionist cinema]], with dramatic deployment of light and shadows.<ref name="Lally"/> Wilder recalled, "Sometimes the [[Dailies|rushes]] were so dark that you couldn't see anything. He went to the limits of what could be done."<ref name="sikmain"/>{{rp|206}} Bright Southern California exteriors contrasted with gloomy interiors to suggest what lurked beneath the facade.<ref name="dvd2"/> The effect was heightened by dirtying up the set with overturned ashtrays and blowing aluminum particles into the air to simulate dust.<ref name="Phillips"/>{{rp|63}}

[[File:Indemnity Bar Lighting.jpg|thumb|Use of "venetian blind" lighting became a stock-in-trade film noir look.]]Seitz used "[[Window blind|Venetian blind]]" lighting to simulate prison bars trapping the characters.<ref>{{cite book | last=Leitch | first=Thomas | year=2002 | chapter=''Double Indemnity'' and the Film Noir | title=Crime Films | series=Genres in American Cinema | publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] | pages=134 | isbn=0521646715 }}</ref> Barbara Stanwyck reflected that "the way those sets were lit, the house, Walter's apartment, those dark shadows, those slices of harsh light at strange angles – all that helped my performance. The way Billy staged it and John Seitz lit it, it was all one sensational mood."<ref name="Muller"/>

For Neff's office at Pacific All Risk, Wilder and set designer [[Hal Pereira]] copied the Paramount headquarters in New York City as an inside joke at the studio's expense.<ref name="sikmain"/>{{rp|207}}

Stanwyck wears a blonde wig "to complement her anklet...and to make her look as sleazy as possible." Paramount production head [[Buddy DeSylva]] did not approve of the wig, remarking that "We hired Barbara Stanwyck, and here we get George Washington."<ref name="Lally"/>{{rp|135}} In response, Wilder insisted that the wig was "meant to show that she's a phony character and that all of her emotions are fraudulent". A week into filming, Wilder came to consider the wig a mistake, but too much of the film had been shot to remove it; he later referred to the use of the wig as the biggest mistake of his career.<ref name="dvd2"/><ref name="Phillips"/>{{rp|62}}

[[Edith Head]] designed Barbara Stanwyck's costumes.<ref name="Colpaert">{{cite journal |last1=Colpaert |first1=Lisa |title=Costume on film: How the femme fatale's wardrobe scripted the pictorial style of 1940s film noir |journal=Studies in Costume & Performance |date=2019 |volume=4 |pages=65–84 |doi=10.1386/scp.4.1.65_1 |s2cid=187357420 |url=https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/scp.4.1.65_1 |access-date= 18 October 2023}}</ref>{{rp|77}} Her designs focus on bias-cut gowns, blouses with wide sleeves, and the waistline. Shoulder pads were the style of the 1940s, but they also accentuated the femme fatale's power. In Stanwyck's death scene, her wig and white jumpsuit contrast with Neff's dark suit, creating a [[chiaroscuro]] effect.<ref name="Colpaert"/>{{rp|75}}

When Phyllis and Walter dump the corpse on the tracks, they were supposed to get in their car and drive away. The crew shot the scene as written. As Wilder left the exterior location, however, his car would not start. He ordered the crew back and reshot the scene with Phyllis struggling to start her car. Wilder insisted MacMurray turn the ignition so slowly that the actor protested.<ref name="Creatures"/>{{rp|175–6}}<ref name="zolmain"/>{{rp|116}}

Wilder managed to bring the whole production in under budget at $927,262 despite $370,000 in salaries for just four people: $100,000 each for MacMurray, Stanwyck, and Robinson; $44,000 for Wilder's writing plus $26,000 for his directing.<ref name="sikmain">[[Ed Sikov|Sikov, Ed]] (1998). ''On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder''. New York: Hyperion. {{ISBN|978-0-7868-6194-1}}. 197–213.</ref>{{rp|211}} Wilder considered ''Double Indemnity'' his best film because it had so few scripting and shooting errors.<ref>"One Head Is Better Than Two," ''[[Films and Filming]]''. (London), February 1957.</ref> He marked Cain's praise for ''Double Indemnity'' and [[Agatha Christie]]'s praise for [[Witness for the Prosecution (1957 film)|his adaptation]] of ''[[Witness for the Prosecution (play)|Witness for the Prosecution]]'' as two high points in his career.<ref name="Hoo"/>