La La Land: How was the opening scene turned?

Did you know ? The opening scene of La La Land is not at all a six-minute shot. It’s much more complicated than that. They tell you everything!
Everyone who has seen La La Land, you can find our review , certainly remember the fabulous opening scene, a contagious enthusiasm and a crazy choreography that never seems to stop. A formal engineering stage, the most connoisseurs have surely said, “that’s Clip” ! But in fact, no, not at all. The director and his film crews have actually cut the scene in three different planes : a cut to 3 minutes and another cut to 4 min 45. On the screen, however, you’d swear it’s a single plane . And to achieve this effect, there has been a long-term effort. “It was a technical puzzle. We kept the idea of the movement, but had at times to stay behind the dancers instead of before ” , in particular given the cinematographer Linus Sandgren to Indiewire . In the end, it took six months of preparation just for this six minute scene. And if you wanted to see what goes on behind the scenes, a video that compares the film and the shoot was published by Erolf Productions.
In an interview with EW , Damien Chazelle explained that the dancers had to repeat on Los Angeles parking lots, trying to limit the space to find the same dimensions as those of the highway. Yes, because to shoot the scene, it was close a ramp at the interchange connecting highways 105 and 110 in Los Angeles . They were therefore authorized only for two days. And once there, they have a little galley. “Previously I used my iPhone, but obviously it’s more complicated with a crane. There were loads of things we did not even think of. The steep slope of the highway is never flat. You have to deal with the heat, the sun that makes the roof of cars burning … And the wind was powerful. That’s why we decided to cut the clip into several levels ” , said the director. But if the shooting conditions were not easy, the result is amazing. And La La Land clearly deserves its worldwide success.