The Place Beyond The Pines Analysis

The first part of this scene in ‘The Place Beyond The Pines’ starts with an establishing shot of a fair ground, whilst we see this shot we can hear the narrative of the two characters talking, the scene then switches to a close up of a man talking so we can establish who is talking. This shot is eye level and has very neutral lighting, we get a shot reverse shot of Ryan Gosling and the other man talking, all at eye level to make the audience feel as if they are part of the conversation. The camera also looks handheld to add to this. The scene then switches to an extreme long shot of Luke (Ryan Gosling) riding a motorcycle, the camera follows him with a tracking shot and uses high key lighting because he is outside. The next shot is an over shoulder, mid shot of him knocking at the door. The use of mise en scene in this shot creates a contrast as we can see he is wearing all white but this scene switches to quite low-key lighting because he is standing at a black door. The contrast of colours could suggest that he is the good guy in this situation, it also draws attention to the fact that he is the main character as the narrative is following him. After this we get a close up of his face to show his reaction, he looks down and the camera pans down to follow his face, the fact he looks down shows that the situation is not very positive, he quickly looks back up as he hears the door and the camera continues to follow his face.

The next shot is a two-man, mid shot, this way we can see both of the actors in the situation but it is still close enough to see her reaction to him at the same time. The camera remains at a mid-shot to show that both characters are equal and neither are superior to the other. The camera then pans towards the door to show a man holding a child, the editing then cuts back to another close up of Luke to show that he looks upset because someone else is holding his child. The duration of this shot is a lot longer compared to the other shots to really emphasise his feelings. The camera then zooms in on the man at the door as he closes it, the camera pans to follow the door. We can see a shot reverse shot between the two men as they have a conversation but the duration of the shots last longer on Luke to show he is the main focus of the scene. The editing then cuts to Romina and the others getting in the car which then switches to a long shot of Luke standing still standing at their door to show he is watching them drive away. Whilst this shot is shown we start to hear the narrative of the next shot overlapping. We get a low angled, establishing shot of the church to inform the audience where they are. This scene uses high key lighting because it is a church where God is supposed to be present, and there is a lot of light and a lot of candles to add to this. As the camera stays here, Luke walks in, in front of the camera so it focuses on him, we can tell it is him from the use of costume (mise en scene), it then changes to a mid-shot of him to show his emotions through facial expressions and body language. The camera shows us a close up of the baby and it pans to follow him as he is being baptised. The fact this shot is a close up is significant because it shows the audience why they are there. All through this there is very soft but sad music playing to resemble Luke's feelings. Luke then looks around and starts walking over to sit down, as he does this the camera pans to follow him and it also looks very handheld again. We get a long shot of him sitting down in the church to show that no one is around him, this could be to represent that he has no one.
The editing cuts to the child and then quickly back to an extreme close up of Luke to show his emotions, we can see that he begins to become upset. The duration of this shot is very long and as it is on screen, the music becomes louder and the priest talking becomes very faded and blurred out. This is to show and draw more attention to Luke's Emotions. This shot also uses side lighting so that when he starts crying, the tear that falls from his face is much easier to see. He then looks up and down and the camera pans to follow his face again. We then get a long shot of
the man and woman holding the child at the front of the church. The use of this long shot shows us all the people sitting there so we can see that Luke is all on his own. As everyone starts clapping, the editing cuts back to the extreme close up of Luke's face which we can see that he is still upset and is not clapping with the rest of the people there. All through this the music continues playing. This whole clip uses conventions to make it seem more realistic, such as; high key lighting and a hand-held camera effect. It's not really dramatic but the way it has been produced gives us a real sense of what is happening.