The second round of shooting began with an early Wednesday morning drive to downtown Ft. Myers, where we met with a local commissioner who shared his personal perspective about the housing boom.  Elected officials have certainly received their fair share of criticism for lacking the oversight during the escalation of the housing boom to prevent the rampant overspeculation that has resulted in price collapses.  Consequently, they have now encountered criticism for not doing enough to remedy the downturn.  Nevertheless, the commissioner expressed a sincere optimism for the future of Southwest Florida, pointing out that economic growth and expansion is no stranger to Lee County, and a plethora of developments are already underway to counter the economic stagnation that resulted from the housing crisis.

The rest of our Wednesday was spent in meetings and on the phone, scheduling some awesome interviews for upcoming weeks.  On Thursday, we conducted two fantastic interviews with 2 other Lee County officials, who offered some rather fascinating and humorous assessments of the local situation.  Furthermore, we are learning more and more about the history of Lehigh Acres, which was founded in the early 1960s by a group of rather savvy speculators - not unlike the recent batch of troublemakers...stay tuned for more updates!

By now, you've probably had a chance to see our new teaser trailer, as we've posted it on Youtube - with a link on our homepage.  We wanted to give you, the viewer, a glimpse of how captivating many of the stories we've heard really are.  These aren't "talking heads" or pundits; these are the voices of the people affected by the housing crisis on a daily basis.

The final film won't simply be stories, of course.  We have plenty of local and state officials, real estate brokers, academic economists, and a host of other contributors whose opinions and insights also shed light onto the harrowing drama that has unraveled in front of our eyes these past few years.  But without hearing the voices of the affected (some of whom are also elected officials, brokers, and economists!), we would be jeopardizing our duty to future generations to preserve the lessons of history.

Be sure to stay tuned for further updates in the coming weeks, as material will be flowing in at an increasingly fast pace.  We appreciate your comments and feedback, and thanks for tuning in!

Phew - sure feels good to be home.  After conducting a few more interviews Monday afternoon, we finally returned home to the East Coast to begin compiling and editing the footage from this weekend.  We have a little over 6 hours of footage, in all.  We'll be posting a trailer sometime later this week, stay tuned! 

Here are some stills we took yesterday: 

Finding the perfect shot outside the Lehigh Acres Chamber of Commerce.

Shuttling equipment from interview to interview is no easy task, but it seems that each time we do it, it gets a little bit easier to manage...

On a brutally hot afternoon, we were scouring the streets of Lehigh for some nice footage...

Hmmm...deciding where to eat is an essential, yet challenging task...

Many of the houses in Lehigh that have been abandoned have become havens for vandalism, theft, and drug deals.  Although the population of Lehigh is less than 70,000, it suffers from major urban sprawl, which makes it especially difficult for law enforcement to patrol abandoned, high-risk neighborhoods.

Often, roads in Lehigh lead to nowhere.  The town is laid out of a complex, expansive grid of streets - both paved and unpaved.  However, in many areas, houses have either been constructed and left to waste or were simply never built.

This weekend was extremely productive, but we still have much more work to do.  We will return to Lehigh in early May for another stretch of shooting.  In the meantime, we have hours of footage to analyze.  A trailer is forthwith coming.

- The Team

Lehigh is sure filled with some interesting characters, some of whom we had the chance to interview today.  As we also discovered today, unplanned interviews can sometimes be the most successful interviews...

Here are some more stills for your viewing pleasure:

Arriving into town...greeted by the plethora of signs.

Assembling the shooting equipment at one of the many filming locations...

Framing the shot is a careful process, but luckily we were operating on our own schedule...

Vacant promises have turned into vacant lots, as the mantra of cheap land ($50 down and $50/month!) from years ago becomes a haunting reminder of the harsh side-effects of a housing bubble.

Desolation Row, as housing prices have plummeted throughout Lee County.  Could this be the inevitable "bottom" of the housing market?

We have at least one more interview to conduct tomorrow before we head back to the East Coast.  For our first weekend of shooting in Lehigh, we have captured a lot of valuable footage.  We should have a trailer for you shortly.

- The Team

We had an exhausting romp through the backstreets of Lehigh Acres, scouring the dusty streets for signs of the housing collapse.  Luckily for us but unluckily for everyone else, such visual signs were not hard to come by.  We snapped a couple of stills that we've posted below, and the rest will make it into the film.

The Team hard at work...

As seen on the streets of Lehigh, destroyed homes and ruined lives...

Another constructed home with no one to live in it...

Abandoned homes have been havens for migrant dwellers, drug dealers, and other transients.

Haste has made waste.

We're looking forward to tomorrow because we're interviewing a local legend, who has witnessed Lehigh's birth and its recent plunge into despair.  We'll also be doing some more exploring around Lehigh.  STAY TUNED!

-The Team

We are about to embark on a big weekend of shooting in Lehigh Acres and Fort Myers.  For the past week and a half, we have been conducting interviews, filming, and meeting with various local residents and politicians connected to the crisis.  We hope to come back with a lot of valuable footage as well as return with a better insight into the dire situation in Lehigh.  We'll keep you posted.

- The Team