If there's one film that walked out of 2016 a clear winner, it's La La Land. Damien Chazelle's Whiplash follow-up has been earning awards nominations faster than you can count 'em. The film did a clean sweep at the Golden Globes, where it took home all seven awards it was nominated for, dominating the Musical or Comedy category. It also earned eight Critics Choice Awards, eleven nominations at the BAFTAs, and most recently 14 Oscar nominations. That ties up Chazelle's love letter to Los Angeles with All About Eve and Titanic for the most Oscar nominations for a single film.

Heck, as Saturday Night Live pointed out last week, the film has become such a big part of the conversation that not loving La La Land has become a cultural crime of sorts. But despite the inevitable backlash, La La Land is one of those delightful awards circuit hits that matches up to the hype. There's a reason the film didn't just sweep the main category nominations at the Academy, it also locked down a whole heap of the technical ones thanks to exceptional craftsmanship at every turn -- from the performances to the directing, costuming, set decorating, choreography, cinematography, and camerawork, every department on La La Land is delivering A-Game material.

Which is why it's so cool to get an unpolished glimpse into how it all came together on set. Steadycam operator Arri Robbins shared some behind-the-scenes videos on Instagram (h/t /Film) showing off some of the camerawork behind the film and offering some pretty neat insight into how those gorgeous shots were captured. There's a look at how they shot the instantly iconic freeway-set opening number, clips of how they captured the second musical sequence "Someone in the Crowd", and most interesting, how they did the whip pans when Ryan Gosling's playing in the jazz club. I love that Chazelle keeps the camera on rhythm through something a simple as well-timed shoulder taps, which is a pretty cool demonstration of how musicality infuses every part of La La Land's filmmaking.