Analysis: The Opening Sequence from “La La Land” (2016)
By: Muhammad Faraz Malik
Most of the film opening scenes manage to fade away from our memories forever but some of them (very special ones) are able to get into our permanent memory and inspire us till eternity. Talking about a distinctive film opening, La La Land released in 2016 directed by Damien Chazelle had the kind of opening sequence that stirred nostalgia and critical commendation at the same time. The seemingly single shot, perfectly synchronized and vivacious musical opening does not fail to erect the feeling of rejoice and ‘wanting more’.
Drifting far away from the conventional ways of a musical film opening like Les Misérables and Oliver Twist, this musical perfection is more of a modern day like music video that has the potential to sweep all the VMAs. However, It is quite idiosyncratic of the director not to Introduce the characters in the music video. All the characters dancing flawlessly on the highway of La la Land (Los Angeles) are not introduced later in the film which does point towards the fact that the opening is rather very decorative in the film than significant regarding the storytelling.
But this definitely does not mean that it is completely useless and is there just for the sake of having a pretty and enchanting music video. To introduce us to the theme of the film, this music video plays a very considerable role for how the idea of the land of people who dream of making it big has been depicted. Los Angeles is the land of dreams regarding performing arts and films and having a very crafty artistic music video would contradict the lively idea of the land. It is undoubtedly artistic but between the line of impressively iconic and juvenile.
And now jumping into the details of the ‘Lively Music Video Opening’ I’ll jut praise the concept and camera angles since the catchy instrumental prevails all the latent flaws.
It all begins with an everyday like traffic jam and then the camera moves horizontally like that in dolly shots from one car to another one and they’re all of different and vibrant colors and we must notice that similar color shades have been used in the dresses throughout the film as well. Different sorts of cars of diverse colors make the opening as thrilling as the upcoming music. But an enormous crane must’ve been used here since the whole scene has been divided into two shots. YES TWO 😀 which is why I said ‘seemingly single shot’. But I’ll be talking about that cheating technique later since It’s not very hard to catch or comprehend. There is no music at this specific time of the scene and we hear cliched traffic sounds (horns, faded/distorted radio sound and engine roars) which why the sudden introduction of “Dun dun da da dun dun…” seems highly tempting.
After the catchy music prevails the traffic sounds, the camera moves closer towards a car and then more closer showing a woman initiating her solo singing part. The fact that the ensemble and collaborative group performance begins with a single person having her calm melodious proportion is very effective since the whole scene and music itself has ups and downs. After swishing out of her car, she starts solo dancing which is a mixture of break dance and ballet dance.
The symmetry must be praised here because not only is it hard to maintain, but it also makes the scene look satisfying especially in Musicals. Furthermore, the music hits the upper belt as the other drivers start jumping out of their own cars and join her. As more people join, the pace of music and camera and dance becomes faster and exciting. One minute and 27 seconds into the first shot is when the director used this not so discrete technique of making several divided shots seem like a single shot by blending it in a way that the audience is fooled (glad I wasn’t fooled).
As the camera moves exactly 180 degrees within 1 second, the two shots are connected together because it moves so swiftly that the details seem ambiguous. That is when most of the directors get the chance to connect two scenes together and save themselves from more work. This sacred cheating skill is also done when the frame gets darker or monochromatic due to closeup shot and then moves away giving the same effect like in Sia’s The Greatest music Video. I should’ve given a reference from a film but since both of these masterpieces include music and dance, I hope I get an edge. But the latter technique has not been used here.