Another Day of Sun  is the opening musical number to Damien Chazel’s La La Land, which as a film itself has some of the most beautiful non-naturalistic lighting moments in modern cinema (in my opinion). Many critics and students know the scene for the fact that the crew shut down a freeway ramp in Los Angeles for three days to record the scene. Most notably one of the things that I find amazing about the scene is the way the scene is lit, almost exclusively with available light. With the exception of the close up shots that get very close to the actors in the cars. These shots could have been filled by some on camera light or a very diffused bounce light from a grip just out of shot, one of the extraordinary things is just how many crew members and moving parts the scene took to complete.

The cinematography is incredible, the way the camera ducks and weaves through traffic and cars in a complex, choreographed way that is reminiscent of the old 30s and 40s Hollywood musicals. To achieve the scene, Chazel moves the camera from a technocrane to a steadicam and back onto yet another technocrane to finish the scene in a one-take. One of the most important considerations of this scene is the way in which Chazel originally conceived the scene in the morning but due to the way in which the clouds and fog were causing the morning to be glory and overcast, the scene’s photography had to be postponed until noon. This was due to the unique relationship Chazel wanted to create between lighting and story. The song is called Another Day of Sun and could therefore not have been shot on an overcast morning.

Chazel’s original intention was to have the glaringly hard, sunlight used as the primary key light in the scene and use the predominantly white freeway ramp to create a fill from underneath the actors. Overall the noon lighting creates a hard, sunny glare that helps to emphasise the way in which Chazel feels about Los Angeles and helps to add another layer of depth to his love letter to the city of stars.