Although we’re featuring This is When We Met in our passion-fuelled build-up to Valentines day, to call it a “romantic” film would probably be a little misleading. Inspired by a separation in the romantic lives of this filmmaking couple, This is When We Met crams a whole relationship, from giggly first encounter to uncomfortable split, within its concise 3-minute running time. Inspired to “make a short film about the experience of meeting someone new, developing a relationship and then drifting apart slowly”, Cunningham and Green’s stirring film quickly goes from sweet and endearing to heartbreaking in the blink of an eye.

Admitting to Short of the Week that they wanted to “keep the film as realistic and authentic as possible”, the filmmaking duo were focused on getting the tone just right – “We didn’t want to force emotion and make it over dramatic. It’s more about just observing two people go through the ups, downs and full circle of a relationship.”

Shooting a film about a complete relationship in just one day certainly proved challenging for Cunningham and Green, with lots of pre-production leaded to capture the effect of passing time on-screen. “We changed Robbie’s’ facial hair and both characters’ wardrobes several times, so we essentially shot the film backwards. Another challenge was getting the right timing of the three minute take where the characters first meet. It was completely improvised dialogue that we had to match with visuals telling the story of their entire relationship. The sun was going down fast as well, so we only were able to get two takes in and luckily, one worked!”

It’s in this incisive storytelling where This is When We Met is most successful. Taking you on whirlwind tour of the emotional gamut in such a compact duration, This is When We Met is certain to open the flood barriers of even the most solidified of memory banks. Whether it’s a film that provokes memories of happy times – or not-so-happy times, will largely depend on the relatable moments for each individual viewer, but there’s surely a little something in there we all can associate with.