If you’ve already seen Lady Bird, you’ll understand the hype around this intensely honest, raw, impulsive coming-of-age story. If you haven’t: book yourself in to see it ASAP. Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut bangs. And now you can see how it all came to life in this really cute and nice behind-the-scenes video.

The footage, via Vimeo, captures Gerwig onset with her actors: there’s never-before-seen clips of Saoirse Ronan and Lucas Hedges as Lady Bird and Danny going through a very silly and teenage romantic scene, with Gerwig behind the camera.

“I think in some ways I just continually learn to just trust that movies are big projects. They involve a lot of people and a lot time and they’re unyielding, and you can’t panic when these things come up,” Gerwig says in the onscreen interview. “You have to know that there’s kind of a crazy movie logic that will figure itself out.”

Gerwig talks about getting her guerilla film school training while acting herself. She outlines how she wanted to capture a real mother-daughter relationship, warts and all.

“The most rewarding thing is watching these actors say the words I’ve written, and bring those stories to life,” Gerwig reiterates. She asserts that though it first found life in her own personal story as a teen in early 00s Sacramento desperate to get out and experience the world, Lady Bird found its own. 

“She was just wonderful at encouraging us to incorporate who we were into the characters,” says Saoirse Ronan, who plays the loquacious, angsty Lady Bird.

Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird’s mother) adds: “You’d never know it was her first solo directing job.”

It definitely looks like it would warm any cold, dead heart being on set with Gerwig, where everyone wore name tags and goofing off and working hard produced a critically-acclaimed masterpiece.

Watch the video via Vimeo here.