A charismatic criminal stumbles into love in Director Derek Cianfrance’s comedic biopic, Roofman.

Cianfrance’s film tells the incredible true story of Jeffrey Manchester, an escaped convict hides in a toy store while on the run from the police. While there, he adopts a new identity and becomes involved in a risky relationship with Leigh Wainscott, a single mother who is one of the store’s employees.

On September 28, after the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles, Cianfrance discussed the making of Roofman during a Q&A moderated by Director David Gordon Green (Nutcrackers). He also spoke about the film in a conversation moderated by Director Azazel Jacobs (His Three Daughters) following the DGA’s New York screening on September 21.

During the Los Angeles conversation, Cianfrance spoke about his process for achieving naturalism on screen.

“I love script supervisors but they don’t always have a role on my movies because I embrace the continuity errors. I don’t want actors to hit marks. I am fine with it being different every take because I’m only looking for it once. I feel like the concept for me is Halley’s Comet. Halley’s Comet comes like once every 76 years. When the time comes you have to go and see it and you capture it. If you don’t get it you have to wait 76 years for it to come back. So, I just try to put myself in a position to capture these, what I call, ‘Halley’s Comet moments’ and you can’t get them back. There’s no take two on them.”

Cianfrance’s other directorial credits include the feature films The Light Between Oceans, The Place Beyond the Pines and Blue Valentine; and the mini-series I Know This Much Is True. He won the 2016 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials for his ads: Chase, Nike Golf; Doubts, Powerade; Expectations, Powerade; and Manifesto, Squarespace. Cianfrance has been a DGA member since 2006.