Shooting the Eclipse

Dead to Sin, to our knowledge, is the only feature film to have been shot during an actual total solar eclipse, aside from Barabbas (1961, Richard Fleischer)*. Not only was it shot during an eclipse, but on celluloid film as well (Super 16mm & 35mm).

A great deal of logistical and technical planning went into this part of the production:

Location scouting along the eclipse path (to find specific areas to match the general look of our Pittsburgh-area primary shoot)
Weather forecasting (historic data for specific areas along eclipse path, and future forecasting as date approached)
Travel (from Pittsburgh to potential locations along the eclipse path)
The complex photography involved in filming an eclipse (for the latter, we were guided by the advice of Andreas Gadas, a Canadian eclipse photographer who wrote a pamphlet on the subject)

*As an odd turn of events, Michael Steger, the lead actor in Dead to Sin, was subsequently cast in the role of Barabbas in the series The Chosen, by pure coincidence.

Just days prior to the eclipse, we were prepared to travel anywhere from Texas to Maine, depending on the weather forecast

As it turned out, the forecast was the reverse of historical trends: cloudy in Texas, and sunny in Maine. Many folks who had booked trips to Texas years prior for the best chance at clear skies were at risk of being clouded out. As our plan was to be mobile by design, this contingency was factored in (of course, we were really pulling for Erie or Cleveland).

We ended up in Colebrook, NH as our final destination, which was at the eastern end of one of the only areas in the country almost guaranteed to have clear skies by the time the weather models firmed up.

Travelling to Colebrook, NH on the day of the eclipse

We captured the eclipse on three film cameras:

ARRI 35-3, with a Canon 400mm lens and 2x extender (35mm, for totality phase)
ARRI SR2, with Canon 11-165mm variable focal length lens (Super 16mm, for partial phases)
ARRI SR3, with Ultra 16 14mm lens (Super 16mm, handheld during totality to follow actor)

As one final snafu, we discovered one of our batteries had failed, so we ran across the street to an auto parts store, and wired in a 12V auto battery to power one of the cameras

Partial phase of eclipse visible through one of the viewfinders

The 35mm roll with the total eclipse footage, coincidentally Roll #100 of the production (with our working title, The Shining Hour)

Totality on 35mm film