It took about a year to convince SAY to allow me to make the film about their work, and by the time they agreed to let me trail their staff and meet the young people and families in their various programs, I think it was clear to them that I was a willing advocate and would create something supportive and protective of the young people involved. So that was how everyone was introduced to me and our cameras. And after filming everyone broadly for a while, I started to focus in on certain young people and their stories. A few things I was looking for were diversity in age, background, time with SAY, etc... I wanted to make sure that any young person who turned on their TV to watch the film felt like they were represented in some way on screen...