The Place Beyond The Pines (2012)

I've taken inspiration from this film in all respects but mainly the narrative structure. Derek Cianfrance's fondness of relationships and legacy are routed in this film much like his previous film Blue Valentine. I liked the idea of seeing how one persons actions and life can effect the next generation, we see the repercussions of Ryan Gosling's character Luke Glanton when the film leaps 15 years down the line and we are presented with the life of his son and witness his mothers struggle with him, we see how she is still grieving from the death of Luke.

I watched an interview with Derek Cianfrance about his films where he mentions A Place Beyond The Pines in great detail, he often talked about his direction during the film and how he prepared actors for the roles they were undertaking. There is one scene where Ryan Gosling tries to stop Eva Mendez's character Romina from driving away as she leaves work, this is following Ryan's vicious attack on Romina's husband Cofee. Derek talks about how he did serval takes with simple direction each time just asking Ryan to stop he from leaving by all means and no description on how to do that. He explains how on one occasion Ryan placed his head underneath the car wheel as Romina was about to drive off, though this take wasn't used in the film i understand how the simple direction allows the actor to complete an action thats fresh and natural, meaning that the actors performance isn't forced giving them the space for their creativity and what they feel the character would do in that situation. I plan to take this idea and apply it to my film when directing the actors to achieve the performances I want during each scene.

I feel that this extreme action of placing his head under the wheel of the car reflects another of the directors techniques where he asks each actor in the casting to surprise him during the film. This responsibility that Derek is giving the actors allows them to make the character their own, the director is open to their suggestions to achieve something more exciting bringing the characters off the paper. This less structured approach to the films creation is something I aim to consider throughout the filming of my film. I understand that sometimes things don't always work the way they were written once the actors are on set and so to tackle any issues of the script or scene not working i want to work as a team to resolve any issues that the scene may be causing. Keeping in mind "What is the scenes purpose and what does it need to achieve?".