According to director of photography Peter Süring, the scenes in Romania (mud volcanoes and salt mines) were the first to be shot. The film laboratory at the Romanian National Film Studios in Buftea were used to processing Eastman Kodak stock, and were initially unable to process the East German ORWO negative. After re-calibrating the Romanian lab equipment, it was able to process the ORWO stock, albeit with a soft contrast look that the director and DP liked. As a result, all of the footage subsequently shot at the Babelsberg Studios in East Germany was shipped on a daily basis to Romania for processing.