The title 8 1/2 refers to the number of films Federico Fellini had directed before making this one—six feature films, two short films (counted as one), and one co-directed feature, adding up to "eight and a half."

True to standard Italian filmmaking practices of the era, the movie was shot entirely without sound recording on set. Every single line of dialogue was dubbed later during post-production. Because Fellini was famous for shouting spontaneous directions to actors while the camera rolled and rewriting lines later, much of the dialogue does not quite match the actors' lip movements.

An early working title for the film was La bella confusione, which translates directly to "The Beautiful Confusion", a fitting description of its dreamlike blend of memory, fantasy, and reality.

To keep himself from sinking into the heavy, anxiety-ridden existential dread that his main character Guido (Marcello Mastroianni) experiences, Fellini taped a small note to himself directly below the camera’s eyepiece on set that read: "Remember, this is a comedy."