 Bound was shot in thirty-eight days in Santa Monica, California. The Wachowskis'original director of photography resigned on the grounds that he could not do the film with the limited budget he had available, nor did he know anyone he believed could. Subsequently cinematographer Bill Pope was hired, who knew "a bunch of cheap guys". Pope became heavily involved in creating the visual noir style of the film. He and the Wachowskis drew from their love of comics and were influenced by Frank Miller's neo-noir Sin City series in particular. Pope's sound counterpart was sound director Dane Davis. One of his ideas was to give Corky a cat-like quality by making a "swishing" sound every time she walks past the camera in the scene where she and Violet plan the theft.
