From the set of his new film, All the Real Girls, which he is shooting in a small town called Marshall, in the Great Smoky Mountains just north of Asheville, N.C. "We're about four weeks into production, and like George Washington, we're discovering it as we go along."

Mr. Green describes the film as "a small-town love story, but it's about relationships among people of all ages, from 7 to 70." The leads are Paul Schneider, who played a supporting role as a scooter-riding redneck in George Washington, and Zooey Deschanel, who appeared in Almost Famous. For much of the rest of the cast, Mr. Green said, "We just hit the bars and hang around town, looking for people with something to say or who have an interesting look."

"In 25 words or less," Mr. Green said, "it's about a young guy who falls in love with his best friend's little sister. But it's hard for me to leave it at that, because it's also about the way the sun sets, the way the trees blow in the wind. It's got a lot of boring parts," he said. "Those are my favorites. I love the boring stuff." The film is being financed by Jean Doumanian's New York-based production company and by Sony Pictures Classics, which will also distribute it. And with a little more money this time, Mr. Green is enjoying a longer shooting schedule, a larger crew and occasional days off.

"Everybody's getting paid this time," he said. "The crew of the film is now not just my friends who helped me make George Washington, but my friends and their friends, too."

Although Asheville is famous for its fall foliage, Mr. Green deliberately waited to shoot until late in the season, when "the postcard-ness has left," he said. "With the leaves fallen, we still have the forest and the hills, the grayness and the rust that's left behind in the wilderness around here.

"This is a location I'm just drawn to, on the riverside and up in the hills. The people who come down are so full of character as they are that they don't need a writer or anybody to tell them what to do. They've got a lot to say by just appearing."