His parents, Lauri and Efrem Marder, both artists from New York, lived according to the teachings of the Russian philosopher and mystic George Gurdjieff.

[1] Once Marder had started his own family, he moved with his then wife and two children to New York, where their youngest child was born shortly afterwards.

Marder met producer Dan Campbell, who told him about the life story of treasure hunter Lance Larson.

Cianfrance had previously been working on the hybrid documentary film Metalhead, which centered on a metal drummer whose eardrums are ruptured and then becomes deaf.

[15] The film was shot in 2018 in Marder's native Massachusetts, primarily in Ipswich, but also in Boston, Lynn, Cambridge, Danvers, Framingham, Lawrence, Malden, Rowley, and Topsfield.

[1] In 2014, Marder appeared on the hidden camera show Impractical Jokers as an unwitting passer-by to James Murray and Sal Vulcano's challenge; a discussion about whose story of losing their virginity was more embarrassing.