In her essay "Climbing Brokeback Mountain," Diana Ossana writes,
Michael Costigan was on set with us for nearly the entire shoot. His humor and innate common sense served us all in good stead. As the days passed and together we endured rain, snow, sleet, hail, sunburn, windburn, sheep wrangling, mosquitoes, flat tires, camping out, exhaustion, answering calls of nature wherever we could find cover and four-wheeling to the remotest of remote locations, we soon came to feel like a large extended family. And like family members who live and work in such close proximity, we had our share of squabbles, but mostly we got along, and I felt happy to be working with fine people who each expressed to me how passionate they felt about the screenplay and story, and how important it was to them to make a great film.