The film was shot in a single long take by Sturla Brandth Grøvlen from 4:30 to 7:00 A.M. on 27 April 2014 in the Kreuzberg and Mitte neighborhoods. The script consisted of 12 pages, with most of the dialogue being improvised.

To get financiers onboard, director Sebastian Schipper promised to deliver a version using traditional shot cutting as “plan B” if he couldn’t achieve the final product in a true single take. The cut version was filmed first, over 10 days, as a series of 10-minute takes, so that Schipper would have a completed film even if the one-take version failed. Schipper has characterised the cut version as “not good”. The budget permitted only three attempts at the one-take version. According to Schipper, the first attempt was dull because the actors were too cautious, being afraid to make mistakes; the second attempt was the opposite, as the actors went “crazy”. Schipper says he became “angry” and “terrified” after seeing the second take and realizing he had only one chance left; in a subsequent meeting, he gave the cast a “hairdryer speech … [it] was not a meeting that ended in hugs and ‘good talk.’ It was crazy. But the tension was built on knowing we wanted the same thing”. Schipper believes the final attempt was successful because there was an element of “aggression” missing from the other versions.