VINTAGE | FILM NOIR
It’s interesting how so many images of cars from a Vintage genre are influenced by the classic movies. Which movie era does your vintage car relate to?
1939 BUIcK
After talking through some ideas with the owner, we decided to go for the ‘Wet night on Broadway’ sometime in the early 1940s.
STAGE 1
A beautiful looking machine and a perfect photo. I searched through Vintage New York photos and slowly started to piece together the scene. It’s very rare to fine one photograph – it can often take between 10 – 20 photographic layers to get it right.
STAGE 2
The key here is to work with the perspective so I’ll often put grid lines on the original photo to work with. You can see the Kismet film poster in this early montage but I actually changed everything else before adding wet streets, rain and reflections.
1955 SUNBEAM ALPINE
The car is the star in this Alpine scene which is a homage to the 1955 film, ‘To Catch a Thief’, starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.
STAGE 1
Thanks to the owners of the Sunbeam – this was the perfect angle! In the film, Grace Kelly drove fast along an Alpine road heading for the Cote d”Azur. It took a while to find a stretch of road with the old blocks on the edge – not armco barriers.
STAGE 2
The sweep of road was taking shape plus the suggestion of a road winding down into the valley. I managed to find the actors at the right angle and blended them into the car adding some blur to the immediate surrounding. Shadows and 50s tinting next.
1954 Citroen traction avant (1934 – 57)
The vehicle of choice by both gangsters and detectives from the Film Noir era.
STAGE 1
This was a good photograph of the Citroen to build that misty Parisienne scene around. I began by retouching the background out, not forgetting the windscreen. I had an image in my mind and began researching background shots..
STAGE 2
The wet cobbles, and the dim street lighting worked well but I needed a cafe on the corner. This was a really complicated montage but the key moment was adding the ‘Third Man’ into the scene. I actually thought the car was older, hence the addition of the 1942 Casablanca poster.
