Locally made romcom set against the backdrop of a music festival

Starring Alexander Perkins (Red Notice, The Office) and Edyta Budnik (Ted Lasso), Breaking Free is an award-winning British romcom about a thirtysomething ‘suit’ who breaks into a music festival to retrieve his stolen belongings, only to find love and freedom instead. It was shot in Bristol and at the End of the Road festival in Wiltshire.

Written, produced, and directed by Patrick Makin, Breaking Free has played at festivals around the world and won the award for Best Film, Best Actor, and Best Music at the British Independent Film Festival back in 2017.

The film is packed with music from artists including Ardyn (Katy J Pearson), Lia Ices, Chay Snowdon, The Jacques, Fly Golden Eagle, An Horse, Laid Blak, Tom Rosenthal, Family Jools, and Majors in Math.

It’s available to watch now on Amazon Prime .

We took the opportunity to lob some impertinent questions at the director.

Yours is by no means the first drama set against the backdrop of a music festival. Which other ones do you rate and were there any pitfalls you were eager to avoid?

Actually, I genuinely don’t know of any films set against the backdrop of a music festival apart from The Festival which starred Joe Thomas from The Inbetweeners  and which was filmed partially at the Leeds festival. I’ve never actually seen it but am assured by people in the know (i.e. my mum and dad) that Breaking Free is (probably) vastly superior.

The pitfall I was most trying to avoid at the festival was accidentally recording bands playing while the actors were delivering their lines. Having just a few seconds of Radiohead in the film, for instance, would probably have cost about ten times the total filming budget!

Edyta Budnik in ‘Breaking Free’

A festival is the very definition of an uncontrolled environment in which to film. What were the main challenges?

Challenges included: copious amounts of rain and mud; thousands of drunk and stoned people staring down the lens when we were trying to film the actors; a complete lack of sleep as we were filming night and day (and drinking too much whiskey); and me having no idea what I was doing as it was the first time I’d ever directed anything. Apart from that, it was practically perfect!

Is there any sense in which the story is autobiographical?

Definitely! My first job after leaving university was selling soap for Unilever Export in Bristol. Like the boss in the film, my boss used to tell me I had to be passionate about selling soap and I just couldn’t do it. I remember whistling all the way home on the day that we parted ways, and I’ve worked as a film and TV writer ever since.

Alexander Perkins and Edyta Budnik in ‘Breaking Free’

Was End the Road your first choice of festival?

I approached Shambala first because I’d attended as a festival-goer and knew that half of Bristol would be there, but I think they were just too busy getting everything ready and didn’t need the extra hassle of a film crew. In the end, every scene with the actors in it was shot at the brilliant End of the Road Festival in Wiltshire and then I bought some extra footage from someone who had filmed at Bestival on the Isle of Wight. But the people who run the End of the Road couldn’t have been more helpful… and we got to see some great bands!

Were the bands keen to have their music included, or was that a struggle?

We filmed one band (who shall remain nameless) who let us film them playing, but then changed their mind after the festival was over. In retrospect, it was a lucky escape as their music was very dark and would have been completely wrong for such an uplifting film.

Purchasing silly headgear is a great festival tradition.

How was shooting in Bristol? Did you have assistance from the Film Office?

Filming in Bristol was fun as most of the crew were from Bristol, though it was possibly a little less fun for Alex Perkins, the male lead, who had to run up and down Park Street about 30 times, carrying a briefcase in the stifling midday heat. Sorry, Alex!

We also filmed at the Bottleyard which was great as it was a super-controlled space and gave us time to breathe before the uncontrolled chaos of filming at the festival.

You wrote, produced and directed the film. Did you also make the tea? And isn’t that rather a lot for one person to undertake?

As it happens, I also ‘act’ in the film, playing the voice of Toby’s father, as well as a guy at the festival who is too stoned to take his shirt off. Unlike Alex who won the award for Best Actor at the British Independent Film Festival (BIFF), I’m not sure I’ll be winning any acting awards any time soon!

The reason I ended up wearing so many hats was simply because there was no other way of getting the film made. After trying to get production companies interested in my screenplay – and failing – I decided that the only way to get it off the ground was to direct it and produce it myself. Having never directed anything before, I was worried if I could do it, but a director friend told me that directing is easy if you just follow two simple rules. 1. Have a vision, and 2. Surround yourself with good people. As it turns out, everybody in the cast and crew were brilliant, but special mention has to go to the Director of Photography – Adam Lincoln – who came on board at the 11th hour, was eternally patient with me, and was constantly coming up with good ideas. It’s largely down to him that Breaking Free won the award for Best Movie at the BIFF.

Main image: Alexander Perkins and Edyta Budnik in ‘Breaking Free’. All images suppled by Patrick Makin.