TWICE REMOVED - Behind the Scenes

"Twice Removed", NueralNet's 1st short film, was lensed back in January of 2006 for entry into the National Screen Institute's Short Film Festival, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Co-writer Angelo Furlan and I found out about the Festival at the beginning of January. With the deadline being just 3 weeks away, we had to come up with an idea for a 5-minute short - AND FAST!

The basic premise we agreed upon was "things are not necessarily as they seem". After a few brainstorming sessions, we had our script, and with less than 2 weeks to go, we began casting the film. Being such short notice, we cast friends we had worked with before.

Just days before the shoot, our original main actors bailed out due to personal reasons! Fortunately, our friends Kristen Andrews and Ed Ackerman stepped up and filled the pivotal roles of our two central characters. We now had just over a week to deadline.

If it were not for Kristen and Ed, "Twice Removed" wouldn't have gotten made. Ed provided interior locations for the house and internet cafe, while Kristen (owner of Ragpicker's Anti-Fashion Emporium) provided some of the costumes as well as interiors for the bridal shop and hospital delivery room. Kristen also lined us up with actors for the Doctor (Thomas Karsnicki) and Nurse (Leslie Lahoda, who also did a lot of the set dressing for the hospital delivery room). Sidebar: we had originally had an actual hospital room location for this scene, but it fell through at the last minute, and we had to do the best we could with what we had - and that ended up being a quick set on a small theatrical stage!

Rounding out the cast was Robert Olver (Real Estate Agent) and Katherine Supleve (Store Clerk). The shoot was completed in 3 days. While we were shooting, our talented musician friend Allan Conroy was feverishly working on the soundtrack.

With 2 days left, I started editing the footage. As is usually the case, a few nice scenes got cut... but the editing went smoothly, and we did manage to get the film entered on time.

While "Twice Removed" didn't win any awards, we did learn a great deal about the process. I think it's a pretty good result for our first effort, completed in under 2 weeks with a budget of zero - thanks to a bit of luck and great friends who put in an amazing effort! - Nik Poliwko