MEGATRON

Directed By Marian Crisan

Indie Express: Tell us about your film?

Marian: MEGATRON tells the story of a mother and 8 year old son who take a journey to the nearby McDonalds…Only problem is that The McDonalds is some 30 km away in the nearest city.

IE: How did you come up with the idea for the film?

Marian: The idea of my short comes directly from reality. One of my former high school collegues who lives in a small town in the countryside told me how she takes her children to McDonalds to the nerest city, 40 km away. So the image of this  mother and children embarking in this journey stucked with me for a year or more. Finally I wrote the final version of the script and then got financed by the National Cinema Fund.

IE: How did you assemble your production team?

Marian: We worked with the same team that I worked on my other shorts. We had a quite small team and had a lot of pre-producing: casting and scouting for location mainly.

IE: How did you find your cast? 

Marian: We had a casting director and did casting for more that 50 boys for the part of Max. We did worked with a child actor after a quite long casting. We did a lot of reharseal on casting with different combination of mother and son.

IE: How long did the film take?  (From conception to final edit)

Marian: The story was written during 2 years. But after we got financed we did all the production in 2 months.

IE: Tell us a little about your process of directing (writing) this film.

Marian: I like to take every short I make as a new challenging project and I try to make it live on his own. I don’t like to repeat myself as style or subject. When I make a movie I try to serve as best as I can the story and the characters not the other way around.

IE: What was the most difficult part of the shoot for you?

Marian: We had a many long takes and working with a kid actor was quite risky.

IE: Any particular moments from filming that stand out for you?

Marian: We have a shot with a train entering a train station and we did live. We had some extras that waited for the train and the other and son characters. The shot is some 1 minute long and I like to think that resembles a bit eith the Lumiere first film: “The entering of the train in the La Ciotat Station”. I like Lumiere a lot. I think brothers Lumiere are one of my favourites, along with the Coen Brothers…

IE: Tell us about the film’s festival experience so far?

Marian: We just arrived in LA after a long journey from Romania…

IE: What are you most looking forward to at the AFI festival?

Marian: We want to see Gommorah, a film that we missed in Cannes.

IE: What has been your most interesting Q&A so far?  What was your favorite question?  How was the dialogue afterwards?

Marian: I had a lot of Q&A in the last year, mainly in festivals. I don’t remember a specific question but with time you got used to answer to any kind of questions…

IE: What films or filmmakers inspire you?

Marian: I like a lot of films, I like American independent cinema, Todd Solondz, Todd Field but I also like european flms One of the last films that impressed m was Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s ‘Uzak”. I try to watch and discover new films all the time.

IE: What made you decide to become a filmmaker?

Marian: Watching Indiana Jones and the raiders of the lost ark when I was 10 years old I think.

 IE: What is next for you? 

I work on the script for my first feature. I hope I get in contact with producers here also.

IE: What is next for the film?

Marian: The film travels a lot. It will be on different festivals all around the world.

We try to work out a programme along with two other shorts and show it in cinemas in Romania.

IE: If asked to give one piece of advice to a new filmmaker making their first short film… What would it be?

Marian: Find a good story and try to make it and see it on a big, big screen.

IE: What are your favorite short films currently on the festival circuit? (Like your short film playlist)

Marian: I liked Jerrycan and Smafuglar that were in competition in Cannes this spring.