La La Land And Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Over the last few years, we have seen a rise in musicals in cinema that have been on par with the films of the past were responsible for the genres rise in film history. These films and shows are original, revolutionary, but also keep intact the traditional conventions and styles at the heart of the genre. Two bodies of work that represent this rise are La La Land and crazy ex-girlfriend. The musical genre uses two major elements of film which are sound and movement such as dancing, singing, and music to express intense emotion. These characters often break the fourth wall when they start to sing and dance, they also use mise-en-scene and lighting to exaggerate and emphasis portions of the film. By doing this these stories challenge the boundaries
In both La La Land and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend mise en scene plays a factor in the story. In Crazy Ex-Girlfriend when our main character, Rebecca, has her moment of anxiety, the set design uses an ad about being happy to push the narrative towards Josh the one person in the story that makes her happy, that makes her heart flutter and fill with love. It does quite literally by having a sign fall slightly and pointing directly at him. But what I believe is the most common visual motif in both works is the use of spotlights and low key
Many times when characters are singing and dancing in these films they often look directly into the camera as if they are singing directly to the audience. Also, the music begins to play and the mise en scene tends to change. This happens often in La La Land when Mia or Sebastian begins to sing a stylistic change occurs as either light begin to dim, pieces of the set moves or even an overall tonal shift. In Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, at times during her songs, she asks questions mostly rhetorical ones but they are directed towards the audience attempting to engage us with