On every film shoot, you expect things to go wrong. It’s the nature of filmmaking. In our case, the culprit was the star performer, the character featured in not just pretty much every shot of the film, but in the actual title. Yes, the fountain, the marquee idol of the production, would do anything, it seemed, to get out of its contract.

 

What happened? On day one of shooting, the fountain was a total pro, flowing water and crying on cue -- well actually, constantly gushing. Very loudly. It was ready for its close-up all day long. When Hedia Anvar called action, the fountain was already in the moment, performing as well as any starlet on track for a three-picture deal.

 

Nobody expected that by the end of the twelve-hour turnaround for next day's shoot, our starlet would go full diva on us.

 

On day two of shooting, our method actor went from a spot on impression of Niagara Falls to a miniature zen fountain in a home goods store's half-off section.

 

Sure, there was an on/off switch hidden in the center of the fountain piece, but fiddling with it resulted in barely a dribble. There were no two ways about it, our fountain had lost its motivation. Instead of nailing every take, it filled an entire blooper reel, working for seconds at a time and in the end shutting down completely.

 

What to do?

 

What else -- keep shooting. We kept turning it off, letting it take five and hoping when we turned it back on, it would make Meryl herself proud. Instead, somebody’s agent was going to get an earful. At any given time, the amount of water flowing was a fraction of what it was on day one.

 

Like the meme says,”You had one job!”

 

It took the wind out of our sails knowing in more than half the shots of our movie, the fountain would visibly not be working -- a continuity nightmare and massive distraction.

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Lucky for us, with a bit of green screen and the kindness of Dawn Suskin who approved our extended use of the location, you'd never know (we hope) that several of the spurting fountain shots were filmed weeks later to be digitally placed over our once temperamental star.

 

Shooting on 4K was the best decision we made, saving us in post and allowing us to manipulate hi-res footage. Props to Gavin Stokes for the FX chops, and to Nathan Van Hala for taming the sound of that Prima Donna fountain -- when it deigned to work -- and blending it seamlessly with clear dialogue.

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Speaking of unwanted sound and Murphy's Law when it comes to filmmaking, did we mention the guy with the leaf blower doing the worst unsolicited background/extra work ever? Yeah, you can forget about that union voucher, buddy!

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- Dimo