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“It’s expensive to shoot in Los Angeles,” says La La Land’s location assistant manager, Tristan Daoussis. With this in mind, you can imagine the permit price to shut down the 105/110 busy freeway interchange for two (very hot) days to film the opening dance sequence. But such was film life for director Damien Chazelle and the cast and crew of a film he never thought he’d get to make. To put it into perspective, 44.2 million people visited Los Angeles in 2015 so shutting down a main highway is a big deal. Here, we take you through the different film locations. And with a monstrous 14 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, the locations and designs – even those lampshades on the wharf as Mia and Sebastian dance – play a huge role in the winning aesthetic. So should Daoussis walk on stage to win if the film is awarded that honour? “Well…,” he smiles. “It’s a team effort.”
Mount Hollywood Drive
Emma Stone (who, for the uninitiated plays struggling actress Mia) and Ryan Gosling (who plays jazz evangelist Sebastian) practised for six weekends in a row on Mount Hollywood Drive on a paved hillside street in Griffith Park. The location overlooks the Valley called Cathy’s Corner and producers brought in a park bench and lampshades as Mia and Sebastian danced to the film’s original track A Lovely Night. And Daoussis says Stone and Gosling shot the entire scene is one take. If you find yourself in LA, it’s well worth the hike to look out over the sprawling Hollywood Hills – and to get there, you have to go through the River Road tunnel where Marty rides his hoverboard in Back To The Future Part 2. There’s 85 kilometre networks of hiking tracks so Nikes are a must.
La La Land’s location manager showing journalists a tour of Mount Hollywood Drive
Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank
The place where they freeze celery and snap it to create the sound of a bone break, this is the filming mecca for hundreds of films and televisions shows. It’s also home to the set of the coffee shop where Mia works to pay for her rent (in between auditions). According to The Los Angeles Times, the café is fictional and was a lot that had to be remodelled with lots of pictures of famous actresses like Lucille Ball on the walls. If you look closely, right across the street is the window used in the film Casablanca. You can tour Warner Bros. Studios daily, go inside sets and learn about the deconstructing of one set and transformation into another because, Hollywood are recyclable-friendly that way.
Griffith Observatory
The film crew had to shoot the dance sequence around the Foucault pendulum and then the scene where Mia and Sebastian float through the air inside the planetarium in just one day. It was a Monday in fact, the observatory was closed to the public and food trucks were brought in especially. And then, crew members lifted a really heavy bench down the hillside, left of the observatory where they filmed that heartbreaking scene where Mia and Sebastian were contemplating their future together. You can visit the exact film scene here.
Credit: Discover LA
Chateau Marmont
Situated within the walls of this fairy-like hotel is Chateau Marmont’s restaurant. Antique-clad, the 1920s castle-style hotel is a place for regular celebrity-spotting (no cameras are allowed though, we quickly learnt!). In the film, when Mia makes it as a big-star, we see flashes of her here. Go for breakfast and try the Huevos Rancheros for US$23 – fried eggs, tortilla, queso, fresco, avocado, salsa.
Credit: Discover LA
Smoke House Restaurant
The scene where Seb gets fired for tinkering with the choruses of Christmas carols (in favour of jazz arrangements) is a poignant one. And it was filmed right here. The Smoke House restaurant is right across the road from Warner Bros. Studios. If you’re looking for a great jazz bar in Los Angeles though, head to Catalina Bar and Grill on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. It boasts ‘top names in mainstream and contemporary jazz’ and has a real, intimate supper club.
Special thanks to Discover LA.
