Behind the Scenes: The Wedding Car It's My Shout: Short Films from Wales

The Wedding Car was the last of the six films

It's My Shout, a film training scheme, made for BBC Wales.

The idea came to first-time writer Catherine Kerr-Phillips

when exploring the Gower Peninsula, near Swansea.

She wanted to look at the concept of modern-day relationships.

I was driving through the Gower and I saw a very clapped-out,

little...I think it was a Peugeot 106 or something

and it kind of made me laugh because it was a really old, little,

tatty car but it had wedding ribbons on it.

That made me notice the car and I was going to toot my horn at it.

When I looked inside the car there were two fellas in the car,

both wearing suits and it kind of got me thinking,

"What was the story there?

"What would happen if you lived in some kind of remote,

"little village in the Gower and you were secretly gay?"

The production team decided to base the film in a rural

part of South Wales.

They thought that such an area would provide a realistic setting

for the main theme of the story.

It's probably really hard for people.

I mean, it's hard for anyone, probably, to come out as being gay.

but if you've got all the pressure from what people expect from you,

certain pressure from your community,

from your family or whatever,

maybe there are places, I don't know...

I think the more remote the place, the harder it is for you to come out

as being gay and say, "Look, I'm sorry but this is the way it is."

I think, possibly, it wouldn't be as widely accepted.

The main actors, Tom Murton and Shaun Llewelyn,

study at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

They were captured by the story's appeal

and could see an almost comedic potential to the relationship.

We first saw the script at the audition,

just didn't really want to stop reading it.

We did the read-through together and then

when we actually did the audition we were put together as well.

In a way that helped the chemistry be there from the start.

It helps the characters' histories,

as well, because how well they know each other, we can just use that,

we don't have to make that up, cos it's already there.

Filming was not without its problems,

particularly when trying to find suitable locations.

The original intention was to film the wedding scene in a church

but the team found resistance, due to the homosexual themes of the film.

When we were researching for the script,

we were speaking to a lot of people and I think socially it's a lot more

acceptable but I think we did suffer a few complications in trying

to source certain locations.

We were quite respectful to, obviously, faith,

originally it was a church, we had to go processes like that.

So, that was quite a difficult one.

We ended up settling on a location here in Usk, it's got a lot

more character to it and adds a lot more character to the story.

Yeah, I think social acceptance,

I think that's what we're trying to show in this film.

The most difficult scene to film was the wedding ceremony.

It included more than 50 supporting artists and the main actors.

Becky, the bride, played by Hannah Barker, was jilted at the alter.

Hannah explained how she would feel in a similar situation.

I'd be gutted, I'd be absolutely gutted!

Humiliated, obviously, not knowing that your fiancee's gay, erm,

but then you'd also feel a bit guilty - why would you not know?

So, I'd probably cry a lot and get very drunk!

The most difficult task for the director was to keep the pace,

tension and comedy of the film up until the climax kiss.

He had to make this come as a surprise to the audience.

I think the moment of the impact that we see in the final scene

between Rob and Barry, I think

there's a little bit of acceptance from the crowd.

There's acceptance from people we meet along the way, as well,

and we're trying to include that in the story.

GASPS

Sorry, we are going to get paid, aren't we?

'It is showing the progress in the modern-day world, which is amazing!'

It's not, sort of, it's not the '50s any more, people are normal people

and it's how to play that without

-giving anything away.

-Putting it in someone's face.

There needs to be more stuff like this on the telly as well.

Just because people are brought up and it's not

seen as something that's normal and so seeing it

and it being out there is better, really.