Director/scriptwriter: Jeremy Podeswa – Executive producer: Wolfram Tichy – Producer: Camelia Frieberg – Diary by: Pamela Cuthbert

Early 1990: Jeremy Podeswa gets an idea for a film that uses a daisy-chain of encounters. He wants to do a fairly low-budget film: ‘No War and Peace, no battle scenes, no car crashes, and no helicopters on University Avenue,’ he says. The daisy-chain idea gets bandied about between Podeswa and friend and associate (and Eclipse producer), Camelia Frieberg.

August 1990: Development funding comes in from Telefilm Canada ($10,000) and from the Ontario Film Development Corporation ($6,000) for the first draft. Podeswa produces a detailed draft, most of which remains intact throughout the making of the film. Podeswa is searching for a device to link the stories together.

September 1990 to Winter 1991: Podeswa decides that a big event is what he needs to fill in the center of the daisy-chain structure. An eclipse is worked into the script.

Spring 1991: Podeswa reads in the Globe and Mail that the best eclipse of the century will take place in July. He ‘freaks out.’

There is no stock footage available of eclipses at that time, so Podeswa starts to map out a shoot of the impending event.

July 1991: Baja, Mexico is the closest appropriate spot from which to shoot the event. Extensive research is done on just how to shoot an eclipse. In the end, they ‘kind of wing it.’

The seven-minute spectacle is caught on 35mm film, using two cameras positioned inland from the coast where cloud cover heightens the dramatic effect of the image. It’s a multinational shoot, with two Mexicans, one Canadian and one American handling the cameras.

The cost is about $9,000 for everything (including materials and travel).

August 1991: Telefilm comes in for development with $14,400 and the ofdc comes in for $13,800.

September 1991: Podeswa receives a production grant from the Canada Council for $18,500. He starts to put together an actors workshop for the script.

October 1991: A three-day, improvisational workshop is set up with actors Valerie Buhagiar, Daniel MacIvor and David Ramsden. ‘The intention was not to cast these people in the film,’ says Podeswa, ‘it was set up to work on the dialogue, and we improvised the entire movie.’

All three actors take on each and every role, swapping genders and characters. Podeswa is especially impressed with Ramsden’s performance as Carlota, ‘a crazy bar girl who over-indulges in everything.’

The workshop is taped on video and, while nothing concrete changes in the script, Podeswa says the experience helped enormously when it came time to cast the film. The actors are paid honorariums.

January to Summer ’92: Casting and location scouting are underway as Podeswa pulls the crew together.

Summer 1992: Podeswa and Frieberg apply to Telefilm and the ofdc for production financing. The proposal is for a budget of about

$1 million. They request about $400,000 from each agency, and Norstar has come onside with a distribution offer that will put up a $200,000 advance.

November 1992: Telefilm and the ofdc turn down Eclipse. Frieberg and Podeswa whittle the budget down to $600,000 and reapply to the two agencies. Norstar maintains its offer. Eclipse is again turned down by Telefilm and the ofdc.

December 1992: Eclipse is fully crewed and cast, with deferrals offered from PS Production Services and from dop Miroslaw Baszak (Highway 61, Dance Me Outside), who offers to do the film for nothing. Production designer Tamara Deverell (Masala) also vows to stick by the film.

January 1993: At the Rotterdam Film Festival, Frieberg meets with Regina Schmidt of Time, the German distributor of Canadian films Careful and Highway 61.

Schmidt reads the script, loves it, and passes it to her boss, Wolfram Tichy.

February or March 1993: Tichy is invited by Telefilm to come to Toronto. Podeswa, Frieberg and Tichy meet, and Tichy comes onside as a coproducer with $100,000. Time acquires distribution for German-speaking territories.

A coproduction grant from the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers in Toronto comes in at $4,000, with an additional $1,500 in services.

The Norstar distribution deal is history.

June 1, 1993: Shooting begins in Toronto and continues for five weeks. ps has offered 100% deferral on all equipment and Baszak and Deverell are onside. Sheridan College lends some equipment and a few film students’ time on-set.

August 1993: Canada Council comes in with $50,000. The National Film Board’s Program to Assist Filmmakers in the Private Sector covers all printing and processing. The edit, by Susan Maggi (Rude), is begun in an nfb edit suite in Toronto and continues through to the end of the calendar year.

September 1993: With a rough cut of the film, Podeswa and Frieberg approach industry people at the Toronto International Film Festival, asking them to come to the nfb and view the film on a flatbed. A few people show up (from Channel Four in the u.k., New Zealand tv) and Podeswa says the response is encouraging.

May 1994: Frieberg attends the Cannes Film Festival for Exotica (which she produced) and takes two video copies of the fine cut of Eclipse to the Telefilm festivals office. Jean Lefebvre, Telefilm festivals bureau director, helps Podeswa and Frieberg to promote the film to international film festivals. To date, Eclipse is invited to approximately a dozen festivals including Locarno and Berlin.

Early summer 1994: Malofilm signs on a distributor, acquiring world rights, excluding the u.s.

Eclipse is invited to the Toronto International Film Festival. They start hurdling through post-production.

Telefilm and the ofdc come in for $146,900 each to help Podeswa finish the film.

September 1994: Eclipse has its world premiere in the Perspective Canada program at the Toronto festival.