The concept for the film was conceived of by David Murakami, Alex Caan and Paul Rossi less than 6 minutes after the team received their random genres. Shooting was brisk, with only six hours elapsing from the first rehearsal to the final shot.
During shooting, Ian Dick (Herman Hill) acted as a shadow director by calling shots, "motivating" the talent and "encouraging" better performances by maintaining eye contact with the actors during their scenes and waving a gun around.
The working title for "Family in Progress" was "That Hostage Show", and is a play off of "filming in progress".