LA LA Land Case study (Comedy) ~ Charles Shoemaker

 Charles Shoemaker 

La La Land 2016 – Damien Chazelle 

Camera Angles 

• The scene starts off with a worm eye view of the sky 

• The camera angle then transitions to a tracking shot of stopped cars 

• Once manually taken off the track, the camera moves through nearby cars (with a Steadicam) to create a zoom in shot on the subject that is singing in her car with the window down. 

• After the subject gets out of her car the held hand camera dolly's out backwards smoothly until it stops when her full body is in frame to form a clean long shot 

• Once stopped with the subject in the middle of the frame, two more subjects come out of their cars and land beside her creating a clean 3 shot.  

• As the camera dolly's out with the 3 main subjects still in view, more people continuously come into frame ultimately formulating a clean wide shot. 

• Suddenly a whip pan shot reveals what is happening behind the subjects. 

• A clean wide shot camera angle is shown featuring multiple new subjects all in frame 

• As one subject comes out of her car a push in angle is used, then immediately after a pull-out angle is exercised.  

• During the pull-out angle mentioned above, another subject comes out of the same car and the camera tracks him (still with a handheld camera using a stabilizer) as he walks around the car. 

• As the subject walks around the car, he opens the door letting another subject out into view. Once let out, they both jump on top of the car, as the camera stays beneath the car, creating a low angle shot. 

• As the camera repositions, a different male subject comes into frame with another woman, a mid-shot occurs as he takes her off her feet. 

• As the 2 subjects pull away from each other, the camera zooms in between them. 

 

Reasons 

As the scene starts your attention is immediately directed to a clear blue sky signaling a cheerful and upbeat mood. Then the camera is angled down on a track to show bustling cars stuck on the highway, which contrasts with the mood that we experienced mere seconds before. Each car is like a short vignette of a character's persona; one could be all tensed listening to metal while one could be asleep listening to alternative music. As we inch closer to the car with our subject sitting in it (with the window down), the sounds of the highway quiet, which builds up anticipation for whatever is about to happen. An infectious melody abruptly starts playing and we see our subject humming to it. As we are now fully zoomed in, we share an intimate scene with her as she is singing about how she left a past lover. In this shot she takes off her sunglasses as she loosens her body, revealing how comfortable she was with him and how much she misses it. At the end of the verse she sings, “Cause I just knew”, and then promptly gets out of the car, signaling she just had an idea. (Still singing) The camera dolly's out as we watch her lean and fall over cars as she reminisces about him. With her body in full frame, we as an audience can tell that our attention is directed only at her. Suddenly, however, two men get out of cars on the opposite side of her and join her musical ballad of past love, this can help to contribute that the theme is universal. In my opinion, I think that the traffic jam they are experiencing symbolizes their past lover holding them back instead of following their dreams into the future. A whip pan shot occurs, showing the length of the traffic jam, and more people getting out of their car and singing with beaming smiles on all of their faces. A push in shot is used on a subject getting out of her car, for the purpose of showing her positive attitude and body language. Everyone in this opening scene is acting the exact opposite way a normal person would act being stuck on a highway in LA. A male subject gets out of the car as we track him opening up (the same car) door letting out another woman. He takes her on top of the car as they dance. The audience is getting a low angle of this shot which symbolizes the power that they feel, the power that comes from happiness (and dancing). Instantly, a man whips his partner off her feet into an embrace, which shows a highlight difference between everyone else (as everyone else is single singing about their love). This all immediately makes sense in the next shot, as they pull away from each other and the camera zooms in between them showing more people on the highway of lost love.