Meet the Beacons Makers: Rhys Marc Jones

Rhys Marc Jones’ drama Father of the Bride follows Christian as he tries to deliver the best man’s speech at this brother’s wedding after an awkward propositioning by the father of the bride. 

Ahead of the broadcast, we caught up with Rhys to discuss his career so far, the film’s festival strategy amid a pandemic, and what’s next for him and the film. 

Hi Rhys, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I'm a writer/director who has worked primarily on independently made short fiction films. Father of the Bride was my fourth short film to date and my first publicly financed project. 
 
How was your experience of making Father of the Bride?
Shooting shorts is always stressful with lots of obstacles to overcome and never enough resources to draw from. That said, shooting this film was an experience I look back on fondly now, mainly due to the creative friendships formed in the process. With the broadcast date fast approaching, I have been reflecting back on it in recent weeks and I find myself itching to get back on set and shooting again. 
 
It’s an important story with a sensitive subject; what was your approach to telling it?
I tried not to worry too much about the charged subject matter and to just make decisions that I felt were authentic and true to the situation and the characters. Otherwise, I find it can become suffocating. You find yourself straining to serve some larger agenda and it can become very confusing. I still try to avoid overthinking divisive topics by focusing on details and individual directorial decisions but it's impossible on some level. You just hope that your perspective comes across and resonates with an audience, but that part is out of your control.
 
The film had a fantastic festival run, despite the pandemic; can you tell us about your experience of that?
Yeah, the film enjoyed a decent run considering the challenges Covid presented. We were a week away from having our world premiere at SXSW, the first festival axed when everything went crazy. We didn't really know what would happen after that but, fortunately, the industry adapted and the film went on to enjoy a run of digital editions. The only time I've seen the film screened physically in a theatre was at the Moscow International Film Festival back in the Autumn of 2020. A surreal experience back then; seems even more so now.
 
What kind of support did Ffilm Cymru & BFI NETWORK give you?
The short wouldn't have happened without Ffilm Cymru's support as it was a big step up in scope from my previous work, requiring a sizable budget that wasn't feasible to raise through crowdfunding. We're very grateful BFI NETWORK backed the idea and gave us the opportunity to make the film as we wished. Not only did they finance the film, but they also helped guide us, developing the project with us through every stage of the process, from the first draft we submitted to the final cut of the film.
 
What do you have planned next?
I've spent the last couple of years since shooting the short writing my debut feature screenplay. I hope to shoot it soon but there is still a lot of work to be done and many factors out of my control.