An hour before he was scheduled to shoot his second scene, the actor that played the role of Ferguson suddenly became unavailable. Unfortunately, the shoot could not be rescheduled, and the Ferguson's other scene shows him as a completely bald man- not an easily replaced role. Unwilling to lose the scene, producer Kristen Maxwell (a close body double for Ferguson) allowed a crew member to shave his head down to the skin in the bathroom of the location where they were shooting. He then donned Ferguson's ridiculous costume and proceeded to perform the character's wacky one-man presentation of "Macbeth". While his actions saved the scene (and entertained the crew to no end), Maxwell's wife was less than amused with his cavalier sacrifice.
This was the first live-action film to be completely shot, edited, and mastered on HD video at the Savannah College of Art and Design. As part of the process, the filmmakers had to research and document the proper work-flow for using HD material and creating an HD master. Their notes still serve as the official guidelines for HD production in the department.
The premise of the film is based on the fact that Producer Kristen Maxwell is the only person in his family that does not play music. His father is a drummer, his mother and oldest brother play guitar, and his middle brother is practically a one-man band. Maxwell tried and failed several times to develop his musical side, but found that filmmaking was much more his speed. During the final stages of post-production, composer Kelly Kendrick suffered a fatal computer crash and lost several important musical cues that had not yet been finalized. There were only a few days before the score had to be completed, Kendrick was without a computer to finish the music, and the film's other composer and sound designer Justin Cruse was already working overtime to finish the sound mix. Faced with a producer's nightmare of rushing up against a final deadline without a completed soundtrack, Kristen Maxwell was forced to finish it himself. Using a small MIDI keyboard and learning sequencing software as he went, Maxwell created four musical cues. So in order to finish the film he had based on his own lack of musical talent, Maxwell ended up having to perform a significant portion of its score.
Executive producer Diane Maxwell created the prop of the Cacophone itself. Without access to a workshop or even a garage, she transformed the Maxwell family's tiny apartment's kitchen into a miniature wood-shop. Working on nights and weekends after her day job, she sawed, filed, drilled, painted, stained, screwed, hammered, and otherwise made a mess of her personal living space to bring the ungainly instrument to life.
Several of the character names in the film are referential. Erfinder is German for "inventor," a nod to the fact that Suzy's ancestor had invented the strange instrument. Ludwig is named after Ludwig von Beethoven, and Dr. Optimus Flansberg owes his namesake to both a Transformer and a member of the geek-rock band They Might Be Giants. And when the director decided to add an oddball character to the Catfish Festival Talent Show, he was inspired by a Saturday Night Live skit in which Burt Reynolds changes his name to Turd Ferguson because "it's a funny name."