The 11-minute tracking shot took four takes to successfully complete. The third take was perfect, except that actor Kevin Carroll accidentally forgot to pocket the bottle of chemicals used to complete the scene. He tried his best to improvise/stall in order to further the scene, but was unable to continue. Needless to say, he nailed the scene on the fourth take.
The three time lapses that occur during the 11-minute tracking shot were achieved by having a production assistant change the time on the clock as the camera panned away from it upon establishing the first set time. The camera would then proceed into the rest of the auto body shop and once the camera panned away from the car and the main action, the production assistant would arrange the chairs and other props in their proper places. At this point, the camera would settle upon the clock - now set to a different time - and continue in this manner once more.
The auto body shop was reduced to a freezer as the furnace had to be turned off in order to accommodate the sound. Combining the temperature, the length of the tracking shots, the several takes it took to successfully execute them, and the weight of the camera, Alfredo nearly fainted after removing the shoulder mount thanks to a rush of blood to the head. A hard lesson learned, he still deals with sporadic pain in his right shoulder and back.
Contrary to the belief that a black and white palette was employed simply for artistic merit, research shows that some, if not most, people dream in black and white, or in limited color, and in continuous, fluid sequences allowing scenes and people to mesh and meld into one another. Hence, the black and white, 11-minute tracking shot that spans three time lapses and contains four characters.
Foster is the only character who doesn't have a surname. This was intentionally done in order to underscore his outsider personality, a man without a family.