Titus & Mirabella are hitting the festival circuit (Interview with Melania Crisan)
We were lucky to interview Actress Melania Crisan who completed her directorial debut with Titus & Mirabella, a comedy in which she is acting too, and which is currently under the spotlight of a number of festivals.
After obtaining a Bachelor in acting in Cluj, Romania, her home country, Melania Crisan pursued another 2-year training in acting at the Athanor Academy, in Germany. In the summer of 2016, she shot her first film, a romantic comedy, in which she serves as writer, director and lead actress. Her directorial debut called Titus & Mirabella tells the story of the first date between two people who have never had a relationship before but who desperately want one. So far, Melania Crisan’s short film has already received the Award for Best Comedy at the August 2020 edition of the Oniros Film Awards, in Italy, and got selected in a number of film festivals including the Portland Comedy Film Festival, the Austin Comedy Short Film Festival, and the LA Femme Film Festival where Titus & Mirabella will be screened on October 15-18 2020.
Hi Melania! Can you introduce yourself? Where are you from and what drew you to the world of cinema?
Hi! I am a Romanian actress, director and writer who works in the German and British film industry. I did my bachelor’s degree in acting in Romania and I then pursued a further acting study for two years in Germany where I also started my career in film. Right after graduating I landed my first lead role in a German independent production which then led to my first German agent, which led to further TV and short film roles. After three years of living in Germany I decided to move to London where I also did a few short films and commercials as an actor.
While being in Germany I wrote and shot my first short film called “Titus & Mirabella”. The film was stuck in post-production for quite a few years, partly because of the lack of time and partly also because of the lack of funds. But luckily we finished it this year and now it’s on the festival circuit, doing quite well. The film is a German-Romanian-British co-production. The shooting took place in Germany and the post-production was done in Romania and the UK.
What drove me to the world of cinema? The freedom that it gives its creators and the endless possibilities.
Can you tell us what Titus & Mirabella is about?
Titus & Mirabella is a romantic comedy about the first date between two quirky people who have never had a real romantic relationship before. An overly shy he and a she suffering of OCD on their first date. And the question is: are they about to finally have their much wanted relationship or is their date going to be one more failure in their history of dating?
In Titus & Mirabella, you develop a comedy around a strong duo of characters. What are your favorite duos in cinema? Share with us!
I actually got inspired for my two characters by the acting duos in the British sitcoms “A Fine Romance”, starring Judi Dench and Michael Williams, and “As Time Goes By”, starring Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer. I love Judi in comedies and I think she should have done a lot more comedy. I also love Laurel and Hardy and Princess Ann and Joe Bradley in “Roman Holiday”, starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. As you can tell, I am an old school type of viewer 🙂 But I do enjoy the type of humour in Friends, for example, too.
Since acting seems not to be complicated enough for you, you are also the writer and director of Titus & Mirabella! Can you explain to us how challenging this was for you to perform all those roles at the same time?
Well, luckily I didn’t have to do all these three things at the same time. Cause I first wrote the script and then I created the visual and style concept of the film and then I acted in it. The acting and directing bit on set was, of course, a bit tricky, because there are quite a few physical scenes in the film, which weren’t easy to direct whilst being in them as a character. And I did feel frustrated at times, that I couldn’t see the choreogaphy of some scenes from the outside, unless I was watching a playback. But our director of photography stepped in during those scenes and helped me figure out the choreography for them. I would now do it differently: I would ask someone on the set to play my part during blocking just in order to get an outside look at the choreography. But I didn’t think of that back then. Also, I think, having to be the director and producer on set, affected my performance a bit, because I was quite stressed by the logistical problems and the technical problems, and I didn’t get to enjoy the acting experience as much. But now I know where I made mistakes and what to do differently next time. But next time I would definitely let someone else step into the producer’s shoes 🙂
Directing also proved to be quite challenging especially in post-production, where I noticed all the mistakes that I had made on set and had to correct them. So, maybe if I would have only been the director, I would have made less mistakes on set, which then would have made my life a lot easier in post production. So it is definitely good to delegate the tasks and not to do them all yourself. Being my first project, I didn’t really have the funds and the connections to delegate, so I sort of had to do it all myself. The writing process was actually not stressful at all and I really enjoyed it, but I think, in writing, just as in the other departments, having a collaborator would have helped a great deal.
Most importantly, how did you enjoy the process of making this film?
As stressful and as hard as it was, I really enjoyed doing it, because it was a story that I believed in and a vision that I really wanted to see on screen. I remember that when I saw the raw material for the first time, when I was doing the rough cut, I was laughing out loud, by myself, so many times. So, loving the material, loving the story, made it easier to surpass the difficult moments or the moments of doubt. It was a very big learning curve for me. I hadn’t done a film before as a director or a producer or a writer, so I learned everything on the job. I still have so much to learn ahead of me. But I think this film already taught me a lot about filmmaking. So, on the whole, I would say that the process of making this film was quite a rollercoster with many ups and downs, but I am happy that it is out now and that people seem to enjoy it. The most enjoyable parts of this process for me was writing the film, acting in it and then doing the music and the sound and the color-grading in post. It was a very creative process. What I didn’t enjoy as much was the producing part and the editing part because it required a lot of patience and I sometimes loose my patience.
What were your main inspirations and intentions when working on Titus & Mirabella?
As I already mentioned before, the two British sitcoms inspired some aspects of the characters. But the whole idea of shooting a short film actually sort of came accidentally. My initial intention was to shoot a comedic scene for my acting showreel. So I wrote a scene with that in mind. That scene is now the last scene in the movie. So at the beginning it was just that one scene, written for my showreel. But then a friend told me that it is too long for a showreel and that it is more like a short film. Hearing that, made me want to develop these two characters and the story so I ended up having a fifty pages long script. Also, I really wanted to act in a comedy as an actor. But there are so few comedies that you can audition for out there, and even less comedies with interesting female characters at heart, so that was the moment when I decided to give it a try and shoot a comedy myself. And here we are now, talking about this comedy 🙂 My intention was to do a good film, the sort of film that I would like to see in a theatre and the type of film that I would like to act in.
Can you tell us about the festival career of the film and the upcoming screenings?
Sure. So the film started its festival circuit in August. Among the first festivals that we got selected by was the Oniros Film Awards, in Italy, where we won the award for Best Comedy in the August edition, and Axel and myself, we both got nominated for Best Acting Duo. Then in September the film got screened online by the Lady Filmmakers Film Festival in Beverly Hills, where we won an award for Best Romance Short, and got a nomination for Best Actor in a Short. Within the Lady Filmmakers Film Festival we will also have live screenings at Drive-in Cinemas in California. Those are planned for November and you can find tickets here.
Later in September the film premiered in Romania at Bucharest Film Awards. The short will be now screened at the LA Femme Film Festival in LA between the 15th and the 18th of October. You can find tickets here.
We will also host an online interactive screening within the LA Femme Film Festival on the 17th of October in LA, which means that we will also be there, in the virtual theatre and watch the film together with you and then answer your questions. This is the link to the event. On October 25th the film will be screened at Portland Comedy Film Festival at a Drive-in Theatre.
We also have some screenings scheduled for the spring, some in various cities in Romania and one in April at the Austin Comedy Short Film Festival, in Texas. The film got a nomination from both of these festivals: in Portland we got nominated for Best Romantic Comedy and in Austin for Best International Film. We hope more festivals will select our film and screen it in the next year.
As an actress and an artist, what did this experience bring to you compared to the other projects you’ve worked on before? How did it inspire you in view of your next projects?
Hmmm…I think it brought me more joy than maybe other projects because it allowed me to play the role that I was longing for at the time. And we all know how rarely it happens for an actor to get the exact kind of part that they’re interested in, in the exact kind of projects that they would want to be in. Or maybe if they do get it, it is maybe too late, or maybe they’re not ready for that type of project yet. So, maybe you have a period as an artist when you are really interested in period dramas, let’s say, and feel the drive to act in one, but it rarely happens to get a part in a period drama at that exact timing. Maybe you get it later, or maybe never. With this project, I got to act the exact type of role in the exact type of production that I was interested in at the time. That is a gift!
Also, the feeling of seeing your vision brought to life, is amazing. So seeing something that started as an idea in your head only, come to life and move people and make them laugh, is pure joy.
This project also brought me some experience in filmmaking and more understanding about the process of it. That helps when you are acting on other productions too, because you have a clearer insight into the process and that makes you, I think, a better actor.
And, I have to say, that it also helped a great deal with my self-confidence as an artist. Making a film from A to Z can sometimes be the most complicated thing in the world. But if you somehow manage to reach the finish line, and obtain a good result in the end, then you feel like a champion. To me making this film, felt like running a marathon. It was a hard and long and sometimes painful process, but I did it. And that feels very empowering! It gives me the confidence that I can do bigger things as well.
Finally, what can we wish you for the future?
Wish me luck in my attempt of turning this short into a TV series or a feature film! I hope that producers and TV channels will see the potential that lies within these two characters and within this story and get on board.
We were pleased with chatting with Melania on her experience! We wish her all the best for the festival screenings and future of Titus & Mirabella!
Feel free to connect with Melania on Instagram.
