Director's Works
Big Issue, The Issues We Face Dean G. Moore
Like any good idea, this high-angle, voyeuristic approach was something I’d been developing for a while — tweaking it, testing different forms, and trying to find the right project to attach it to. Nothing had quite panned out. The main influence behind the technique came from Haskell Wexler’s stunning opening shot in the 1974 film The Conversation.
After an encounter in central London with a Big Issue vendor, I realised this concept and technique could be a great way to capture a vendor’s experience. So I wrote it up and messaged a good friend, Phil McCluney at Unit TV, to ask if he knew anyone at The Big Issue. Before I knew it, the idea had landed in the inbox of the head honchos there.
The intent behind the project was twofold.
Firstly, I wanted to capture real vendors at work, in real time, as they had an honest and frank conversation about the real and relatable circumstances that led to their homelessness and about how The Big Issue has helped them.
Secondly, I think the film also highlights how we — myself very much included — are often so caught up in our own busy worlds that we overlook the vendors around us. That realisation was a big motivating factor behind making the film.
To make sure we told the right story and conveyed the right message, we carried out a long casting process — reading through multiple vendor bios and meeting a number of incredible people before finding the right group to work with. From there, we developed a script that offered an authentic insight into their worlds. Given the film’s choreographed approach, our vendors had one day rehearsal before the shoot to learn and perform their lines.
