It took now 31 year old writer / actor / director / editor Andrew Bujalski over three years for his debut feature Funny Ha Ha, shot in Boston in 2001, to open in theaters. Hailed as, "as close to perfection as any Amerindie has come in recent memory" (Dennis Lim, Village Voice), the low-budget 16mm color film shot mostly with Bujalski's friends won the Harvard film school graduate, comparisons to Jim Jarmusch and Mike Leigh. In 2006, Bujalski is charming the socks off of critics again with his black & white 16mm sophomore effort, Mutual Appreciation, loosely following the voyage of Alan (Justin Rice), a 20-something musician who leaves the fragments of his Bostonian band behind in hopes of cutting his own slice of the Brooklyn music pie. On a wet East Coast Thursday, Bujalski phoned in while driving in Boston to chat about his hometown, the merits of black & white and the return of Rocky in December 2007.

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GIANT STEP: In all of the interviews, there’s a lot about Boston. Is that where you grew up?

ANDREW BUJALSKI: Yea. Massachusetts. Newton, MA.

GS: How far from Boston is that?

AB: Oh, not too far, about 10 minutes by car.

GS: What kind of movie theaters were there when you were growing up?

AB: Mostly multiplexes. There was one independent, West Newton Cinema. It was funny, as that was the only theater where they would not let me into a R rated film without my mother.

GS: At what age did you understand the role of a movie director?

AB: It’s peculiar. I’m not sure I know today what the director is supposed to be doing. I was definitely a movie nerd growing up, but I don’t really know the exact age when it made sense. Probably pretty early on, like 10 years old. I remember when Premier Magazine first arrived, and I really loved those early issues. That was probably my first hints of training.

GS: In past interviews you’ve mentioned feeling guilty as a role model to young filmmakers as you’ve funded both of your films with private funding. But I’d say your films are actually quite motivational as you make the process look so easy, like grab a camera and film your friends. Was your decision to film ‘Mutual Appreciation’ in black & white motivated by budgetary reasons?

AB: No, not at all. Actually, you end up paying more on the back end with black & white, as the film is cheaper, but the development will get you. It was not an economic decision.

GS: In the Q&A [following the New York screening at Cinema Village], you mentioned feeling that black & white is more comical?

AB: It felt like the right mood for the film – deadpan. Black & white is great for deadpan. It’s hard to put your finger on it, because it is an abstraction. Maybe the next generation won’t understand. As a viewer, you’re not acutely aware that you’re watching black & white.

GS: Do you think you’ll work in black & white going forward, or again? How did the experience compare to the color of Funny Ha Ha, your first film?

AB: They're different films and different experiences. For Mutual Appreciation, I didn’t want to put up funny lights everywhere to get in the way of the actors. With black & white you can use simple lighting, even two lights, which would look bad in color, but it looks great in black & white. It’s fairly harsh lighting, but it works. I don’t know about the future. I’m excited about doing color again.

GS: What are you up to now, working on your next film? On the Internet Movie Database [www.imdb.com], it looks like you are actually acting now, or I guess that's already in the bag.

AB: Well, when talking about motivators for the next generation, that's Joe Swanberg. He's incredibly resourceful & he asked me over the summer to act in his new film [Hannah Takes The Stairs], so I went to Chicago for a week and a half. It was nerve racking, terrifying – not to be in control of things.

GS: It looks like you have a writing credit too, for added material?

AB: [surprised] Oh, well, I'm not sure how Joe will do the credits. There was no script. I didn’t really write anything. It was a really loose structure.

GS: I haven't read most of the formal reviews of Mutual Appreciation, but a question that came up in the Q&A as well as in forums online is if people really interact with their friends the way they do in the film. It’s an interesting question as, like you have mentioned in the past, it seems older people are watching the film & saying, “Yes, that’s what it was like growing up, trying to figure out where I was going.” Is your writing driven anecdotally or more by a mood you’re trying to achieve?

AB: I'm not transcribing conversations that my friends have had. I hear it in my head.

GS: The dialogue?

AB: Yes, I’m drawn towards working with sound and getting the rhythm right. I write with a lot of specificity to the timing of getting the audio right. I might put the punctuation exactly where it's supposed to be.

GS: On the set, what is your decision rule when filming to make sure that the timing was right in a particular shot?

AB: I’m watching the actors do it exactly. It’s more of a sense than anything. Ultimately, the great thing about film is that you can do it again. I rarely say that a take was wrong, but let's try to get it closer to the way it was written in this next one. Sometimes you just let the actors let loose, edit it later, & take the best shots.

GS: Last question, I see Rocky 3 keeps coming up in your interviews as an early favorite. Any thoughts on the new Rocky?

AB: I can't fucking wait, that's my thought.