Everything That Went Wrong Making Our Mermaid Movie (And How We Made It Work)

Making one in the Louisiana swamps, with underwater photography, unpredictable weather, wild animals, and only 11 days to shoot?

Well, that's a whole different kind of adventure.

When I set out to direct Erzulie, my independent feature about a group of women whose Louisiana getaway takes a supernatural turn, I knew we were going to have challenges.

We were making a low-budget movie with mermaids, water sequences, action, and some pretty ambitious locations.

But knowing something is going to be difficult and actually dealing with those difficulties are two very different things.

And let me tell you, things went wrong. A lot of things.

But looking back, some of our biggest production disasters also taught me the most valuable filmmaking lessons.

One of the biggest challenges happened during our finale.

We were filming in Louisiana, and our final sequence was supposed to take place on a beach.

We had planned out the scene, worked through the blocking, and figured out how we were going to execute everything.

Then the river flooded.

By the time we arrived for our final overnight shoot, approximately half of our beach was underwater.

Half.

Gone.

And we still had to shoot the finale.

We didn't have the luxury of postponing the shoot or waiting for the water to recede. We were already at the end of our 11-day schedule, and the money was running out.

So we did what independent filmmakers do.

We figured it out.

We redesigned the blocking, adjusted the action, and reworked the scene to fit the location we actually had instead of the one we'd planned for.

Was it ideal? Absolutely not.

But we made it work.

And the funniest part?

After we wrapped, the water eventually receded and the beach came back. 

Of course it did. What a big F U from queen mother nature.

The filmmaking lesson: You can plan every shot, every movement, and every detail, but you cannot control the environment. Sometimes your job as a director is to let go of the version you imagined and figure out how to make the version that's actually possible.

Here are some musings about what went wrong while filming ERZULIE.

When you're making a mermaid movie, there's one thing you probably need.

Underwater footage.

Seems obvious, right?

Unfortunately, our underwater photography was one of the things that didn't go according to plan.

Between location delays and equipment issues, including underwater pool lights that weren't working, we weren't able to capture everything we needed during principal photography.

And when you're working on a low-budget independent film, losing a shot isn't always something you can fix by adding another day to the schedule.

Sometimes the day is gone.

The crew is gone.

And the money is gone.

But the movie still needs those shots.

So what did we do?

We shot them ourselves.

Some of the underwater footage in Erzulie was actually filmed in a friend's swimming pool in Austin, Texas.

Not a studio tank.

Not some elaborate underwater facility.

A friend's pool.

It was green, which actually worked to our advantage because we were trying to match the murky look of the Louisiana water.

We rented an underwater camera and housing, gathered some friends, and spent a day capturing the footage we still needed.

I personally got into the water and held my breath to shoot some of those pickups.

We used that footage to help complete sequences from both the beginning and the climax of the movie.

And while it wasn't exactly how we'd originally envisioned filming those scenes, it gave us what we needed to finish the film.

This is something I talk about a lot with Get Reelisms.

Filmmakers sometimes get so caught up in what they don't have that they forget to look at what they do have.

You may not have a giant water tank or a massive visual effects budget.

But maybe you have a friend with a pool.

And maybe that's enough.

The filmmaking lesson: Don't confuse production value with production expense. Sometimes the right camera angle, lighting, framing, and editing can make an inexpensive solution work.

Another challenge was simply the environment.

We weren't shooting on a soundstage where we could control the temperature, the weather, or what might crawl into our set.

We were shooting in Louisiana.

In the swamp.

Which meant dealing with heat, humidity, mosquitoes, water safety, and wildlife.

Including snakes.

We had to think about things that productions working in controlled environments don't necessarily have to worry about.

How do we keep everyone safe around the water?

What happens if we encounter dangerous wildlife?

How do we protect the cast and crew from the elements?

How do we make sure people are properly hydrated when we're working in extreme heat?

We had to account for mosquito control, snake removal, and other safety considerations that weren't exactly glamorous, but were absolutely necessary.

One of the things I learned was that I should have budgeted significantly more for catering and hydration.

Honestly, I probably should have tripled that portion of the budget.

When people are working long days in the Louisiana heat, food and water aren't luxuries.

They're essential.

And when you're already stretching every dollar, it's easy to underestimate how much these things will cost.

The filmmaking lesson: Your location doesn't just affect your visuals. It affects your budget, schedule, safety protocols, and crew morale. Plan accordingly.

Not everything about the production was a disaster.

In fact, one of the smartest things we did was have an assembly editor working during production.

Our editor, Colby Doller, was able to start assembling footage while we were still shooting.

This turned out to be incredibly valuable.

Instead of waiting until we wrapped to discover that something was missing, we could get feedback while there was still an opportunity to do something about it.

Colby could identify missing shots, flag potential continuity issues, and help us understand whether the material we were capturing would actually cut together.

And on a production with only 11 shooting days, that kind of information is invaluable.

I think a lot of independent filmmakers treat editing as something that happens after production.

But editing is really part of the filmmaking process from the very beginning.

The camera captures the pieces.

The edit determines whether those pieces actually make a movie.

The filmmaking lesson: If you can find a way to have someone assembling footage during production, do it. Even reviewing rough assemblies can help identify problems before they become expensive fixes.

Here's another reality of independent filmmaking.

Sometimes you finish principal photography and realize you're not actually finished making the movie.

That's what happened with Erzulie.

We had completed our 11-day shoot, but we still had things we needed to capture and work we needed to do.

And our production budget was essentially exhausted.

We couldn't just bring the entire crew back together and shoot more days.

So we had to get creative.

That's where some of our DIY pickup shooting came into play.

Instead of trying to recreate a full production, we focused on what was absolutely necessary to finish telling the story.

Fortunately, one of our investors eventually reinvested in the project to help us continue through post-production.

And that taught me another important lesson.

You don't necessarily have to raise every dollar for every phase of a film all at once.

Sometimes you can finance production, get the movie into post, demonstrate what you've accomplished, and then find additional support to get it across the finish line.

Of course, that's not a guarantee, and it comes with its own risks.

But it's one way independent films can move forward when resources are limited.

The filmmaking lesson: Budget for the entire filmmaking journey, not just principal photography. And always leave room for the things you don't know you're going to need.

When I look back at Erzulie, I don't think the biggest lesson was about underwater photography, shooting in swamps, or even budgeting.

It was about adaptability.

As a director, you spend so much time preparing.

You create shot lists, storyboards, schedules, and plans.

You visualize how everything is supposed to come together.

And then you get to set.

The location changes.

The equipment doesn't work.

The weather doesn't cooperate.

You lose time. You lose money.

And suddenly you're making a different version of the movie than the one you originally imagined.

I think this is where a lot of filmmakers get stuck.

They become so attached to the original plan that they have difficulty seeing other possibilities.

But directing isn't just about having a vision.

It's about knowing which parts of that vision are essential and which parts can change.

The goal isn't to execute every shot exactly as you planned it.

The goal is to tell the story.

And sometimes the best way to do that is to throw out the plan and come up with a new one.

Absolutely.

Would I do some things differently?

Also absolutely.

I'd budget more for food and hydration. I'd build in more contingencies for weather and water sequences. I'd think even more carefully about what could be accomplished during principal photography versus what might need to be handled as pickups.

But I also wouldn't trade the experience.

Because making Erzulie reminded me why I love independent filmmaking.

There's something incredibly satisfying about looking at a problem that seems impossible and finding a way to solve it with the people around you.

We didn't have unlimited money.

We didn't have unlimited time.

And we certainly didn't have control over the Louisiana rivers.

But we had a team of people who believed in the movie and were willing to figure things out.

And at the end of the day, we finished our mermaid movie.

Even if part of it was filmed in a friend's swimming pool.

If you're preparing to make your first independent feature, here's what I hope you take away from our experience.

Prepare as much as you possibly can, but don't become so attached to your plans that you can't adapt when things go wrong.

Because things will go wrong.

Your locations might fall through. Your equipment might fail. Your schedule might collapse. You might run out of money before you've captured everything you need.

None of those things automatically means your movie is doomed.

Sometimes you just need to find another way.

And sometimes that other way involves a friend's swimming pool.

At Get Reelisms, we share the real experiences, challenges, and lessons behind independent filmmaking, including the mistakes we made along the way.

Explore the making of Erzulie and learn how to create your own content.

Because you don't need permission to start making movies.

You just need to start.

Everything That Went Wrong Making Our Indie Mermaid Movie

We made a mermaid movie in 11 days. From flooded sets to underwater pickups in a friend's pool, here's what went wrong and what we learned.

I turned ERZULIE into a learning tool. Follow along below.

• Plan for the unexpected. Flooding, broken equipment, and environmental hazards can derail even a carefully planned shoot.

• Resourcefulness beats expensive solutions. A friend's swimming pool helped us complete underwater sequences we couldn't capture during principal photography.

• Think beyond the shoot. An on-set editor, flexible financing, and strategic pickups helped us finish the movie after principal photography ended.

Here are a series of other important lessons that we learned from Erzulie and making other movies!