Before shooting, the director asked the main actors to meet their real life counterparts.
Shooting began with the taking of the family pictures, so that the actors could immerse themselves into the roles immediately and become a family from the start.
The story is based on the life of photographer Masashi Asada, specifically the genesis of two photography books of his: the one with the family pictures, and the one about the volunteers in the wake of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake.