La La Land (2016) sequence shot
Original title: La La Land
Year: 2016 (world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August 31, 2016 - US release on December 9, 2016, France on January 25, 2017)
Director and screenwriter: Damien Chazelle
Producers: Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, Marc Platt, Gary Gilbert (Summit Entertainment / Lionsgate)
Country: United States
(DP of Photography): Linus Sandgren, ASC, FSF - Swedish, previously DP for David O. Russell on American Hustle (2013) and Joy (2015)
Steadicam operator (camera stabilized by an articulated harness): Ari Robbins
Choreographer: Mandy Moore (already choreographer on American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook)
Composer: Justin Hurwitz (Chazelle's classmate and roommate at Harvard; also the composer of Whiplash)
Lyricists for "Another Day of Sun": Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (future writers of Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway)
Production designer: David Wasco (already the production designer for Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill)
Costumes: Mary Zophres
Editor: Tom Cross (Academy Award for Best Editing for Whiplash the previous year)
Camera: Panavision Panaflex Millennium XL2
Optics: Panavision C Series and E Series anamorphic lenses, with a 40mm lens custom-built by Panavision for a 9-inch focus distance (instead of the standard 3 feet)
Film stock: 35mm (with a sequence in 16mm anamorphic for another scene in the film)
Format: CinemaScope 2.55:1 - the aspect ratio of the 1950s (and not the current 2.39:1), a deliberate choice to evoke Beau fixe sur New York (It's Always Fair Weather, 1955)
Actors (opening sequence): over 100 anonymous dancers; Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) appear in the background at the end of the shot
Filming location: ramp connecting the carpool lanes of highways 105 and 110 (downtown Los Angeles)
Parking lot preparation: 5 days of rehearsals in a San Fernando Road parking lot with a quarter of the cars and all the dancers
Filming: 2 days, August 2015, closed by the California Highway Patrol for a weekend
Number of takes: 25 to 27 during principal photography, chasing the light
Duration of the analyzed shot: approximately 6 minutes (3 shots combined)
Total film budget: $30 million
Worldwide box office: $443 million
Film awards: 7 Golden Globes (an all-time record for a single ceremony), 14 Oscar nominations in 2017 (tied with Titanic and All About Eve), 6 Oscars including Best Cinematography for Sandgren, Best Original Score for Hurwitz, Best Original Song for "City of Stars", Best Director for Chazelle, Best Actress for Stone, and Best Production Design for Wasco
A traffic jam on a Los Angeles freeway off-ramp. Dozens of drivers stuck under the California sun, windows down, radios tuned to different stations: country, hip-hop, salsa. A woman starts singing softly in her car. Then another gets out through the door. And suddenly, everyone is dancing on the hoods, between the doors, in the middle of the road, on the roofs of trucks. More than 100 dancers in primary colors move in coordinated motion to the song "Another Day of Sun." The camera glides over the cars, dives between the dancers, soars and falls, without ever cutting. Six minutes of seemingly continuous movement. When the music stops, everyone gets back in their cars, as if nothing had happened. The horns start honking again. Mia and Sebastian haven't met yet, but you're already in their world
Why this scene is iconic
What's striking is the contrast. You're on a highway, one of the least poetic places imaginable, and in a matter of seconds, everything shifts into pure musicality. Chazelle doesn't ask your permission. He doesn't prepare the ground. He throws you into the artifice from the very first image and forces you to accept the rules of his universe: here, people sing and dance when they feel like it. If you go along with it, the rest of the film works. If you tune out, it's over. The opening is a test and a contract made with the viewer from the very first shot
The choice of the faux continuous shot heightens the stakes. No editing to soften the blow. No cuts to catch your breath. You're either in or you're out. This is precisely the strategy Iñárritu had applied two years earlier in Birdman (another Oscar winner for Best Picture that opens with a faux continuous shot), but Chazelle completely reverses it: where Iñárritu rejects cuts to trap the viewer in the mental hell of an actor, Chazelle rejects cuts to immerse you in joy. The long take is no longer a tool for creating tension; it has become a tool for celebration.
And then there's the production gamble. In 2016, financing an original musical—that is, one with never-before-heard songs, set to jazz that studios considered a "definitively extinct genre"—was sheer folly. Hurwitz and Chazelle wrote the screenplay at Harvard, moved to Los Angeles together in 2010, and spent five years finding a studio. It was the success of Whiplash in 2014 that finally got the project off the ground at Summit. The opening scene on the highway is the film's leap of faith: if it works, the gamble pays off. If it fails, the film has no chance.
How they filmed it
The sequence required six months of preparation. Chazelle and choreographer Mandy Moore began by rehearsing in a San Fernando Road parking lot with a quarter of the cars and 100 dancers, filming each rehearsal on an iPhone. This iPhone montage became, according to Chazelle, "our bible." Five days of parking lot rehearsals, then direct transfer to the highway.
The shot was initially intended to be filmed entirely with a Steadicam. But when the crew discovered the actual location—the ramp connecting the carpool lanes of Highways 105 and 110—a problem arose: a central concrete barrier prevented the Steadicam from crossing from one lane to the other. Sandgren had to rethink the entire setup and switch to a telescopic crane for the movements above the cars. A new problem arose: in the blazing August sun of Los Angeles, the crane cast its shadow in the frame. It was impossible to avoid this in a truly continuous shot
The solution is documented by Sandgren himself: "It was a technical puzzle. We kept the idea of movement, but at certain points we had to position ourselves behind the dancers instead of in front. To deal with the shadows, we divided the scene into several takes and masked the cuts with the whip pan technique. For the viewer, it's the illusion of a single take, as Damien Chazelle wanted." The sequence is therefore three shots assembled using two whip pans (rapid pans where the camera sweeps horizontally so quickly that the blurred image masks the cut). The first cut is at 3 minutes, the second at 4 minutes 45.
The first two shots are filmed entirely on cranes. The third begins with a Steadicam, Ari Robbins running between cars for about a minute, then switches to a homemade crane built specifically for the final high-angle shot of the dancers. The same technique of hidden cuts in whip pans is used 68 years after Hitchcock pioneered it in Rope, but on a completely opposite subject: collective joy instead of concealed murder.
Everything was shot on 35mm film using a Panavision Panaflex Millennium XL2 camera, in CinemaScope 2.55:1, the aspect ratio of the 1950s (not the current 2.39:1). Sandgren explained to MovieMaker Magazine that Chazelle wanted to recreate the look of It 's Always Fair Weather (1955) and MGM musicals from the golden age. The lenses are Panavision C Series and E Series anamorphic lenses, chosen for their classic Hollywood feel. A technical constraint: these lenses have a minimum focusing distance of 3 feet (approximately 90 cm), problematic for the close-ups Chazelle wanted to incorporate into the choreography. Panavision then custom-built a 40mm anamorphic lens to allow focusing at 9 inches (approximately 23 cm). This unique lens was used for the film's tightest shots.
The dress rehearsal on the highway was a disaster. Chazelle admitted as much to TheWrap: "The crane can't move like an iPhone. The choreography looked different, the slope of the ramp created other problems. Everything was complicated. With gusts of wind hitting the cranes, we didn't want the camera to hit a dancer or a car or lose focus." The crew left, recalibrated, and returned two weeks later for the actual shoot, this time with Gosling and Stone among the dancers in the background of the final take.
The California Highway Patrol only closed the off-ramp, not the main highways. The regular lanes remained open, and real traffic is visible in the background during the performance. This detail grounds the act in reality and prevents the scene from veering into pure fantasy: the Hollywood dream unfolds alongside a genuine traffic jam
The first day of shooting was ruined by clouds; it's difficult to film a song called "Another Day of Sun" without sunshine. The crew shot 25 to 27 takes in the full light of magic hour (the golden late afternoon sought after by all directors of photography), chasing the light with each take. Chazelle summed up the invisible work to TheWrap: "My dancers that you don't see are a phenomenal crane operator and a phenomenal Steadicam operator. They were as choreographed as anyone else in the frame. "
What to observe when reviewing it
At exactly 3:00 and 4:45, spot the two hidden cuts. The camera performs a quick whip pan that masks the edit. Once you know where they are, you can't miss them. The technique is exactly the same one invented by Hitchcock for Rope, transposed 68 years later and with a completely different subject matter.
Real traffic in the background. The regular highway lanes were not closed. Behind the dancers, real cars were driving. This detail anchors the performance in reality and prevents the scene from veering into pure fantasy, a typical directorial choice by Chazelle who constantly blends social realism (failed auditions, dead-end jobs) and the Hollywood dream throughout the film.
The final shot, the last high-angle shot, shows Robbins running between cars with a Steadicam, then climbing a makeshift crane. The movement shifts from intimate (among the dancers) to panoramic (above everyone). It's the transition between "I'm in the party" and "I'm watching the party," the same emotional movement as the entire film. It's also the most direct homage to Busby Berkeley's high-angle shots in 1930s musicals (42nd Street, Footlight Parade).
Did you know?
Hurwitz and Chazelle: A Harvard Friendship. Composer Justin Hurwitz was Damien Chazelle's classmate and roommate at Harvard. They moved to Los Angeles together in 2010 and spent five years trying to find a studio to finance an original jazz musical. It was the success of Whiplash (2014) that finally got the project off the ground at Summit Entertainment. For "Another Day of Sun," Hurwitz worked with lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who would later write the Dear Evan Hansen . The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the same ceremony where "City of Stars" (another Hurwitz/Pasek/Paul song from the same film) also won.
The 2.55:1 CinemaScope aspect ratio, a secret signature: The entire film is shot in 2.55:1, the original 1950s CinemaScope aspect ratio (not the contemporary 2.39:1 standard). This format is no longer available in period equipment. Chazelle had the entire chain reconstructed via Panavision. This is what gives the film its ultra-widescreen silhouette, unlike anything you've seen before in 2016. A direct reference to * The Beautiful Days in New York* (Donen-Kelly, 1955).
The acknowledged Boogie Nights influence: The crane-Steadicam transition that punctuates the visual style of La La Land is a direct borrowing Boogie Nights , an influence Chazelle has publicly acknowledged. Sandgren also cited Jacques Demy (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Young Girls of Rochefort) as a key reference for the color palette. And the overhead shot draws inspiration from Busby Berkeley.
The calibrated lens flares : Every lens flare in the film is intentional and controlled. Sandgren used them to signal the moments when characters transition from reality to dream. This is also why he insisted on shooting on 35mm film: a digital sensor would not have reproduced the optical signature of the anamorphic lenses of that era.
Six Oscars, 14 nominations, one cursed envelope. The film won six Oscars at the 89th Academy Awards in 2017 (Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Production Design), out of 14 nominations, tying the all-time record held by Titanic and All About Eve. It should have won seven: at the ceremony, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway mistakenly announced La La Land as Best Picture, before it was corrected to Moonlight. The "Another Day of Sun" sequence has become one of the most-played moments in recent Oscar history and the clip shown during the Best Picture announcement.
The Invisible Man Behind the Camera: David Wasco. Production designer David Wasco, already responsible for the sets of Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill (the entire Tarantino trilogy up to that point), had the idea of having Sebastian drive an 80s Buick Riviera. The planetarium projector for the Griffith Observatory scene was found secondhand on eBay, a genuine vintage Minolta, the same model as the one used in Rebel Without a Cause (1955).
Sources
TheWrap - Steve Pond, "La La Land High-Flying Highway Opening Scene: How'd They Do That?" (December 2016)
IndieWire – “La La Land Crafts Roundtable: Making a Neo-Classical Hollywood Musical” (December 2016)
IndieWire - “Damien Chazelle Mapped Out La La Land Opening Scene On His iPhone” (February 2017)
MovieMaker Magazine - Paula Schwartz, "The Camera is a Dancer: DP Linus Sandgren Walks Us Through How He and Damien Chazelle Shot La La Land" (January 2017)
Deadline - Interview with Linus Sandgren (February 2017)
Kodak - "Shot in CinemaScope, La La Land vibrantly romances the olden days" (2017)
SBIFF - La La Land profile with quotes from Sandgren
No Film School - "What You Can Learn from the Cinematography of La La Land"
Rolling Stone - Peter Travers, review of La La Land (December 2016)
Wikipedia France - La La Land (film) (Sandgren quotes)
Wikipedia - La La Land (awards and production)
Vocal Media - Behind-the-scenes Ari Robbins (Instagram)
Read also
Birdman (2014) long take – Two years before La La Land, Iñárritu and Lubezki had won an Oscar for Best Picture with a seemingly continuous 119-minute shot. Chazelle adopts the same grammar but completely reverses the intention: a continuous shot for collective joy instead of a mental trap.
The long take in Rope (1948) – The historical blueprint for the faux long take. In 1948, Hitchcock invented the principle of cuts hidden within visual obstacles. Sandgren applies the exact same principle in 2016, using whip pans instead of dark backs.
Boogie Nights (1997) long take – Chazelle directly acknowledges the influence of Paul Thomas Anderson on the crane/Steadicam transitions. Anderson is another contemporary master of the choreographed long take, and Chazelle makes no secret of it.
True vs. False Long Takes - The Complete Guide - The whip pan technique used by Sandgren to conceal the two seams in "Another Day of Sun" explained step by step: why the rapid pan remains, 78 years after Hitchcock, the best tool for invisible transitions.
