Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
La la land and captain fantastic - Coggle Diagram
La la land and captain fantastic
Cinematography
OPENING - 'ANOTHER DAY OF SUN'
Wide shots
Establish the scale and showcases choreography
Also helps to show the vastness of the city
There is an over the shoulder wide shot near the end of the sequence - yellow dress lady
Shows how wide scale the traffic and the city are
helps to establish that it is a musical film
Whip pans
Keeps the flow of the number
keeps it upbeat and joyful and faced paced without pulling the spectator out of the number
Eye level shots and steadicam used
These create flowing movements at eye level
creates involvement for the spectator as we feel like we are dancing with them
Creates a feeling of togetherness that not just the people/ dancers in the cars are together but we are too
Makes us feel joy towards dancing and the creative arts - main theme of the film, its what both sebastian and mia are striving towards
'A LOVELY NIGHT'
Long/ extended takes for the dance sequence
The takes are unbroken - links to unbroken realities and magic
This is the beginning of their relationship really - the beginning of the magic that comes along with love. Could say that this actually belongs to the fantasy world then and is the first indication that their relationship wouldn't work.
The long takes are a homage to Hollywood musicals of the 30's, 40's and 50's
These long takes would allow the spectator to fully appreciate the choreography and skills of dancers like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in TOP HAT and Gene Kelly in SINGIN IN THE RAIN
Chazelle employs the same along with also the commonly used extended tracking and crane shots to pay an homage to old Hollywood - a love letter - and uses the same techniques for the same purposes: to make the camera feel like one of the dancers, therefore creating a more immersive and emotive experience for the audience
Long takes also feel escapist and exhaling to the audience
Widescreen format
panavision
SEB ON PIANO - NOT SO MEET CUTE
Sharp dolly to the boss before he fires him
Signals the suppressed violence of the confrontation
This ruins the romantic 'love at first sight' moment
their love at first sight moment being ruined sets the tone for their later relationship and foreshadows their ultimate failure to be together
This is in contrast to A LOVELY NIGHT in that this is the stark reality of the world, there is no magic here and yet both of them signal the failing of their relationship - forever doomed
Shot reverse shot between Mia and Seb
This creates a connection between the two characters
Tracking behind Mia as she walks up to Seb
We empathise and are aligned with her anticipation
however, the earlier connecti9on established and her excitement is quickly broken when he barges past her
This is used to indicate that this film isn't the picture perfect depiction of romance and that it challenges the conventions of a romance film.
Contexts
Mise en scene
the title of the film puns on Los Angeles (LA), the nickname for Hollywood and the idiom for being lost in dreams (a core theme)
The production design reflects this using a mixture of typical LA locations from the gritty (vast congested freeways) to the romantic (Griffiths Observatory), often repainting or lighting the less pretty locations in a way that creates a dream-like Technicolour atmosphere.
OPENING 'ANOTHER DAY OF SUN'
Location is just a normal freeway that is very congested
Not a particularly pretty or inspiring location which is worsened by the fact that the traffic is heavy
Adding the dance number and the happy sounding song plus the bright colours, it changes people's perception of the place and encourages us to look at it in a different light
Showcases how LA is this completely amazing place to aspiring people and how even the smallest things are appealing to them because they are blinded by possibilities
old fashioned musical but grounded in reality
Costumes are bright in primary colours - green, red, yellow and blue to represent the fantastical world
The clothes perhaps highlight the drivers' real emotions as all they wish to do is escape reality and express their feelings through movement and dance.
The clothes are also in stark contrast to the typical business attire and suits of people's everyday workplaces
Again highlights the differences between Hollywood and LA and everywhere else
Spectators around the world can relate to the humdrum nature of the workplace and the faced-paced stress of everyday life
The theme of escaping reality has the ability to share an air of familiarity across international audiences providing everyone with a sense of relatability
CITY OF STARS
Mia and sebastian are encircled in a green hue
could signify a new development for sebastian's path and his dream to open his own jazz club
Could also highlight mia's envy as she struggles to find her place in her own path while she witnesses sebastian's coming success
GRIFFITHS OBSERVATORY
Scene features blue screen and wires
Blue screen allows for effects like floating in the air
creates the feeling that they are now completely detached from reality
Following them as they fall in love - head in the clouds
this is the first point where they get completely emersed in the fantasy/dream
first marker of them falling in love
creates surrealist feeling
Another indicator that their relationship perhaps won't work - love is too far out of reach, too surreal
this is a fantasy driven romance
starry sky makes the scene feel dreamy and mirrors the characters feelings
Special effects: in camera
Visual effects: post production
END FANTASY MONTAGE
Seb and Mia are pulled through a 'stage door'
The sign for the stage door clearly indicates that this has been filmed on a soundstage
reference to old hollywood movies that were mainly filmed on soundstages
There is a soundstage recreation of previous scenes e.g. fake freeway
Mise en abyme - when a film is self aware in production, draws attention to its own construction
the unrealistic sets, soundstages
This creates the feeling that their relationship is stuck in production - their relationship had to be built from the ground up emphasising how much of a fantasy it was
Also acknowledges its own production when it goes back and redoes scene from the film
It is recognising that it has done things unconventionally
the mise en scene in this montage differs from the rest of the film
white dress against bright backgrounds - opposite before
far more technicolour
very unrealistic - complete studio
cardboard props and surrealist sets e.g. watercolour painting look
total fantasy
this montage is bittersweet
They watch their lives on screen
old fashioned film - home movie
this is the life they could have had
brings us back to reality
Editing
DINNER ARGUEMENT
had only 4 angles to work with to build up repetition and make the spectator feek uncomfortable
the dreamers are facing reality and this scene is the anti-musical piece of the film
Lots of medium close ups
editing and cuts quicken as dialogue begin to overlap and quicken
editor = TOM CROSS
Sound
Performance
Meaning and response
Spectatorship- SPECIALIST AREA
Ideology - SPECIALIST AREA
Mise en Scene
Cinematography
Edititng
Sound
Performance
Meaning and response
Context
Spectatorship
Ideology