All language subtitles for Module 33

And now

let's look at the dramatic
opening of La La Land.

Damien
Chazelle had thought the movie would begin

with a very long main title sequence.

He started would begin
with the studio logo,

summit pictures starting,

and then it would go

into the titles of the movie

starring Ryan Gosling starring Emma Stone.

Edited by Tom Cross.

Directed by Damien Chazelle.

And it was going to be almost like
an overture.

Damien wanted it
to be like an old fashioned

musical movie, like West Side Story
or The Sound of Music.

And a lot of those movies
would begin with an overture

where music would play over black
or over some type of

some type of abstract imagery.

So he wanted to emulate that.

So originally we had a beautiful palm

tree set against this nighttime sky,

and it was kind of abstract
but very beautiful.

And we had all these titles
and this beautiful overture music

written by Justin Hurwitz.

It was important to Damien
because all of Justin's

melodies throughout the movie
would be played during this overture.

So the overture would
basically give you a road map

to all the musical themes that were going
to come later in the movie.

We couldn't figure out what was
what was really the problem

because we loved the overture.

So something about the traffic sequence
didn't work.

And so we.

It's funny to think of this,

but we actually removed
the traffic sequence of the movie.

So the way the movie started for
the longest time was it had this overture

and then it went into Emma Stone's

character on the freeway.

No musical number,

but we just cut to her on the freeway
and she's reading her lines.

And then Sebastian starts
honking behind her

and they have a little exchange,
and he gives her a dirty look

and she flips them the finger,
and then they go on their way,

and she goes to work at the coffee shop,
and then we follow their stories.

Well, it didn't really feel much of a
like a strong beginning,

something that Damien Chazelle
feels really strongly about.

He really likes to try to put
his best scene at the end of the movie.

The last scene should be the strongest
in the second strongest scene in the movie

should be the first, the first scene.

The problem we had is
we took out the musical number, which

didn't feel right, and all of a sudden
we had a very mediocre beginning.

It wasn't really much of a way
to start a movie.

You just had these two characters
on the freeway

and then they give each other the finger
and then that's it.

It wasn't exciting,
it wasn't cinematic, it wasn't daring.

And but we didn't know what to do
because the musical number felt.

Wrong.

There was something wrong about it.

The movie
and this number used to start with

introducing Mia and Sebastian first,

and then the camera panned around
and then people started

getting out of their cars
and they started dancing.

There was a musical number.

And then when the musical number was done,

we went back to Ryan
Gosling and Emma Stone.

What didn't make sense to us and to people
watching the movie, the rough cut

we found was that it didn't make sense
to introduce our characters

and then go away to other characters
for a musical number.

It seemed odd that Ryan Gosling and Emma

Stone were not participating
in the musical number.

It didn't make sense,
but we didn't know that right away.

We just knew that
the musical number had a problem.

It didn't work. People
it was people thought it was too

fake and
it was taking them out of the movie.

So our solution at first was to remove
the scene.

We even had a special preview screening

where we recruited 400 people
for an audience screening and

just to test a rough cut.

And we played it
without that opening musical number.

And our grades,
our scores were not very good.

And I can't help

but think that it was because
we had a very bad opening to the movie.

When we started thinking about what
the problem was that we realized

that there was a problem
with the original concept.

It wasn't that we edited it
incorrectly, it's

that the concept was flawed
before the idea that you introduced

your main characters,
then went away from them

for a musical number,
then went back to them.

What it required from us was, was

a lot of thinking outside of the box.

We really had to think hard
how we were going to fix this scene,

which hadn't been designed to go together.

So specifically, since it was all a single
supposed to be a single take.

There was no that's all he shot.

There was no coverage to cut to in order
to join the pieces together differently.

With the help of our visual effects team,

we had to come up with a solution

that would correct it.

Basically,
what we ended up doing is what you have

now in the movie, which is we start,
we introduce the freeway,

we start big , we start wide,
you have the musical number.

We present this as a world.

This is the world of Los Angeles.

It's a strange place.
It's a musical place.

Then the camera moves in
on our two main characters.

It goes from wide establishing to close.

That makes more sense.

The transition we made here.

We were able to join

and I told you the piece coming up after
the Lala Land title used to be part one.

Now it's part four of four pieces
that used to be part one.

So this right here was the supposed to be
the end of the

the musical number.

As it is now.

It is the end, but.

This really was the end before.

Title comes up.

And then after the title leaves,
the camera will go down.

So this was the end of the shot.

So somewhere in here,
the visual effects team

made a digital transition
to transition from

two different shots.

They had different cars in them.

They're very similar in composition.

The scene started with this upper wide,
and it ended

with this camera up as a single,
but they were not exactly the same.

So there is a transition here to. To

what used to be the first shot.

And in fact, if you take a close look,

if I can go backwards here.

If you take a close look at the cars

in front of Ryan Gosling's
car, the red car.

Red car.

This other car in front.

If we come around.

To his windshield.

By the time we come around here,
you see that there are different cars.

Because we've transition to a new shot.

This is this
is what used to be the opening shot.

So the visual effects team seamlessly
put these two things together,

something that you would think
would be almost impossible.

And that's something that I didn't do.

But we made the cut.

So when I did this,
I just made a rough cut because we

we were confident
that we could get them to make it work.

But the idea was we found the right order
to shuffle these pieces into.

And for that,
we really had to think outside of the box.

We had to we had to in a way, think

beyond our constraints.

And that's sometimes very difficult to do
because it's very easy

to look at something like this, especially
something as pre-planned is as this.

It's very easy to say we can't do that
because it's not supposed to be that way

or it's impossible.

How can we make this
cut happen? How can we make this work?

We had to.

We had to.

We had to imagine it.

We had to imagine and figure and
really think about what would make this.

What would solve this?

What would change the scene in a big thing
that would change it is the idea

of changing the concept instead of the way
it was originally designed.

Think of something different,
and that's what we had to do.

And so now the scene, really.

Felt like it was in the right order,

but we still had to have added
touch to it.

That it didn't have and.

That was to make this

to make this musical number.

Become kind of our overture in a way,

to become a separate little

piece before the actual movie starts.

And we did that

by not having the overture
with the title sequence.

We did away with that
because we figured the problem is not

we had started
to solve the traffic sequence.

That's not the problem in terms of length.

The problem is the overture.

We don't need that.

So we took that away
and now the movie starts the way it does.

But we the

final touch we added
was that we put the title here

at the very last part
of this musical number.

So when they close the doors.

We figured this was a good place

to put the title of the movie.

Uh huh.

And that creates a separation from this.

Thank you.

From this opening sequence,

our overture,
if you will, and the rest of the movie.

So any overt

stylization in terms of what the camera
does, in terms of the characters

who are dancing and singing, it becomes

acceptable to a certain extent.

It doesn't feel like.

It's so different
from the rest of the movie

because you're adding a separation.

You're adding a chapter break.

And that's what that title, by
putting the title there on that downbeat,

that's what that did.

And so I would say
that was the final touch for us

that said now that was the overture
and now we're going to move in

and begin our

real story with our real characters.

We started big,
we started wide, and now we're focusing in

on the two characters who are going
to lead you through the rest of the story.