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Though they’re both beloved by Hallmark fans for their on-screen roles, two of the network’s most popular actresses — Alison Sweeney and Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe — are teaming up behind the scenes to create movie magic.
The duo, who both star in two of Hallmark’s longest-running movie franchises (Sweeney’s “Hannah Swensen Mysteries” and Lowe’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”) revealed their partnership in separate Instagram posts on July 3, 2024, sharing a photo of themselves looking over notes on a movie they’re about to start filming.
After being mentored through Hallmark’s Make Her Mark program, spearheaded by Hallmark’s Ashley Williams to allow aspiring female directors to assist and learn from other female directors, Lowe is now directing her peers in movies for the network, including March’s “Shifting Gears” starring Tyler Hynes and Kat Barrell.
“So excited to be working with our fabulous director @officialcrystallowe on my next movie for @hallmarkchannel,” Sweeney captioned the photo of them. “Many thanks to @ashleywilliamsandcompany @poperandy & Hallmark family for developing the #makehermark program! 🎥 #setlife”
Crystal Lowe & Alison Sweeney Working on ‘This Time Each Year’
It’s not clear if Sweeney will also star in the holiday movie she’s working on with Lowe, but the duo has been in Vancouver preparing for the shoot. According to Creative BC, the movie’s working title is “This Time Each Year” and will film from July 15 to August 1.
The plot, according to Moviedelic, is about a recently separated couple who are “compelled to confront their lingering issues when they reunite to celebrate Christmas with their son.”
Lowe shared the same photo Sweeney did on July 3 and seemed equally excited about their collaboration, writing, “Finally able to tell you all that I am working with @alisweeney on this one. I cannot tell you what a serious powerhouse this woman is. Kind, smart and incredibly talented. I’m feeling super grateful today. Back in the directors chair!!”
On July 9, Sweeney replied in the comment section, “I am so thrilled to be working with such a 💥 director!! We are grateful and appreciative of your enthusiasm and talent every day!! 🙌❤️🎥”
Adding to the flurry of mutual admiration, Lowe later commented on her own post, “She is 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥”
Sweeney has been expanding her creative contributions at Hallmark for a while, including working as a producer on over a dozen Hallmark movies, including her “Hannah Sweeney Mysteries” and February’s “Love and Jane,” per IMDb. She also branched out into screenwriting for the first time to create the script for April’s “One Bad Apple: A Hannah Swensen Mystery,” which she admitted in various interviews that she was very nervous about.
“It was amazing the support I got from Hallmark right away,” Sweeney told SheKnows. “Their enthusiasm for it and their belief in me was just really rewarding. I was so nervous when they read it the first time. When I had to send the email like, ‘Okay, here’s the script,’ it was the hardest click ever.”
Crystal Lowe Shares Behind-the-Scenes Details as She Prepares to Film ‘This Time Each Year’
As Lowe prepares for the upcoming “This Time Each Year” shoot, she’s educating fans about the process in periodic social media posts. On June 27, she posted an Instagram video on “day three of prep,” and explained what she’d been busy doing.
“That means for the last three days, we have been location scouting,” she said. “So our incredible location scout found me a bunch of different houses and places that he thought I would want, based on the script, and we went and looked at them. Now we’re gonna do a tone meeting with the network. Pretty cool!”
On July 4, Lowe uploaded another selfie video in which she shared, “I thought I would bring you along with my filmmaking journey again and tell you the last meeting I had because nobody really thinks about this.”
“I just had a ‘picture car’ meeting, which is every car that is in our movie,” Lowe explained. “This movie is not like ‘Shifting Gears,’ this isn’t about cars. But, yet again, every car matters, whether somebody is driving it, because it says a lot about their personality. So, we just had an hour-long meeting about why they should be driving those cars and who should be driving them.”
In a third video taken from the passenger seat of a car, which she uploaded to her Instagram Stories on July 8, Lowe shared that the driver was her first assistant director, or “first AD.”
“We just went scouting with my DP — that’s director of photography — and we walked through the locations that I have locked, that I loved,” she explained. “And now I’m just designing my film with him and saying, ‘Hey, I want to shoot this’ or ‘I want to shoot that way.’ (We’re determining) how exactly am I doing that and creating things like snow, for example, or something like that? Or fog or shade or how do you do this when we can’t? That’s what today was all about!”
Meanwhile, Lowe is about to co-star in “Signed, Sealed, Delivered: A Tale of Three Letters,” premiering on Hallmark Mystery on July 12 at 9 p.m. Eastern time. “SSD” is Hallmark’s longest running movie franchise after 11 years, per Collider.
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