According to the film commission, the weather was quite predictable in Nova Scotia: It would be wintry through May. After the incredible wild lupins burst into bloom along the roadsides, the trees would begin flowering in June.
Hot weather would arrive in July, after which every available inn is booked with regular August vacationers who tend to return each year to this beautiful, out-of-the-way spot, at which point a film company would be obliged to leave due to lack of accommodations in desired locations.
With such a climate, Hackford and his co-producer, Charles Mulvehill, figured they could shoot all of the inclement present-day sequences through May and segue right into the summer of 1975.
Inevitably, the Canadian version of "The Farmer's Almanac" would prove totally wrong, injecting a constant element of suspense into the shooting schedule above and beyond the subject matter. The original schedule allowed ample time for Dolores' house to be transformed from an abandoned wreck on the barren tundra overlooking the Atlantic Ocean into the freshly painted St. George home surrounded by flowering shrubs and a view of the bay where the boats would gather to witness the solar eclipse of '75. A premature hot spell foiled the best-laid plans of the filmmakers, who were further exasperated by a cold, grey, rainy June. Taylor Hackford and his key department heads had spent months of preparation for the design of each shot, especially the handling of the transitions between past and present.
For the flashbacks, Hackford and Rubeo sought a bold, stylized treatment to serve the material. Finding inspiration in the subtle but disturbing style of surrealist painter Rene Magritte, they opted to make the transitions between past and present sequences as smooth and seamless as possible, so where one timeframe left off and the other began would be practically indiscernible.
