“Things I Learned From Watching ‘La La Land’”

5 screenwriting lessons in this guest post from Lance Morgan.

I received an email from GITS reader Lance Morgan who not only enjoyed the wonderful new musical La La Land, written and directed by Damien Chazelle, but also gleaned 5 lessons for Lance’s screenwriting pursuits.

Things I Learned From Watching “La La Land”

Here are a few things I learned from watching La La Land that relates to my own screenwriting goals.

1. There’s a lot of talent out there.

In the opening number, we see a lot of talented people who are working hard for their dreams to come true. What does that mean for you? It’s means that you’re going to have to find a way for your voice to be heard because there are a lot of people with passion just like you. But if you have the passion and the drive, you will get your voice heard.

2. Get out of your comfort zone.

In the middle of the movie we see Mia do something out of her comfort zone with high risk and low chance of reward. Why did she do this? Because why not. Write that script that will probably never get made. Submit your script for the contest you might not win. Make a short film and post it online. There will always be reasons not to do something, but do it anyways.

3. Be Smart

In the film, Sebastian had to put his dreams of owning his own jazz club on hold for a while and join a band that played music he didn’t particularly like. It might not have been part of his master plan, but he did what he needed to do to achieve his goals. We all will have to do things we didn’t plan on doing, but to make it in this business, we have to be flexible and adapt to new circumstances, but as long as it will help us in the long run and we keep working towards our goals, it might be the smart move. Life is about being adaptable and so is screenwriting.

4. Never Forget Your Goals

In one of the more emotional moments of the film, Mia and Sebastian get into a fight about their careers. Mia tells Sebastian that he never wanted to play the music that his band played and that he was forgetting about his own dreams. Sebastian then tells her that no one wants to listen to the music he wants to play and that he probably couldn’t open his own club successfully. There were more things that happened in that scene, but we get the main gist of it. Sebastian did what all of us do when things are getting tough. There will be millions of times that we will find the dream too hard and think about bailing, but isn’t that what makes the dream so great. That we can one day look back and see how hard we worked and struggled to achieve our goals. However, to get to that place, we will need to keep moving forward and push through that doubt.

5. Surround Yourself With Positive People

One thing I especially loved in this film was how supportive every character was towards each other. Sebastian never missed a chance to let Mia know that she is amazing and talented and Mia never let Sebastian forget about his goals. Even her friend cheered her up after a failed audition and showed up to her one-woman show. People like this should be the type of people in your own life. Pessimism is a virus that, if you make contact with it, infects your attitude, so why allow that in your life at all. If Sebastian didn’t push Mia to trust her own writing and acting abilities, how would she have been noticed and eventually reached her goals. We all need support in our lives and we shouldn’t settle for anything less.

Fascinating how people take away different things from movies. Having lived in L.A. for 15 years, I got completely swept up in the story, not only a poignant tale of romance, but also an homage to working in the entertainment business. Lance had his own experience and came away with a solid advice for striving to break in as writers and relocate here:

What did YOU come away with when you watched La La Land? Oh, wait. You haven’t seen it yet? Get thee to thy local bijou! Support indie cinema and this fantastic film!

If you HAVE seen the movie, what are your reflections about it? Would love to see your RESPONSE.

Twitter: @lmo678, @LaLaLand.