Most of the parts in the film were cast from Cardboard Citizens, a theatre company made up of homeless and ex-homeless actors, meaning that the majority of the actors had themselves experienced homelessness.
All of the dialogue in the film is improvised by the actors. While the stories were outlined in a script, Astles worked with the cast throughout several rehearsals to establish the scenes and the actual dialogue was all improvised when filming.
During many of the scenes, the actors were placed in public and filmed on a long lens, so that the public weren't aware filming was taking place, and real reactions were captured; this technique was also used in other films centred around homelessness, including Cathy Come Home (Ken Loach, 1966) and Time Out Of Mind (Oren Moverman, 2014).
The script is composed entirely of events described in interviews with rough sleepers, taken over a period of an entire year.
The film is being made in collaboration with many local and national charities, shelters and councils.