Editing Even Dwarfs Started Small (section)

==Production==
{{More citations needed section|date=May 2023}}
The film was shot on the [[Canary Islands]], at [[Lanzarote]]. It was produced during the same time period as Herzog's ''[[Fata Morgana (1972 film)|Fata Morgana]]'' and ''[[The Flying Doctors of East Africa]]'', and there are visual and thematic connections between the three works. Notably, the goggles worn by the blind dwarfs are the same style as the goggles which several people wear in ''Fata Morgana''.<ref name="dvd" />

During the filming, Herzog gave some surprising stage directions to elicit particular performances from the actors. In directing one dwarf who continually struggled not to laugh, Herzog repeatedly told the actor that he must not laugh, but then made funny faces at him as soon as he started filming.<ref name="dvd" />

While filming the scene where a van drives in circles with no one at the wheel, one of the actors was run over, but immediately stood up uninjured. During the flower burning scene, the same actor caught fire and Werner Herzog raced over and beat the fire out. The actor only had minor injuries from the fire. After these two accidents, Herzog promised the actors that if they made it through the rest of filming without any more injuries he would jump into a [[cactus]] patch and allow the actors to film him doing so. The film was finished without any further injuries and the director made good his promise and dived into the cacti. Herzog has said, "Getting out was a lot more difficult than jumping in."<ref name="hh">{{cite book | last = Herzog | first = Werner | title = Herzog on Herzog | publisher = [[Faber and Faber]] | year = 2001 | isbn = 0-571-20708-1 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/herzogonherzog00herz }}</ref> The vehicle-in-circles scene was inspired by an incident that occurred when Herzog worked as a steward at the [[Oktoberfest|Munich Oktoberfest]] as a young man. Part of his duty was ensuring that drunk patrons did not attempt to drive their cars home, so when a drunk man insisted that he was capable of driving, Herzog got into his car with him, placed the steering wheel on full lock, then got out of his car. The man passed out and the car continued to drive in a circle until it ran out of [[petrol]]. This situation was repeated at the end Herzog's 1977 film [[Stroszek]].