A guide to locations used in the filming of 'Place Beyond the Pines'

The independent film, released nationally on Friday by Focus Features, was shot entirely on location in and around Schenectady during the summer of 2011 and included hundreds of Capital Region extras. The movie was shot at more than a dozen area locations and the filmmakers — several of whom have family ties to Schenectady — achieved a powerful authenticity by using real police officers, real street names and extras who live here. [...] the only way hundreds of local extras who pass in a blur in the background will be able to tell if they made the final cut will be to wait for the DVD and freeze-frame it or pore over the outtakes. Touching scene with Gosling and Mendes, who order ice cream under the big clown sign and take a snapshot together beside the motorcycle. Some of the best acting is in lead-up scenes with Gosling and his bank robber mentor, Ben Mendelsohn, a sketchy mechanic with a shady past who lives in the woods. At the busy intersection with North Brandywine Avenue, director Derek Cianfrance shot this getaway scene nearly a dozen times and Gosling rode some of the stunts, which includes weaving through State Street traffic at high speeds. After the Trustco heist, Schenectady cops in cruisers chase Gosling, who races through the cemetery's curved, narrow roadways before dumping his bike and limping off on foot as the cops close in. There are scenes in the hallways, cafeteria and gym at Schenectady High between the teenage sons of Gosling's character, played by Dane DeHaan, and Cooper's, played by Emory Cohen as a transfer from Troy High and a thuggish, drug-dealing troublemaker. Several city police officers were used in the rotunda scene where Cooper is given a medal for valor in thwarting Gosling's bank robbery spree in a shootout. Mayor Gary McCarthy's first-floor office stood in for the...