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When I first saw that a documentary about the Bellagio Hotel fountain show was going to be shown at
the festival I knew I had to see the film. Living in Las Vegas local residents rarely get to see the show
as much as tourist. Reading that these two friends had gotten together with the Wet Design Company
that oversaw the building, and original choreography of the fountains sounded very interesting.

The film does not disappoint in giving you a behind the scenes look at the Bellagio fountain show.
What is amazing is that the Bellagio Hotel and Wet Design Company agreed to let the two friends, of 6
years, Rebecca Romijn and Steve Willis choreograph a musical number for the fountain.

Willis (known more for his music videos) and Romijn (known more for her acting) got together one day
and thought how neat to choreograph a number for the Bellagio Hotel water show. They talked about it
for a few months and decided on the songs they thought would work. Then the hard part came, finding
out how to make their dream come true. Romijn made a comment on the Jay Leno show and the right
person say it and as they say the rest is history.

So Willis decided to document the entire process. Unlike most conventional documentaries that are
more historical in nature and subdued…this is anything but subdued. Two friends documenting
working on choreographing a musical number for the Bellagio Hotel fountains and taking their dogs
along for a trip that is humorous and interesting. They had no idea of what went into this process and
we all get to tag along with their dream of getting their musical number in the fountain show.

The audience sees the process and learns about what goes into making this dream happen with a
behind the scenes look along with Willis and Romijn. It took 4 days planning the one musical number in
the office with the programmer, and a week to work in Las Vegas at the Bellagio Hotel’s fountains.
Their dream came true and is now permanently in the fountain show at the Bellagio Hotel.

Willis told me later they learned about getting the rights to use music and how expensive it is for one
musical clip. That was a shock as they list the cost to use a short music clip of the other songs they
chose and the ones that were rejected by the rights owners. Willis said they almost did not get the
rights to use the song they chose to be used. That would have been sad as it is a beautiful piece and
works so well with their choreography.

Statistics are usually dull in documentaries, but Willis made them enjoyable in the way he presented
them on screen. He also made the trip so much more enjoyable with little subtitles and other
drawings/graphics. It is just a cute film and one that anyone could enjoy. I think they should sell it at
the Bellagio, as everyone would love it.

Steve Willis is a fun person to chat with and said he would like to do a feature film. He would even like
to do another documentary as he feels they allow reality into a film. I asked him if he would like to do a
musical, since his current work is more music related. He said he did not feel he could do a regular
musical as they are too confined. He likes reality in his films and would like to do a musical about a real
subject and have the music fit into the theme of the film.

If you are in Las Vegas and want to see the Bellagio Hotel fountain “Ecstasy of Gold” the musical
number they choreographed, contact the Bellagio hotel for the times the fountain shows are done.

It is worth the time to see the fountain here in Las Vegas!