page_title: Drive (2011 film)
section_title: Filming and cinematography
hierarchical_section_title: Drive (2011 film) / Production / Filming and cinematography
caption_attribution_description: English: Full view of digital camera Alexa from german maker Arri.
context_page_description: Drive is a 2011 American action drama film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. The screenplay, written by Hossein Amini, is based on James Sallis's 2005 novel Drive. The film stars Ryan Gosling as an unnamed Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver. He quickly grows fond of his neighbor, Irene, and her young son, Benicio. When her debt-ridden husband, Standard, is released from prison, the two men take part in what turns out to be a botched million-dollar heist that endangers the lives of everyone involved. The film co-stars Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, and Albert Brooks.
  Producers Marc Platt and Adam Siegel optioned the source novel after Siegel read a review from Publishers Weekly. Adapting the book proved to be challenging for Amini, as it had a nonlinear narrative. Gosling, one of Platt's top casting choices, eventually signed on for the lead, as he wanted to star in an action-oriented project. Gosling played a pivotal role in the film's production, which included hiring Refn as director and Beth Mickle as production designer.
context_section_description: The film was made on a production budget of about $15 million and shot in various parts of Los Angeles, beginning on September 25, 2010. Locations were picked by Refn while Gosling drove him around the city at night. At the director's request, Los Angeles was picked as the shooting location due to budget constraints. Refn moved into a plush Los Angeles home and insisted that the cast members and screenwriter Amini move in with him. They would work on the script and film all day, then watch films, edit, or drive at night. Refn asked that the editing suite be placed in his home as well. With a shooting script of 81 pages, Refn and Gosling continued to trim down dialogue during filming.
  The opening chase scene, involving Gosling's character, was filmed primarily by Refn within the car's interior. In an interview, he said he intended for this scene to emulate the feeling of a "diver in an ocean of sharks," and never left the vehicle during the car chase so that the audience can see what's happening from the character's point of view. Tight on money and time, he shot the scene in two days. With two different set-ups prepared in the car, the director found it difficult to have mobility with the camera, so he would switch the camera to two additional set-ups nearby. As downtown Los Angeles had been rejuvenated, Refn avoided certain areas to maintain the novel's gloomy atmosphere. The scene was shot at low angles with minimal light.
  The elevator sequence was shot without dialogue. Refn explained:
  A scene like the elevator sequence in Drive, for instance, has no dialogue, just a series of stunning visuals and graphic imagery – that's a prime example of how the film conveys so many ideas and emotions through images rather than words.
  — Matt Barone, Complex interview with Nicholas Winding Refn.
  Before shooting the head-smashing scene, Refn spoke to Gaspar Noé and asked him how he had done a similar scene in his film Irréversible (2002). Crossing the line from romance to violence, the scene begins with the Driver and Irene kissing tenderly. What they share is really a goodbye kiss. The Driver becomes a kind of "werewolf," violently stomping the hit man's head in. Irene sees the Driver in a new light.
  Of this scene Refn said:
  Every movie has to have a heart – a place where it defines itself – and in every movie I've made there's always a scene that does that. On Drive, it was hard for me to wrap my head around it. I realized I needed to show in one situation that driver is the hopelessly romantic knight, but he's also completely psychotic and is willing to use any kind of violence to protect innocence. But that scene was never written. As I was going along, it just kind of popped up.
  In March 2012, Interiors, an online journal concerned with the relationship between architecture and film, published an issue that discussed how space is used in this scene. The issue highlights Refn's use of constricted space and his way of creating a balance between romance and violence.
  Using the Arri Alexa camera, cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel shot the film digitally. According to executive producer David Lancaster, the film has abundant, evocative, intense images of Los Angeles that are not often seen. "From the little seen back streets of downtown LA to the dry arid outposts on the peaks of the desert landscape surrounding it, Siegel has re-imagined an LA all the way down to the rocky cliffs by the sea."
  Car scenes were filmed with a "biscuit rig," a camera car rig developed for the film Seabiscuit (2003). It allowed stunt driver Robert Nagle to steer the car, freeing Gosling to concentrate on acting. Consistent with Refn's usual visual style, wide-angle lenses were used extensively by cinematographer Sigel, who avoided hand-held camera work. Preferring to keep the film more "grounded" and authentic, he also avoided the use of computer-generated imagery (CGI). Budget restrictions were also a factor in this decision.
  Although many stunt drivers are credited, Gosling did some stunts himself, after completing a stunt driving car crash course. Du
caption: Refn shot Drive digitally with an Arri Alexa camera.
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