“The Grey Man”
Based on one of Scotland's most infamous legends that tells of a eerie presence that haunts the slopes of Ben MacDui, The Grey Man follows one mans journey into the heart of Scotland's Cairngorms mountain range to find his missing brother.
Director Biography
Born in Dundee in the 90s, Joe was brought up in the Angus countryside where he began making films with his friends in his teens. Armed only with a Hi-8 camera and some stellar locations around his home in the countryside, Joe began making more and more elaborate movies, drawing influence from the likes of self starters like Sam Raimi and masters like Stanley Kubrick.
Studying film at Edinburgh Napier University gave him the opportunity to expand his technical knowledge and his interest in sound design won him the David Bogie Sound Design Award upon graduating.
Joe has always been influenced by location and growing up in Angus there were no shortage of great rural locations of which inspired countless short film ideas. It was the fantastic location of the Cairngorms National Park in north east Scotland that inspired his latest short film - The Grey Man.
Based on the folk tale of a ghost or presence that is said to haunt the slopes of Ben MacDui in the Cairngorms. The Grey Man was shot almost entirely on location in the Cairngorms with the crew being left at the mercy of the Scottish elements, trekking three days through the mountains reaching heights of 900m above sea level to capture the essence of the location.
Director’s Statement
It was huddled in a tent with my Dad and two friends back in 2010 that I first came across the tale of the Grey Man. Glass of whisky in hand, the wind buffering the tent, we sat in silence listening to the eerie tale of the Grey Man of BenMacDui through a short audiobook. I was camping on the slopes of that very mountain and drifting off that night I swear I heard footsteps outside my tent.
Fast forward ten years and I've just completed a short film based on that very tale. It always strikes me as strange that we've got such amazing folklore in Scotland but that very few movies are made based on these tales of ghosts, gouls and monsters. As somebody influenced very much by location and in particular isolated and remote places, the tale of The Grey Man seemed like the perfect story to tell for my first shot at directing since film school.
It was always very important for me to shoot this film where the tale takes place, on the slopes of Scotland's second highest mountain. So how do you get a crew up to one the most remote and wild locations in the country? I admit I didn't make it easy for myself. At the mercy of the Scottish mountain weather we shot for three days in the Cairngorms with a crew of only three (including myself). It was physically demanding just getting to the location, let alone then trying to make a film. But for me it was so worth it to show off one of my favourite parts of Scotland and try to do justice to this amazing folk story.
I'm very proud of the film and of everyone involved in making it, it's been a labour of love for two years to get this film made and I hope everyone enjoys it. I hope to continue showing off Scotland's dramatic landscape through film and telling some of it's eerie tales from throughout the ages.