One From The Heart - Production

Production

The cost of the production of this film would lead to Coppola's declaring bankruptcy. One from the Heart was originally intended as an "antidote" to the enormous cost, pressures and production setbacks of Apocalypse Now, but the production costs ballooned from $2 million to over $25 million. Rather than shooting on location, Coppola insisted on assembling sets to add to the artificiality of the proscenium.

Set construction proceeded to such an extent that a replica of Las Vegas' McCarran Airport—complete with a jetway and jet airliner (built from the nose section of a crashed plane)—was built and used for the penultimate scene. The sets for the film consumed the entirety of sound stage space at Coppola's recently acquired American Zoetrope studio. Because of the maze of wiring and flammable scrims, backdrops and other materials, Dean Tavoularis half-jokingly referred to the Vegas Strip set—the centerpiece of the film—as a "firetrap", saying it caused him to have "nightmares about fires" during the film's production.

Coppola has stated that the films he made during the rest of the 1980s and most of the 1990s, such as The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, The Godfather, Part III, Jack and The Rainmaker, were done to pay off the debts incurred by the production of One from the Heart.

One from the Heart features an original soundtrack from Crystal Gayle and Tom Waits. Waits received an Academy Award nomination for Best Musical Score. Dean Tavoularis, whose art department was next door to the musical rehearsal space, used Tom Waits' music as tonal inspiration which was incorporated into the film's highly stylized 'look'. Mickey Hart, drummer for The Grateful Dead, and musician Bobby Vega were also credited for their contributions to the production.

Los Angeles street musician and one-man band Arthur Nakane claims to have been cut from the film, his scene having been integral to the main character hearing "You Are My Sunshine" during a performance by Nakane (unnamed in the film) on the Vegas Strip, which explains the song's appearance later in the film.