Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti were so great in the first movie that they shortened the shooting time.

Filmmaker Jesse Eisenberg revealed to the audience at the Middleburg Film Festival, along with Moore, star of his latest film The First, that every scene used was his first and second.

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There are many aspects about Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti that stand out. It's the breadth of what both actors have accomplished in their decades-long careers — plus Oscar wins, nominations and other awards — but what most thrilled "Debut" writer/director Jesse Eisenberg was how quickly they were able to do it.

"Oh, my God. Paul and Julian, I feel like I have a hard time describing this to people who don't make movies every day, because it's so unusual. But usually, when you make a movie, especially the leads, they do five or six takes, so you do the scene five or six times before they get comfortable with their props, and now they're going to go to them normally. Filmmaker "If you ever, ever find two actors who are great with their performances, with the props and the lines," the recent Oscar-nominated "Real Pain" said while speaking to the audience at the Middelburg Film Festival. RELATED FESTIVAL FESTIVAL FILM SOLD SOLD: College Drama Chase Infinity Starring Nikki Byrne 'Julia's Collection' Goes to SPC 'Sense and Sense' Dresses Are a Love Letter to Stealing Your Sister's Dress

Eisenberg happened to be sitting next to Moore as he praised her and her (unfortunately ill) co-star's skill. "At any given moment, what you're seeing in this film is the first and second takes of the two main actors to the point where we had the first two days planned out - eight days of musical numbers, big band effort - we shot them in one day," he said.

The filmmaker (and fledgling songwriter) previously spoke with IndieWire and explained that while The Debut featured a cast as big as Moore and Giamatti, at the end of the day it was still an indie film. "It's a low-budget movie. [Nobody got paid a lot]," he said. "When you have actors like that, they're great. When they were good, we moved on to the next scene." And the budget remains too constant.

In Middleburg, Eisenberg reiterated that the reason he was comfortable making the first one the way it was, shooting one or two shots from each scene in the comedy-musical hybrid, was “all because they were perfect. And it's like you see the first take and you're like, “We could do it again, but are we wasting the movie? That's great."