Explore the 2017 Solar Eclipse in Makanda, and Carbondale, Illinois

On Monday, August 21, 2017 a solar eclipse took place spanning coast-to-coast in the United States.

This marked my first time covering an astronomy-based event. I experienced a learning curve at the same time as working on production. In the past, I have produced over 200 videos on YouTube, but this marked my first time producing a short film with narration that was over ten minutes in length.

The story shows the events that unfolded during the 2017 solar eclipse in a very unique location from Southern Illinois. The 2017 solar eclipse, as well as the eclipse on April 8, 2024 both pass through Southern Illinois. It is a great honor to show the community where I grew up in a positive light.

During the film, I was able to capture one presentation from the the digital editor at the Farmers’ Almanac. Additionally, I interviewed Chris Olsen from Dagnabbit Studio on antique photography.

In addition to working on videography, I also captured photos that are connected to a Megaemovie produced by Google and additional universities.

I am deeply appreciative of the musicians that allowed the use of their music during the film.

Watch the short film documentary on YouTube. Music by: Gramatik and Jenny Johnson.

Google Megamovie Version 0.8

The project utilized a dataset of images on Google Cloud Open Datasets and helped scientists categorize the images.

It marked my first time working with a national team of data scientists on a project.