The return to Cambridge for Easter term is predictable for many: exams, coursework, the odd ray of sunshine, and the much-anticipated (and needed) May Week. But for Sasha Carter and George Pool, two third-year students and burgeoning writer-directors, it also means the beginning of shooting for their original film, Eating Oysters (@eatingoystersfilm on Instagram). At the start of May, Olivia Goodman interviewed them, alongside Georgia Fullerton who plays Bella, and Harry Mitchell who plays Jonathan, to learn more about the creation, filming, and future plans for the film.

How would you describe your film for those who don’t already know? 

Sasha: Eating Oysters is an honest and experimental relationship-story. We’re trying to map the moments which ‘prove’ the incompatibility of a couple, hopefully drawing attention to some of the more cringeworthy, mundane experiences of students at the university. 

Why is the film called Eating Oysters? 

George: Real oysters are eaten (apologies in advance to Georgia and Harry)! No, there is a more interesting thematic answer, but we’ll let people decide for themselves while watching.  

How did you find the writing process? 

Sasha: George and I are very different writers. I’m very slow and particular about detail, whereas George is able to bash out pages of dialogue in one sitting. It was a pretty extraordinary process once we combined those two styles together. I enjoyed it a lot. 

The story is about relationships, and students might find the ‘life in Cambridge’ aspect of the film relatable. What do you think your audience can take away from the story?  

George: I hope they do! We’ve tried to find the balance between making the characters specific enough to make their story recognisable, but also to leave some sort of “distance” which people can hopefully fill in with their own experiences! 

How did you find the first block of shooting?  

Georgia: It was so much fun to bring the script to life and start to see the vision more! I felt that not only did the acting side of things develop in the first block, but also all the other components of making a film, which was very exciting.  

Harry: I had so much fun filming the first block; I’ve only done stage work before so it was really cool to try something new. The sets and the crew equipment were super impressive and fun to work with too! 

What’s something surprising you’ve learned about making a film that most people wouldn’t expect? 

George: There were lots of surprises! I think because we had a larger-than-average crew for a student film, and that it’s quite an ambitious project in general, a lot of the challenges were more logistical than creative, which (perhaps naively) isn’t what I expected when we wrote it. 

What kind of atmosphere did filming in Cambridge bring to the project? How important is the location of the film? 

Sasha: We’re filming the majority of the scenes in Emmanuel College, which is where George and I have both lived during our undergraduate years. It’s such a beautiful location. The architecture’s incredible, which is exactly where the contrast of our film lies. We want to show the immature and painful experiences which students have had amidst these historical buildings. 

Tell us a bit about your character. What do you enjoy most about playing your them? 

Georgia: I think Bella is definitely a character with layers which is fun to play around with and I try my best to project in my acting; sometimes trying to show what she may be thinking internally during moments of dialogue helps with trying to portray a relatable yet complicated character. I like playing with subtleties, I think this is generally to do with taking part in a film as a whole, small things whether it be facial expressions, vocal inflections, pauses, or body language can tell you a lot about a character and I hope that throughout the process I can use this to develop Bella as a character.  

Harry: Jonathan is a difficult character to play in my opinion; he seems to be someone with different sides to him depending on who he’s around so I’ve enjoyed the challenge trying to bring this to life in the different scenarios we’ve filmed so far. I think often with filming, more is less and this definitely applies to my character. Trying to bring out his thoughts and emotions that lie beyond the script has been fun to work with – some of the more emotionally intense scenes require less to bring them out than they would, say, on the stage. 

Do you have any favourite moments on set so far?  

Georgia: I really enjoyed filming the first date scene, it was a scene where the dialogue can be quite hard to get right but I feel like (hopefully) we managed to! And we got to film in Emma’s lovely gardens which was very nice. 
Harry: Filming the bar scene with Jonathan’s friend, Samuel, played by Aker Okoye, was super fun as it was quite a fast paced and funny scene. It was also really nice to work with Aker again as I acted with him in my very first Cambridge play! 

What can we expect from Eating Oysters in the coming months?  

George: First we’re shooting the second block during May Week, then for the rest of the summer we’ll be editing it together. We’re recruiting now for extras, runners, makeup, BTS photographers and sparks, and the film will be released sometime in 2026!