The sun is beating down on a gridlocked Los Angeles freeway. You’ve been there. Maybe not on the 105-110 interchange specifically, but you’ve felt that soul-crushing stillness of traffic. Then, a woman starts singing.
Suddenly, people are leaping out of their Accords and Camrys. They’re dancing on roofs. The camera pans—seemingly without a single cut—across a riot of primary colors and soaring athletic choreography. This is the opening La La Land scene, technically titled "Another Day of Sun," and honestly, it shouldn’t have worked as well as it did.
It was a massive gamble for director Damien Chazelle. If the audience didn't buy into the magic in those first six minutes, the rest of the movie—a bittersweet jazz-infused romance—would’ve felt like a theater kid’s fever dream. Instead, it became a cultural touchstone.
The Logistics of Dancing on a Freeway
Let's get real about the scale of this. They didn't use a green screen. They didn't use CGI cars.
Production shut down a literal EZ-Pass ramp in Los Angeles for two full days. We're talking about the Judge Harry Pregerson Interchange. It’s 100 feet in the air. The wind was howling. The heat was pushing 100 degrees. The dancers weren't just performing; they were battling the elements on scorching hot metal car roofs.
Chazelle and choreographer Mandy Moore (not the singer, the legendary choreographer) rehearsed this for months in a parking lot using cardboard boxes to represent cars. They had to. The precision required for a "oner"—a long, continuous-looking shot—is insane. If one dancer slips or a camera operator trips over a side mirror at minute five, you start the whole thing over.
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There are actually three hidden cuts in the sequence, but they are stitched together so seamlessly that your brain registers it as one fluid movement. It creates this breathless energy. You’re trapped in the traffic with them, but then you’re flying.
Why Opening La La Land Matters for the Story
Most people think the opening is just a flashy musical number. It's actually a warning.
The song "Another Day of Sun" is deceptively upbeat. If you listen to the lyrics, they’re kind of heartbreaking. One singer talks about leaving a lover at a Greyhound station to pursue a dream that might never happen. Another mentions "the ghost of all the things I've done."
It’s the anthem of the striver.
By opening La La Land with this massive ensemble, Chazelle establishes that Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) aren't special—yet. They are just two more faces in a sea of thousands of people who moved to L.A. with a dream. In fact, they aren't even the stars of the opening. Mia is busy rehearsing lines and Sebastian is brooding over a cassette tape. They’re cranky. They flip each other off.
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It grounds the fantasy. It says, "The world is full of music, but these two are too stuck in their own heads to hear it."
The Technical Magic of the 6-Minute Shot
The camera work was handled by Linus Sandgren, who eventually won an Oscar for his work on the film. They used a Panavision camera on a specialized crane that had to weave between car doors and over the heads of dancers.
- The Color Palette: Look at the outfits. You see vibrant yellows, deep blues, and shocking reds. This was a deliberate nod to CinemaScope musicals of the 1950s, like The Young Girls of Rochefort.
- The Sound: Because they were filming on a windy freeway ramp, the singing you hear wasn't recorded live on the asphalt. The performers pre-recorded the vocals, but they had to perform with such intensity that you'd believe the sound was bursting out of them right there.
- The Stunt Work: Those aren't just "dancers." Some of those moves involve parkour and precision stunt timing. Jumping from a moving truck onto a sedan isn't exactly a standard ballet move.
Real-World Impact and the "La La Land" Effect
After the movie came out, that specific freeway ramp became a pilgrimage site. People still try to take photos there, which is incredibly dangerous and highly discouraged by the LAPD. Please don't do that.
But it changed how Hollywood looked at musicals. For a long time, the "movie musical" was considered dead or at least relegated to Disney animations. La La Land proved that you could take an old-school format, inject it with modern grit and realistic dialogue, and people would show up.
Interestingly, the sequence almost didn't make the cut. In early edits, Chazelle experimented with cutting it because he was worried it delayed the introduction of the main characters too much. Thankfully, he realized that the sequence sets the "rules" of the world. It tells the audience: "In this movie, people will sing. It will be beautiful. But the traffic is still real."
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Common Misconceptions About the Scene
I’ve heard people say the whole thing was filmed in one take. It wasn't. As mentioned, there are several "invisible" cuts. Usually, these happen when the camera pans quickly across a flat surface, like the back of a van or a person's shirt.
Another myth is that Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are dancing in the background of the big number. They aren't. They remain in their cars until the very end of the sequence when the music dies down and the "real" world resumes. This separation is vital for the film's theme of isolation in a crowded city.
How to Appreciate the Craft on Your Next Watch
If you're going back to watch the opening La La Land sequence again, keep your eyes off the center of the frame. Look at the people in the far background.
Every single person is in character. There’s a guy playing a trombone in the back of a truck. There are people doing backflips off-center. The sheer level of coordination required to make sure no one walked into the camera's path is staggering.
Actionable Insights for Film Buffs and Creators
- Study the "Whip Pan": If you're a filmmaker, watch how Sandgren uses fast camera movements to hide cuts. It’s a masterclass in editing within the frame.
- Listen to the Lyrics: Don't just get swept up in the melody. Analyze how the lyrics of "Another Day of Sun" foreshadow the film’s ending. The "shove them in the fridge" line about old photos is a direct nod to the sacrifices made for fame.
- Analyze the Color Story: Notice how Mia’s yellow dress later in the film mirrors the yellow seen in the opening. The film uses color to link Mia to the "dreamer" energy of the freeway.
- Appreciate the Silence: Notice how the music ends. It doesn't fade out; it’s cut off by the harsh sound of a car horn. It’s a jarring transition back to reality that defines the entire movie’s tone.
The magic of the opening isn't just that it’s big. It’s that it’s a lie that feels true. We know people don't dance on cars in L.A. traffic—they mostly just look at their phones and get annoyed. But for those six minutes, Chazelle makes you believe that maybe, just maybe, they could. That’s the power of great cinema. It takes a mundane, miserable experience and turns it into something worth singing about.