CLARION, Pa. (EYT) – Some eagle-eyed viewers caught a brief Valentine’s message for Clarion County when watching “A Valentine’s Match,” a TV movie on the Hallmark Channel.
(Screenshot from “A Valentine’s Match”)
The Clarion County Courthouse makes a brief appearance at 29 minutes into the movie for a few seconds, and then the movie returns to bringing two people together for Valentine’s Day.
Knowing full well that inquiring minds would want to know how it happened, exploreClarion.com contacted the Hallmark PR people but the call was not returned.
Talking with some people familiar with TV productions, our best guess is that the photo of the courthouse is stock footage (both video and photography) readily available for purchase on the web.
The stock footage is usually used as an establishing shot in the movie to project the kind of town where the story takes place. Hallmark is known for producing many of their movies in Canada.
An establishing shot is usually a wide shot (also called a long shot), an extreme long shot, or an aerial shot that shows a lot of the setting for context, according to masterclass.com. Establishing shots are unlike other shots in a movie for a few different reasons: Establishing shots are usually only a few seconds long.
An establishing shot in filmmaking and television production sets up or establishes the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and objects.
The movie is part of a month-long “Love Ever After” movie series celebrating Valentine’s Day.
Hallmark offers this description of the movie, “Fired from her job as a reality TV host, Natalie returns home for Valentine’s Day, only to find herself running the town’s festival auction with her ex-fiancé thanks to two scheming mothers. Click here for a video promotion for the movie.
Hallmark is well-known for its never-ending Christmas movies and Valentine movies draw on the same source material.
Meanwhile, county officials are undoubtedly making sure there is stock footage of a snow-covered Clarion County Courthouse for next year’s Hallmark Christmas movies.
