Filming the Eclipse Totality

When Texas weather decides to play up the , a new opportunity presents itself

While many in America were busy with glasses and filters to film the eclipse from the sun and moon perspective, the Texas hill country decided to throw a wrench in people’s plans.

Deciding to do something a bit different, I set out to film the landscape changes while the totality moved over. Capturing the landscape meant coming in with a different loadout, moving to an anamorphic capture as the solution.

Anamorphic capture presents a few opportunities (and changes to loadout). The C500 mk II (and the new Canon firmware for Cinema Raw Light options) worked well; the C500 mk ii and its 6:5 mode were a perfect fit for the Atlas Orion 2X anamorphic 40mm lens.

The technical challenge I needed to solve was the exposure changes as totality arrived. Starting at internal ND2, then using a rota-pola from Bright Tangerine (and the lenses Iris) were all tools to keep the exposure consistent in camera.

Tracking exposure with Cine EL Zones on the SmallHD Ultra 5 was a key way of making sure I didn’t over or underexpose the footage. Then in the post, I would need to edit out any jarring exposure changes or keyframe the exposure in RAW.

Finally, writing a short music piece to add some matched emotion to what is on the screen. The end result is a great synoposis of the amazing the spectacle that was the totality in Texas.

Until next time!

#Canon #Production #Texas #Cinematography