All of the characters portrayed by Eric Keitel have direct ties to Cincinnati, which happens to be Eric's hometown. In Barry Berry's cooking show, Barry is preparing Cincinnati chili. Les Nessman's reportage quotes a line from the original opening credits of "WKRP in Cincinnati (1978)." Huell Howser III is belauding the virtues of Cincinnati from the banks of the miles-wide Ohio River. Charlie Hustle [Cincinnati Red Pete Rose's nickname] is expounding on Ohio's famous buckeye nut.
The scenes that take place in Tom Caudell's and Ivan Sutherland's homes were all shot in the same castle-like house in the Hollywood Hills. The owner of the house collects several eclectic items, including candelabras from around the world... some of which appear in the Tom and Ivan scenes.
The vignettes featuring Eric Keitel in various roles on the TV in the hotel room were shot on an iPhone 12 Pro Max to intentionally give them a flatter, more video-like appearance than the rest of the film.
The video call between Tom Caudell and Ivan Sutherland was originally shot using screen recordings of an actual video call. However, the quality of the screen recordings was deemed insufficient for the film, so the call was reshot in its entirety on the Red camera used for the rest of the movie.
Eric Mark and Brian Fleck wrote the screenplay for "Contact(s)" at the same time as they wrote the short "Quaayayp" Upon completion of the scripts, Brian flew from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to Los Angeles, California, USA and they shot "Contact(s)" with director Bill Sarine in Hollywood. A few days later, Eric and Brian flew to La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico where they shot "Quaayayp" under Brian's direction.