Breakwater Pictures Ltd., the limited company which grew out of the student production company Nocturne Productions, finished the shoot of their namesake feature film “Breakwater” over the Easter vacation. Prior to filming “Breakwater”, the two students behind Nocturne, director Max Morgan and producer Jemima Chen, put on two plays at Oxford: Jez Butterworth’s 1995, “Mojo” in TT22 and an original, “Fêtid” in MT22.
The last feature film written, directed and starred in by Oxford University students was Hugh Grant’s first flick, “Privileged” released in 1982. It was criticized by Variety magazine at its release for having “limited interest” to a wider audience but that Grant, billed as “Hughie Grant”, gave a convincing performance. Without “Privileged”, it would be difficult to imagine the fact of “Breakwater” but with conceptual ground cleared and the advantage of acknowledging its forebear’s weaknesses, perhaps this feature will have a warmer critical reception.
The film hit its £10, 000 crowdfunding goal on Indiegogo and raised roughly £9, 000 from the proceeds of an art auction held in Oriel College Hall with donated pieces by British artist Maggi Hambling and cartoonist Steven Appleby as well as a lunch at Fortnum & Masons all selling. Chen beamed when remembering the gala, adding that profits from the sales of student artworks were split between the “Breakwater” fund and the artists themselves.
Morgan told Cherwell: “What has been the biggest challenge about doing this fundraising is that we basically have the same budget as an [Oxford Playhouse] show. But the support framework for that, because it is so tried and tested and happens every term is really there. The Cameron Mackintosh drama fund stopped funding films and what they give to a normal production at the Playhouse would have covered our entire film. So, we have had to go about it through other means. We’ve tried BFI grants and the Arts Council but because we’re students we’re not eligible for them.” Notably, there have been rumblings on Oxfess regarding a motion put to Balliol JCR requesting funding for “Breakwater” which was unsuccessful. Morgan argued that a misunderstanding of the nature of the way JCRs fund art was behind the expressions of antipathy towards the request. Lead, Danny McNamee added: “You will realize that the “daddy’s-money” thing is just so inappropriate to say. Most of us went to state schools. Like a few of us, I came on an access scheme. I clawed my way into acting and to say I got there easily is just, I thought, quite comical”.
The film was shot over twenty-eight days from mid-March to mid-April on the Suffolk coast and in Oxford with professional actors like Shaun Paul McGrath rubbing shoulders with amateurs making their debut like Danny who attends Exeter College for whom this was his first time in front of the camera. “The learning curve was very, very steep”, he admitted. Reflecting on the change from theatre to film: “In some ways, its much easier than when you’re on stage. You don’t have to imagine anything; it’s all just there. Like, you don’t have to imagine you’re in the sea, you’re actually in the sea. It was quite cold”.
Morgan describes the film as a ‘psychological drama’ filmed in a naturalistic style as ‘what we want to do is get inside the minds of the characters.’ He joked: “There’s no insane car chase set pieces of cinematography”. The camera crew themselves were young professional filmmakers based in London.
The film will not be premiered until 2025 which Morgan and Chen hope will take place outside the Oxford-sphere at international film festivals like Toronto International Film Festival and Raindance Film Festival. Explaining the long wait, Chen said ‘We’ve got a team of amazing editors. We don’t want to rush them because the deadline for festival submissions are in September which means we’ve got to go next year. Those festivals don’t show until 2025.’
On the importance of the university and the city to “Breakwater”, Morgan offered “It would be a shame to restrict it to Oxford. We want to take it beyond because we think we can go beyond this sphere. And whilst [the film] is very much made up of the people here obviously, we don’t like to think of ourselves as a student film but rather as an independent film”. A documentary of the film’s production will be screened on June 3 2023 and will be followed by a Q & A with the cast and crew.
