Cinematographer Matthew Libatique shot "The Fountain" under Aronofsky's direction. Libatique, who worked with Aronofsky throughout the 1990s, prepared for over a year for "The Fountain" when Aronofsky tried to produce the film for the first time. When production restarted on a smaller budget, Libatique felt that the more budget-conscious approach resulted in a better film, "I think the streamlining of the film helped us tell the story more effectively. It's been stripped down to its core, to what it's really about: a search for immortality, when the truth of life is mortality."