Lights, camera, corona: Hollywood embraces the eclipse

For filmmakers, the most-coveted backdrops sit within the"zone of totality," where the moon will cover the sun and exposea glowing corona around its perimeter for up to two minutes and40 seconds.

• Total solar eclipse 2017: Read CBC's complete coverage

Camera crews, directors and actors are staging rehearsalsand preparing to act quickly, as the brief period of totalitywill give filmmakers little time to record the perfect shot.

"One take only," said director Alvin Case, who aims to shoota roughly six-minute scene in western Nebraska for hisindependent feature film In the Moon's Shadow.

"That's all youget with the sun."

Film officials fielding requests

Richards said she has been busy fielding last-minuteinquiries from people wanting to shoot scenes for movies, TVcommercials and documentaries during the rare event.

Lunar and solar eclipses have figured into previous Hollywood plots,for instance in2001: A Space Odyssey.

In most cases, visualeffects experts recreated the phenomenon for the screen. Anexception was the 1961 religious movie Barabbas,which usedactual footage from a solar eclipse in a climactic scenedepicting Jesus Christ's crucifixion.

Case plans to aim one camera skyward to film the eclipse andkeep another focused on the reaction of three actors watching itunfold, he said.

You want the viewer to experience what [the actors] areexperiencing, the moment of awe.- Alvin Case, indie filmmaker

"You want the viewer to experience what they areexperiencing, the moment of awe," he said.

Several producers of TV commercials have requestedpermission to shoot in Oregon and Wyoming during the eclipse,local officials said.

In Oregon, authorities granted permits weeks ago for ahandful of projects to film on Monday, the executive director ofOregon Film, Tim Williams, said. Recent requests were deniedbecause officials are focusing on the expected influx oftourists, he added.

Another filmmaker who will be shooting in Nebraska, MariaDyer, said she plans to employ four cameras and a drone tocapture eclipse footage, particularly the changing light overthe state's Sand Hills, for a forthcoming movie. One challengewill be adjusting camera settings to account for the change inexposure. Another is the chance of clouds or rain.

"It feels like a worthwhile risk to take," she said.