Although this short has been widely praised and is considered a classic of its kind, Carl Theodor Dreyer had no interest in short subjects (including his own) and regarded projects like this simply as a way to support himself between features.
According to cameraman Jørgen Roos, Carl Theodor Dreyer suggested that they approach the Ministry of Justice to obtain a prisoner of war, condemned to be executed, and cast him as the driver of the film, on the condition that he would be freed if he survived the filming. Predictably, nothing came of this plan, and the filmmakers instead hired a professional motorcycle driver, Joseph Koch. (Koch's wife also appears in the film.)
At one point the camera motorcycle, carrying cameraman Jørgen Roos in its sidecar, approached a truck so fast that the driver panicked and swerved into them, driving the cycle off the road and into a tree. Luckily, neither the driver nor Roos hit the tree head on, but both were thrown from the vehicle, and Roos sustained a broken wrist and rib. When Carl Theodor Dreyer reached the scene, he inspected the camera first to see if it was damaged before checking to see if Roos and the driver were okay.
Reportedly, this 11-minute film contains more cuts than Carl Theodor Dreyer's two-hour final feature, Gertrud (1964).
Carl Theodor Dreyer's script for this short subject was an adaptation of a story by Danish author Johannes V. Jensen, who won the Nobel Prize in 1944, several years before this film was made. The concept for the film was the producer's, not Dreyer's.