La La Land: Damien Chazelle explains how he made the film's jaw-dropping traffic jam dance number happen

'Over 100 dancers performing. A heat wave atop car tops...'

Venice Film Festival saw multiple award-contending films premiere, including the likes of Nocturnal Animals, Arrival, and Jackie, but none cause quite the same excitement among critics as La La Land.

Emma Stone came away from the event with the Best Actress award, while reviews were glowing, to say the least. One of the film’s jaw-dropping moments is an opening segment; a huge dance number on a freeway.

Speaking to Deadline at Toronto Film Festival, director Damien Chazelle, who also wrote the film and previously directed the incredible Whiplash, revealed the difficulties of capturing the 100-person scene on camera.

“It’s the easy pass ramp, connecting the 105 and the 110. They were able to close it down for two days, so we shot it back to back, Ryan [Gosling] and Emma were there for part of it, for their parts of the scene.

“It was over 100 dancers performing. A heat wave atop car tops, but we couldn’t exactly control the elements. It was kind of exhilarating. It had that live energy because of the long takes. It was scary but a lot of fun.”

Chazelle added that the cast and crew only had one dress rehearsal beforehand at the location, adding that it did not go to plan “but taught us a lot”.

“Otherwise, we were just rehearsing in parking lots on top of apple boxes. Still, once you’re up there with hundreds of dancers and cars and you only have a certain number of daylight hours to get it, you can only prepare so much.”

Two trailers for the film landed earlier this year. The film hits UK cinemas 13 January 2017.