Andrew Bujalski Unpacks His Process
"What I tend to be interested in is another kind of drama."
"It's an 8th of a page Michael, what could it cost? A million dollars?"
What does it cost to hire a professional dog?
Line producer extraordinaire Pete McClellan breaks it down.
Pete McClellan: If you go to the IATSE contract, there are specific rates for animal wranglers. They're paid basically on par with some of your department head rates. It's a specialty position that's kind of hard to negotiate outside of what the union contract states. That's a good jumping off point, to look at the expense of that person's labor. You're probably only paying a few hundred dollars to have the dog. And then depending on what contract you're under with IATSE or if you're non-union, you're probably looking at $50 to $80 per hour for the trainer. And so it's kind of a wide range. If the dog is just sitting there or you need something simple, you're not talking thousands of dollars. Additionally, though, if you want the 'No Animals Were Harmed' certificate, you'll need to hire an AHA monitor. If you’re working on a SAG Low Budget Production, it's free, but the Basic Agreement is a $500/day fee and non-union is $1,200/day. Either way, you should register your production with them, even if you opt out of the certificate.
Pete McClellan is a Brooklyn based Producer, Line Producer, and UPM, whose credits include The Dutchman, which premiered at SXSW '25, Dandelion available on AMC+, and All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, from Pastel and A24. His Instagram is @mcclellanpete.
HELLO, AND WELCOME TO MOVIE PHONE!
Hey Kathy! What should I see this Week in New York?
Kathy Del Beccaro is an urban planner and researcher dedicated to the preservation of small business and the evolution of moviegoing in communities. She is the Managing Director of the Rockaway Film Festival. She also watches a kind of insane number of movies each year.
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THE FEATURE ATTRACTION
Andrew Bujalski Follows the Thread
What does it mean to let performances lead the way?
Recently, Andrew Bujalski was in town for a 20-year anniversary Mumblecore series that Metrograph was hosting. He introduced his first two films, Hannah Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation, which were featured in the series, as well as 2015’s Results, which was separately celebrating its own ten-year anniversary. Over the years, Bujalski has expressed mixed feelings about his films being digested within the context of Mumblecore. On the one hand, Mumblecore is a construct and the filmmakers who’ve been grouped together through it weren’t working off a shared manifesto. On the other hand, it’s great that the movement continues to spark interest for his early films.
And so, rather than focus too much on Mumblecore, I tried to use Bujalski’s visit as an excuse to learn about his process on those early films, how it’s evolved over the years, and how he’s managed to maintain a filmmaking career without compromising on his thoroughly independent vision. We also discussed the state of the filmmaking scene in Austin, Texas, where he lives, and his interest in strip-mall America.
How has your view of these movies shifted over the years? And how does it feel to revisit them?
That's such a loaded question. It's like, how do you feel when you look at an old yearbook? One thing that's great about filmmaking is it's so collaborative. And very much so with a movie like Mutual Appreciation, where we're trying to make a movie out of our own little subculture. I look back at that and certainly there's stuff I can be mortified about. I was feeling some of that last night [when it screened]. I was feeling like, "Oh, there's a lot of me in this movie, and those are all the most boring parts." These are predictable self-conscious feelings. But then I also look at the work that the cast did, that my DP did; so many people contributed so much to these movies, and I don't ever fall out of love with that. That makes it easier for me to come back to them, if always a little strange. You're always getting a perspective on yourself that you may or may not want.
Why do you think Mumblecore holds this continued fascination for people?
I couldn't begin to answer that. That's cultural critique, that's not my beat. I've always been grateful for the attention and to be associated with some filmmakers I admire both professionally and personally. And I like that the word tends to connote community — or a particular community — to some degree. But in terms of aesthetic connotations, I leave that to you guys to figure out.
Well let me put it this way: As you’ve done anniversary screenings and Q&As over the years, is there a sense what continues to resonate for audiences?
Certainly with those early movies I did, we were trying to be as specific as possible. We weren't sanding anything off for a mass audience. For better or for ill, that's part of the pulse of those movies. But I understand it's what alienates other people. I hope we were able to get at enough that felt true to us that it will hold up. The dream was that if we're specific enough and we mean it enough, then maybe somebody will get some meaning out of that — whether it's tomorrow or ten or twenty years from now. But all this stuff is so unpredictable. And we've all lived long enough to see things that we thought would last forever get washed away.
Part of what I think is interesting about your approach with those early ones is that you wanted to focus primarily on character and performance in favor of the technical aspects of filmmaking. What did that wind up looking like practically speaking?
Everything was subservient to performance and character. I've been very lucky my whole career to work with Matthias Grunsky, who is a great DP and extremely competent in all manners technical. We're in communication about everything, but I know he'll be on top of that stuff and it’s going to look good. But I hope there's a trust there that I'm going to keep making his job hard for him. And every time we find new ways to make it hard. On those movies, it was that we're not going to give the actors marks. Sometimes we cheated. But usually it was like, this scene is going to go where it goes and we'll do our best to keep up with it. That doesn't mean you don't plan anything and it doesn't mean it's all bullshit on the fly. But always leaving room for the performances to lead, which is not how it always works on a movie set.
Are you doing a lot of rehearsal? Games?
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