Hegedus: I don't work in a big corporation and I never have. A lot of the business-culture phenomenon that they were instigating -- doing a cheer, going on retreats -- they had to do in some ways. They grew so fast, from just a handful of guys to 250 employees. I found that fascinating to watch because it was so different from my world. They were able to be so young and take these aspects seriously, which obviously came out of going to business school.

Noujaim: I learned a lot from the way that Kaleil ran the business. And a lot of it is things that people will laugh at -- the meditation in the forest, how serious he was when he was getting the troops to go forward -- but at the same time it's a culture that worked.

You filmed 400 hours. How do you even start to work with that, to edit it down?

Hegedus: It was an enormous amount. The first step is finding a story. The second is getting back what you have on tape. We knew the story that we were telling was very personal, so we were looking for a story that would tell the experience of the Internet and this company, but through these two buddies.

You have a lot of smart business-speak in the film, and it's mocked at the same time. Still, you were able to let them talk about very difficult concepts without explaining much. Did you feel like you had a license to focus on the human part of it and go short with explaining terms because we live in a media universe where we understand a lot of V.C.-speak?

Hegedus: No, it was a huge problem for us. I wanted to make a film for a general audience. When I started this, V.C. stood for Viet Cong. There was tons of vocabulary, not just with the business part but the technical part. They would go into this shorthand and Jehane and I would go into the bathroom, which was kind of our little office, and ask each other what they were talking about.

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Noujaim: It was a challenge. When we were filming I was constantly thinking, "Kaleil, speak in English."

The technological aspect takes a back seat as well. Was there just too much expository stuff that you would have to slog through as a viewer?

Noujaim: That was disappointing for Tom. He was up until midnight every night working on the technology. But it's just very difficult for a general audience to understand what exactly is going on. And in the end, we were much more interested in the story than in making a process film about an Internet company.

Did your film, your craft, turn into something that was more business oriented because you were surrounded by all this business culture?

Noujaim: Totally. I spent three years of savings on this film.

Did you ever invest in the company?

Noujaim: No. It was such a temptation at the beginning. Kaleil had this great idea that I could buy into the company now, sell in series B, and that could go toward financing the film. Or taking stock options. I was so tempted -- all these people were going to become millionaires and I would be stuck holding this camera, following them around. A family member of mine did invest -- he lost everything. But I had to put all my money into this film, because something was going to come out of it in the end. There was this real optimism: I don't want to work for the man anymore; I want to do my own thing.

What involvement did Pennebaker and his office have? I'm surprised that you spent all of your money, that there wasn't some money coming from one of the most respected documentarians in the country.

Noujaim: I was surprised that they don't get funding for all of their films, but they don't. It's just not a moneymaking business. But Penne's a charming and amazing person, and he was generally kind of an advisor. At the beginning, I would come to him and say, "Kaleil wouldn't let me into these five meetings. What do I do? Do you think he's losing interest?" And he would say, "You need to have a talk with him and tell him that this is as important to you as his business is to him."

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