A short film about how the downfall of a couple triggers the birth of a new love between two strangers. Told in slow-motion, in one unique camera sequence and in reverse. Because nothing can stop us.
What makes “Happy Valentine’s Day” so special is its combination of incredibly complex live action elements, the one unique camera move, the reverse, the slow motion and the fully created digital world. Due to budget constraints, we couldn’t afford to block an entire New York City intersection, so we decided to create an entire New York City street in CG. To properly integrate our real actors into this virtual environment, we custom built a 360 degree green screen arena that enabled us to control all aspects of the lighting and the background elements. The greatest challenge of this piece was to accomplish a very long and complex camera shot in a very small space. Because of the studio’s spatial constraints, we had to split up the film into four separate sequences that would then be stitched together later. Months of pre-production were spent calculating where the camera would start and end for each sequence, so that the transitions would be seamless.
Written and Directed: The Neymarc Brothers
Visual Effects: Michael Tan & Remy Neymarc
Produced by: Sarah Verstraete & Darren Goldberg
Starring: Ralph Bracco, Rachel Winegar, Matthew Addison, Alexei Bondar, Kelly Rodgers, Margot Steinberg, William Kozy, Sayed Sirajul, Anders Davis
Executive Producers: Bill & Jaqui O'Brien, Ken O'Brien, Kevin & Véronique O'Brien, Michael A. Kaplan, Rowene Weems, Brian Detweiler, Simone Katagiri, James Dreher
Director Of Photography: Remy Neymarc
Assistant Director: Bill Silva Reddington
Casting by: Abba Charmichael
Additional Visual Effects: Corynn Egreczky, Boris Watrin, Nicole Estilow, Tarek Mosta
Roto/Paint Artists: Josh Jones, Adam Koubek, Sheila Sullivan, Liviu Dinu, Alin Dumitrud
Gaffer: Ryan Helfant
Best Boy Electric: Brian Yancou
Key Grip: Massey Davis
Best Boy Grip: Danny Green
Swing: Nick Perron-Siegel
Art Direction: Alan Bruckner
Set Designer: Jorge Urbaez
Prop Master: Chris Rowan
Carpenters: Chris Metz, Jimmy Brady
Stunt Coordinator: Drew Leary
Rigger: Corey Pierno
Steadycam: Nick Rubino
Hair & Make-Up: Tanya Blunder
VFX Consultants: Eric Miro & Carly Janks
Sound Designer: David Leaver
Production Assistants: Corynn Egreczky, Finn Morino, Erika Page, Paul Guerin, Dylan Eshbaugh, Mauricio Zambrano, Nick Heathcote, Katherine Case, Dana Pscolkoski, Desiree Punla, Nick Wise, Rachel Diamond
Thanks to: Atlantic Pictures Team, Lewis & Clark College Center for Entrepreneurship, Brooklyn Fire Proof Stages, Jonathan Goldstein
