The Bellagio fountain, at the center of the Vegas Strip, is the most iconic sight in Las Vegas. And Bellagio itself is considered the town’s quintessential old school, luxury property.

In the first brand work for Bellagio in over a decade, we depict a nostalgic ideal of Las Vegas that both visitors and locals yearn for but believe either no longer exists or was only a dream in the first place.

Where the Las Vegas of today is loud, boisterous, and hectic, the Vegas Strip of our film is romantic, charming, and leisurely.

Where the entire Strip today is a constant mass of tourists and gawkers, particularly in front of the fountains, ours miraculously belongs entirely to our sole character.

And where today’s Las Vegas caters to the masses with stadium seating in theaters and room for all in restaurants, here, our fountain performs entirely for an audience of one.

One quiet, lonely night, a man lost in thought wanders down the Las Vegas Strip. As he passes Bellagio, he stops to tie a shoe, and the hotel’s iconic fountain begins to playfully mimic and mirror the man’s every move. A magical, lighthearted interaction plays out as the man is drawn from his inner thoughts into this big, unbelievable, surreal moment. Seemingly in their world, the man and fountain engage in an increasingly joyful interaction until they're interrupted by passersby at the film’s climax. With a newfound smile on his face and a nod of appreciation to the fountain, the man walks happily on into the night.

In order to create the timeless, elegant look reminiscent of old Hollywood and Italian cinema (both of which are very Bellagio in tone), we chose to shoot in black and white, and between dusk and dawn on an empty, wet-down Vegas Strip. Lensing and framing were chosen to help the setting feel both massive and intimate - the fountain, which is quite large and rather far from the sidewalk where our actor was performing, would need to feel as though it were right there in front of the actor it was interacting with. We used cranes to imitate the fountain’s POV as it rises above the character below. And found angles and shots that allowed us to show the interplay between character and fountain without revealing the other hotels surrounding our location.

First, the massive, spectacular performer that is the Bellagio fountain had to appear small, playful, and restrained to mimic the movements of a human actor. This meant weeks-long discussions and experiments with the fountain’s sole technical operator (he has a little control station hidden in a background tower) to map out a choreography that both actor and fountain could perform.

And second, the busiest stretch on the Vegas Strip had to something it hadn’t since the filming of Ocean’s 11 two decades ago: it had to be quiet and completely deserted. Let’s just say strings were pulled, permits were pushed through, crowds were rerouted, and the incredible traffic noise of the Strip didn’t make the final mix.

Editorial timing was the key to building the on-screen relationship and interplay between the lone actor and this massive fountain. We needed to establish that this man was lost in thought, and that the fountain itself slowly teased playfulness and happiness from him, culminating in a perfectly matched crescendo. Each “move” in the film was shot dozens of times and from multiple angles, and it was in the edit that the sequence of events was finalized.