MELANIA CRISAN
February Filmmaker of the Month
Melania Crisan is a European actress, director, and writer, born in Transylvania and based in London. In 2013 she finished her Bachelor in acting in Cluj, Romania at the Babes-Bolyai University, and immediately after that, she pursued a further study in acting for two years at the Athanor Academy, in Passau, Germany.
She has been working in German, Romanian and British productions. She is best known for her romantic comedy "Titus and Mirabella" and the horror film "Guest" by Finn Callan.
Melania has won several awards at international film festivals both as an actress and a director. Some of her most notable TV appearances are "Schicksale", "XY-Aktenzeichen". Melania is fluent in German, English, and Romanian.
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Indie Shorts Magazine | Harrograte Film | UK Film Review
FILMMAKER INTERVIEW
Tell us your backstory. How and why did you get into filmmaking?
I got into filmmaking by accident. I studied acting and when I finished Drama School (I was in Germany at the time), I got confronted with the problem of not getting enough work as an actor. I didn’t have an agent yet, and I didn’t have much experience in films (I had only done one short film as an actress at that point). So I decided to write a scene and shoot it for my show reel so that I could get an agent. That scene was the last scene from the film Titus & Mirabella. I asked a friend of mine to read the scene and tell me his opinion, and he said that it feels more like a short film rather than a show reel scene. So I decided to develop the story and turn it into a short film. After I had the script, I figured I have to direct it if I want the film to turn the way I imagined it. And after I decided to direct it, I realized that I also need to produce it, because I didn’t know anyone else who would put the effort and the energy into my project the same way I did. So, that’s how I got into filmmaking. And now I want to keep doing it, because it feels very good being able to tell my own stories.
What are the specific qualities that, in your opinion, make a film great?
Hmm…I think that the story, so the script plays a huge role in whether the film turns out good or not, but then so does the acting and the directing. I think that these three elements are the ones that influence the film the most. I think it has to be a combination of these three elements, and then of course comes the editing and the music and the sound and so on.
The technical aspects matter too, of course. But even if we have the technical quality and a good production value, it still isn’t enough, if the story, the directing and the acting aren’t good enough. A good story works even if it’s shot with a lower quality camera, but if a bad story is shot with the best camera in the world, it’s still bad.
What films have been the most inspiring or influential to you and why?
First of all, the sitcoms that inspired my short film obviously had a great influence over my work. I think a lot of films influenced me as an artist over the years, but if I have to choose a few that influenced my current scripts, those would probably be: Call me by your name, Midnight in Paris, all of the Ingmar Bergman films, LalaLand, La Vita e Bella, all Audrey Hepburn films. Some of them influenced me visually, others in terms of dialogue, others in terms of overall atmosphere or emotional range.
What’s harder? Getting started or being able to keep going? And what drives you to continue making films?
For me, getting started wasn’t difficult because I can get easily very enthusiastic about things in the beginning, and when you are younger and know very little about the industry, you have all this power and impetus.
What is harder is to keep going. Sometimes not knowing how exactly this industry works is better because it allows you to focus on your craft and your art. For me, finishing the short film was hard, because I had no budget for the post-production and not much knowledge either. So I had to learn everything on the job and to work other jobs at the same time to be able to pay for the sound or the colour grading.
After making one film, I find it harder to start a second one, because I accumulated some knowledge now and I am more aware of the things that I still have to learn, and more afraid of repeating the same mistakes. So the fear of making mistakes can hold you back. What can also discourage you, is knowing more about the industry and how it works and the fact that quality is not always winning over the so called marketability of a film.
What drives me to continue making films is my strong desire to tell my stories and the fact that I know I have a vision that I haven’t seen much in cinema yet and that I have something to say. For me, film is the best medium to express that vision.
How do you know when your story’s finished, when to walk away?
Hmm…if we talk about the script, then to me a script is finished when the film is finished. And a film is finished when I feel like I explored all combinations that I could think of (in terms of shooting, editing, music, sound and so on), when I went several routes and explored several possibilities but then decided on one. It is also a gut feeling, most of the times. Sometimes you just feel that this is the right editing of the scene, or this is the right moment for the music to stop, or this is the right graphics for the credits. When something feels right, you choose it, and stick to it. At least, that’s how I try to do it. But obviously it is very hard…being a director…because the possibilities are endless. I often times had a hard time deciding on one thing, especially in post-production.
How many films have you completed? What is your favorite project you have worked on and why?
I have worked on five short films now as an actress and three TV series, but only on one short film as a filmmaker (director, screenwriter and producer). Titus & Mirabella, the film that I wrote, directed, produced and acted in, is definitely my favorite project, because I learned so much by doing it, because it was hard to do it and I love challenging things, because it represents me best as an artist out of all the other films that I acted in, and because I love seeing people laugh when watching it.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
A big source of inspiration for me is music. Almost all of my script ideas came to me while I was listening to music. Music transports me into other worlds instantly and I just start seeing characters, and stories and visuals. It’s magical.
Other films or books inspire me too. And I also draw inspiration from my life experiences which are quite a lot, even though some might say that I’m still young.
What is your favorite aspect of film production?
Because acting was my first ever passion related to film, I will say acting. It is intoxicating imagining the inner life of another person. And then the next favorite thing would be writing because it gives me so much freedom and I get the chance to explore any topic or character or world or visuals that I want. Watching a film I made together with an audience is also an amazing moment.
Why did you choose to submit to the Breckenridge Film Festival? What do you look for in a festival where you hope to show your film?
I chose to submit to the Breck Film Festival because it had genre categories and because it had good reviews on Filmfreeway and it’s one of the oldest film festivals in the US. It is a film festival with a long tradition and I wanted to be a part of that tradition.
Because my film is a romantic comedy and I knew that comedies aren’t necessarily a priority in film festivals, I looked for festivals that would have categories based on the genre of the film.
I usually look for festivals that offer connection opportunities, interesting panels, good films, distribution opportunities, a sales market, exposure.
You are a collaborator. Did you make any connections at the Breckenridge Film Festival that have led to collaborations with other filmmakers?
Unfortunately, because I couldn’t attend in person, I didn’t really get to know the other filmmakers, but I am looking forward to meeting personally at least the organizers in the next years.
Can you describe the business behind independent filmmaking and how you are trying to get your film seen?
I am still learning a lot about the production and distribution of independent filmmaking. I just went out and made a film with the help of sponsors and a team without any financing from the state, investors or organizations. In the post-production I had to invest my own money. But I hope that I won’t have to do that again for my next project.
In terms of distribution, I did a lot of research about platforms that distribute short films, I signed up to film markets, I applied to a few distribution companies and I got really lucky, because after sending my film to Shorts TV, they offered me a distribution deal for TV and then a few months after I entered the film into the film market at Clermont Ferrand Festival, I got a worldwide distribution deal from an American distribution company. They are now in negotiations to distribute my film on streaming platforms and other types of channels and mediums.
What are the hurdles you have had to overcome in order to recoup the costs of producing the film? (If you feel comfortable discussing exact financials, you are welcome to do so.)
Well, to be honest, I haven’t recouped all the costs yet. I did recoup a part of the costs, but not all of them, yet. But the film is also not released yet. It’s only been shown on Shorts TV on their American and European TV channels. I hope that once it will be out on streaming platforms, I will be able to recoup more of the costs.
But to me, at this point in my career, it would be more exciting if this film would lead to further projects rather than to some financial profit. I know that a lot of short films don’t ever recoup the costs, so I consider myself lucky that I managed to get at least a part of the money that I invested back.
What are the next project or projects you are beginning work on?
I wrote two feature films and one TV pilot since finishing my short and I am at a stage where I polish the scripts and enter them into competitions. I developed Titus & Mirabella into a TV series and started pitching it, so I hope that I will soon succeed in getting it made. The amount of script work for a TV series is obviously overwhelming, but I think it is a very funny and entertaining story, worth getting made. The two feature films are both love stories. I will start pitching them as well, as soon as I am at peace with the scripts.
If there is one or more thing you think would make the film industry better, what would it be?
I think it would be a lot easier for the good films to get made, if there weren’t so many gate keepers, and so many executive people in the industry who have no artistic qualifications but who are deciding over which films are worth making and which not. I know that a lot of managers and executives studied law or management or economics and have no real connection to film or knowledge about the art of filmmaking.
Regarding film as a just a business is a mistake in my opinion. Deciding which films to finance solely based on statistics and previous successes at the box office, means new ideas and new innovative films can very rarely get off the ground. They don’t take any artistic risks anymore.
In Europe, nowadays, there is this fashion of financing films that present a social topic regardless of whether the script is good or not, whether the concept of the film is interesting and new or not. That is also a mistake, in my opinion. We need to be careful with the over politicization of the film industry. If a film about a social topic is well written and has an interesting concept, by all means, get it made, but if that topic is there, in the story, just to make sure the film gets financed and then Oscar nominated, then that’s a wrong way of making art, in my opinion, because the artists are not true to themselves.
Another thing that I’ve noticed is that a lot of directors or casting agents or producers cast actors who aren’t aligned with the nationality, accent, skin color of the characters. It’s getting better, but we still have a long way to go. I’ve seen recently the film Radioactive with Rosamund Pike who plays the famous chemist, Marie Curie, who was Polish. Rosamund Pike is British. She didn’t even try to speak with a foreign accent. She just played Marie Curie with a British accent. She did a great job at playing her, but I am sure there would have been a Polish or a French actress (Marie Curie lived most of her life in France) who could have played her just as well, or maybe even better. I mean, actors should be allowed to transform and play roles that are very different to them, but I think that in certain projects like this one, for example, where the whole wide world knows that Marie Curie was Polish, they could have cast a Polish actress. So casting more minorities and more to the role in terms of nationality, accent, skin color, would benefit, I think, everyone in the industry, because it would also give the films a more truthful feel.
I’m sure there would be several other things that need changing in the industry but these are some that came to me now.
