'Learn the hard way' shines a light on the amazing skills that many disadvantaged young people learn in the toughest situations. By bringing to life their talent using conventional CV language, the film challenges the assumption that disadvantaged young people don't have the skills for work, just because they lack traditional qualifications on paper. The film finishes with a poignant call to arms, asking the public to help our young people realise their potential.

Assembling an outstanding team of actors was the most challenging element of our film for the Prince’s Trust. Without genuine and utterly convincing performances, the idea would fail to enduce the true emotional engagement that the campaign hinged on. Having a substantially minimal budget was a big hurdle and as a consequence all featured artists agreed to waive usage fees. In addition to this, we challenged ourselves to shoot 10 intense performances over 2 short days.

Our casting Director was key to our success. Special care and emphasis was put into finding unique individuals from around the country who were not stereotypical. Predominantly through street casting, Dan accessed kids who felt real and brought a degree of life experience to their roles, with two of the cast being foster children.

This combined with our Director's strong eye, opinion and ability to elicit outstanding casting performances helped inform the final selection of a stellar cast.