Editing Road to Perdition (section)

===Filming===
Mendes sought to produce a [[period film]] that avoided gangster genre clichés. Mendes chose to film ''Road to Perdition'' on location in Chicago, IL, including downtown at the University Club of Chicago, the [[Chicago]] neighborhood of [[Pullman, Chicago|Pullman]], the [[Charles G. Dawes House]] in [[Evanston, Illinois]], as well as the far west Chicago suburb of [[Geneva, Illinois|Geneva]], [[Illinois]]. [[General Jones Armory]], the state's largest location mainstay, which houses units of the [[Illinois National Guard]], was provided to the studio by the Illinois State Film Commission. Sets were built inside the armory, including the interiors of the Sullivan family's home and the Rooney mansion. The availability of an inside location provided the crew complete control over the lighting environment, which was established with the rigging of [[scaffolding]]s.<ref name="Triggers">{{cite news|author=Zone, Ray |url=http://www.theasc.com/magazine/aug02/perdition/index.html |title=Emotional Triggers|work=[[American Cinematographer]] |date=August 2002 |access-date=2007-06-06}}</ref>
{{Quote box|width=40%|Atmospherically, the landscape is a violent and magnificent canvas on which is told a mythic story of a father and son in the last period of lawlessness in American history.|Sam Mendes<ref name="Triggers" />}}
Mendes collaborated with costume designer Albert Wolsky, production designer [[Dennis Gassner]], and cinematographer [[Conrad Hall]] to design the film's style. Wolsky designed costumes that were "very controlled, with soft outlines and very soft silhouettes." Gassner built sets that could capture the cold look of the era. Mendes sought a muted palette for the film, having dark backgrounds and sets with dark, muted greens and grays. Mendes filmed ''Road to Perdition'' using the [[Super 35]] format.<ref name="Triggers"/>

The director filmed exterior scenes in Illinois in the winter and the spring of 2001, using real weather conditions such as snow, rain, and mud for the scenes. Mendes considered the usage of bleak weather conditions and the intended coldness of Gassner's exterior locations to define the characters' emotional states. Pullman became a key location to reflect this theme, having several settings, including the town's historic Florence Hotel, easily redressed by the crew for the film.<ref name="Triggers" /> Filming concluded in June 2001.<ref name="Killer" />