September 2004 to March 2005 - Funding and Locations
I sought sponsorship in cash and kind from several individuals and businesses in Nigeria and the UK with little success. However, I had suspected this would be the case and was determined to carry on. It was a story I was compelled to tell and I knew I wouldn't stop until the day I reached out for money and found absolutely none.

Even if I had been able to afford a sound stage, I had no doubt that I wanted to film on location. I wanted the Hendon and Golders Green Area of North West London to look very simple and very earthy. The whites are off rather than stark, and there is a lot of brown and green in the environment as opposed to the greys associated with urban life. Tag's environment is very neutral, and Rag is the slash of colour that cuts through it.

The population is also incredibly mixed. As well as the strong Hasidic presence, there are Polish shops nestled between beautiful mosques and temples. Walk into any Christian church you'll find at least 10 different nationalities. I wanted the mix of people around the Rag, Tag and the area to reflected in the film. This suburban melting pot is in marked contrast to Nigeria where almost everyone around you is black. However, the environment itself is more vibrant - in Abuja and Enugwu-ukwu, Rag and Tag are surrounded by so much colour and so many people like them, they stand out less and have more freedom.

Finding locations in Hendon and Golders Green wasn't that hard. Since I'd grown up in the area, many of the shopkeepers knew me and were happy to lend their places without charge. I also bothered all my relatives and much of Barnet council until they gave me access.

Amongst the London finds were Chinawhite Nightclub and Devonshire Square. Danny works at Chinawhites, and they were incredibly generous about letting us spend hours there, turning everything round to suit us, and even gave us free drinks. My friend Gigi works in The City, and she took me round all the nice little open spaces one balmy summer evening until we stumbled into that quiet oasis. Film London made it exceptionally easy to get permission for the public spaces.

Securing locations in Nigeria on the other hand was harder in some ways and easier in others. The protocol for filming at the Airport was beyond convoluted, and without the intervention of Mrs Adelaja and the Ministers for Aviation (after the first one was changed, we had to get permission from the second one too), it would not have happened.

All the other locations belonged to family members except Olisa's 'bling-bling' village compound. My father is a trained architect, and one of his colleagues had designed something quite unusual very close to our home in Enugu. My father had gone to see it out of architectural curiousity, and when I described what I was looking for, he was convinced the house suited the bill. Luckily, although the owners didn't know us, we must have appeared trustworthy enough for them to open their gates to me and my motley crew for the afternoon.

March to April 2005 - Casting
I wanted to challenge assumptions of the type of men in relationships with other men the leads needed to look and act just like the men around me or those same people wouldn't be able to identify and so render the story false.

I also wanted it clear from the start that Rag and Tag were very different from each other. Although they both fit the same racial profile of 'young black male' they look and sound worlds apart. Neither and both are threatening in their own ways. I wanted to mess with stereotypes by making the lighter eyed and lighter skinned, more 'white' one dress more 'thugged' out. While the darker 'blacker' one wears a suit more often than not, though he sublimates this by braiding his hair.

I also wanted the characters that looked most like each other to be seen to have the most disparate values e.g. Olisa and Tag. Whereas, as the film progressed, it was important that Rag and Tag started to look more alike as they fell back in synch. The same goes for Olivia and Xin.

By spring I'd secured most of my 40 strong cast. I saw about 30 girls for the role of Olivia, but very soon after meeting Tamsin I had a feeling I would go with her. The other strong contender suited my mind's eye of what Olivia was like physically, but Tamsin captured her spirit completely.

Maria and Geoff for Ma and Pa Tagbo were also interesting finds. Though younger than myself, Maria was convinced that she could play a woman twice my age. I wasn't inclined to believe her. But then I put her in traditional clothes and let her do her thing, and she won me over completely. The others weren't so convinced in rehearsals, but once we started shooting and they saw the rushes, everyone let out a deep breath.

Geoff on the other hand came to me by luck. It is shocking how few older black actors there are I only came across 3 or 4 male ones in my entire time looking. Geoff was told about the project by the lovely Alice in the Theatre Royal Stratford where I'd gone to poach some young black men. He got in touch, and nailed Pa Tagbo on the first reading. Despite being of West Indian heritage himself he got a strong sense of the man and where he was coming from.

However, the two male leads were so much harder to cast. Very few demographics are as homophobic as the young black male. I saw many actors, and often they'd get very excited by the story. But as soon as I mentioned the physical intimacy, they'd step back with a horrified 'You mean I gotta kissaman?' So I had the other cast members frantically referring every young black male they knew for auditions. One of them had worked with Damola in the past and gave him my number. As soon as he called me I heard Tag on the phone. Even when I met him and he didn't look anything like my vision of Tag (if anything he looked a lot more like Rag), I had enough confidence in his performance to adapt him and my perceptions to make it work.

Damola too was afraid of the material at first. The first time he read the whole script was at my place. He squirmed when he got to the first kiss and by the time he reached the love scene he was curled into a tight ball. But he didn't stop reading. Instead he embraced his fear, and as with everything else he commits to ran at it with all pistons going.

It just remained to find my Rag. I had already found 'little Rag' at a football practice. He walked past with his brother and it was instant recognition. I approached him very carefully, explained I was making a film, gave him my card and asked him to ask him mum to call me. Much to my surprise, delight, and relief she did. When I auditioned him he blew me right out of the water. Although Levi had never done any professional acting, he has an acute sense of what feels real.

This made me more determined to find an older version of him, and when I couldn't get any through the traditional casting routes and my cast had run out of ideas I literally hit the streets. I learned to be shameless and approach anyone, anywhere, as long as they vaguely fitted the picture of Rag I had in my head. Shockingly, many of them didn't mind, and turned up to audition.

The clinching factor had to be their chemistry with Tag though. Much to Damola's chagrin I had him try each one out with me. He compared these auditions with the worst blind dates, and at times couldn't make himself sit through them even though there was never any physical contact involved. I believe he is still traumatised by the experience. However, when Danny walked in, I could see the whole cast getting very excited. The chemistry was there, and I knew I was set.

May to June 2005 - Crewing
I met Kalilah through a Shooting People networking event. Although I'd had several D.P's express interest in the project, Kalilah and I seemed to share many sensibilities. Yes, we were young black women from different sides of the world but we'd cut our film teeth in the same place - Los Angeles. Kalilah brought so much to the project, it would not have been the same without her.

Heather came on board after several false starts with other sound recordists. Her friend Roland was interested in Rag Tag, but not in a position to commit due to other projects, so he recommended her. She was no less than a Godsend and was not just a sound recordist, but the best sounding board and rock through the ups and downs of shooting and post-production. She's also one hell of a singer too - socket free entertainment during Nigeria's frequent power cuts. in Nigeria.

Other crew members fell into place in equally random ways from Oxford students Dan and Medeni who wanted to spend their summer working on an Indie, to the ever present, multi-purpose Kaveh who came to us through a chance encounter on a bus with my aunt.

Our good fortune continued in Nigeria, where we assembled an extremely colourful set of people - 'the most bling crew I've ever seen' to quote Heather. We were a little concerned about how they would react to the subject matter. The Nigerian film industry is the 3rd largest in the world so I knew they had worked on many films, but never love stories between two men. As things turned out, I needn't have worried. Everyone was respectful and welcomed the opportunity to do something different.

June to July and a bit of August 2005 - Shooting
The 28 days of filming were the best of times and the worst of times definitely the hardest thing I've ever done. For every thing that went right, ten would go wrong , yet thanks to a dedicated cast and a stoic crew, we pulled through.

But only just - as witnessed by my dramatic weight loss. Our camera broke half way through the London shoot and we lost all our other equipment as a consequence; locations fell through last minute; cast members stormed off (but came back); crew members threatened mutiny. And generally I was never sure we'd have enough money for the next day. But at every turn, something would turn up, better and bolder than what we lost, until I was certain of the hand of God in making sure Rag Tag was completed.

And now it has been. It just remains to unleash it on the world.