Even though the film is shot in a cinema verite style, Romero still chose to use a cinematographer, as opposed to letting the cast film the movie themselves. Romero would state: "I had this idea that I could use film students out shooting a school project and zombies begin to walk and they document it. I wanted to do this subjective camera thing before I knew anybody else was working on it.
Even though the film is shot in a cinema verite style, Romero still chose to hire a cinematographer for the movie instead of letting the actors film themselves. He had an idea where students filming a school project would encounter zombies and document their encounters. This was his intention to use a subjective camera approach before others in the industry started doing it.