Background

Back in October 2004 I had this great idea. Instead of just making quality media for paying customers, why couldn't we produce a personal project - a documentary film for instance - that would showcase our talents as filmmakers and be a whole lot of fun at the same time?

Andrew wanted to chronicle the lives of homeless people in St. Petersburg. Everyday, it seemed, there were an increasing number of scruffy looking characters walking past our studio doors, toting knapsacks or pushing carts and strollers. Where were they all coming from, and where were they going? We decided to find out.

As the months passed, we started to see what a huge undertaking making a feature length documentary is, and we learned an important lesson along the way. If you ever get the notion to produce your own feature length film -- quit your day job. The plan was to devote Fridays and a few evenings to roaming the streets, cameras in hand. The other four days we would spend earning a living and weekends would be free. Before long we were spending half the week, every night, and most weekends on the film. Paying clients were having a hard time reaching me and we were constantly torn between what we wanted to do and what we needed to do.

After 12 months of shooting and 40 hours of material, we still had no idea what the film was about. That is, we knew it had to do with homeless people, but all the preconceptions we had going into the project were blown out the window by the street people we talked to. Finally, one day while we sat around the office, floundering for a way to structure the story, what should have been obvious suddenly became clear. Just let the people tell their own stories.

The film didn't need experts hashing over the "Homeless Problem". All it really needed was the frank, honest portrayal of homeless people doing what they do everyday. Five main characters emerged from a cast of dozens.The supporting characters became the people that homeless people come in contact with and directly affect. The film follows the main characters through the course of a year. Between their stories, we quick cut short episodes of dozens of homeless people coping with a particular aspect of their condition; things like mental illness, why the're here, where they're from and the difficulty of re-entering mainstream society.

It took another three sleep-deprived months to edit 40 hours down to two hours and thirty minutes, and then -with considerable anguish and gnashing of teeth- down to 105 minutes. We couldn't be happier with the result.

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