The video used no prosthetics and no cuts, just a tight close-up of the couple in profile. Makeup and pre-made appliances were used to make the different ages believable, and vfx was used transition between the ages.

Among the major challenges facing the effects team was the ability to maintain realistic effects throughout the entire aging process, including the transitions between the various stages.

"We planned for the makeup to sell all of the actual ages and for the effects to sell the transitions between the ages," states Zapara.

For the main actors, makeup effects artist John Goodwin and his assistant Brian Kinney, had to devise different makeup to realistically depict each stage of aging up to the age of 60.

But after 60, then what?

"We felt that once people reach the age of 60 and over, they lose much of their youthful features." explains Klasfeld. "So, we decided to cast older actors who closely resembled the main couple. We took these actors, who were in their 60s, and created makeup to age them through their 70s, 80s and 90s."

The tight close-up called for impeccable choreography that had to be executed perfectly with each take. Vigorous rehearsals ensued that with both the young and old couples to make sure they performed identical actions as closely and accurately as possible each time.

Everything was rehearsed and shot under the watchful, detail-oriented eye of Zapara who made sure everything needed was captured to perfection on camera.

HAL determined that once people reach 60, they lose much of their youthful features. So older actors were cast who closely resembled the main couple and makeup aged them through their 70s, 80s and 90s.

"The older actors had to learn the choreography, and they did after studying video we had taken of the singer and his girlfriend," Zapara notes. "The hardest part was actually getting the older actors to kiss as they weren't intimate, but once they did it a couple hundred times it became old hat to them."

Once in post-production, HAL’s Shake artists, Bill Eyler, Zoe Eyler and Steve Wright, chose the best facial element from various takes (for example, an eye from one take and a nose from another). Each element had to be meticulously stabilized and tracked back into another take to seamlessly blend the multiple takes together in order to depict the entire aging process gradually but with increasing visibility. The resulting sequences were then morphed over several hundred frames to make the transitions seamless.

"The lion's share of the work was done in Shake, which included the keying, the feature tracking, the morphing, and much of the paint work," states Zapara. "Additional paint work was done in After Effects as well as the dolly track removal at the end and much of the dust pre-compositing.

"LightWave provided some CG dust, some falling face pieces, and a replacement sidewalk, while Particle Illusion provided choreographed dust squibs and debris."

Cracking in the faces as the couple is dying at the end was achieved using a combination of filmed elements, two dimensional debris generated in Particle Illusion and 3D dust and shards rendered in LightWave.

"Because cyber-scans were cost prohibitive," continues Zapara, "modified proxy heads were employed for shading, and camera projection was used for texturing."

The dolly track that Zapara alluded to above occurs at the end of the video where the action returns to the reality of the present. This occurs right after the last stage of aging as the age cracks deepen and the decaying facial parts separate and fall away.