Shot with a 16mm Cine Kodak K100 with a mobilgrip handle. 952 frames of bigfoot were shot, amounting to approximately 39.7 seconds (at 24 frames per second). It was strongly rumored that special makeup effects wizard John Chambers created a suit that was used in this film, as part of an elaborate hoax. Both the filmmakers and Chambers himself have denied this accusation.
Patterson's original plan had been to make a docudrama film about a group of cowboys, led by an Indian tracker, searching for the legendary Bigfoot. The movie was ultimately not made, but resulted in the short film of woodland horseback footage and the famous "Bigfoot" encounter.