IAN RODERICK GRAY was born in Holland to a Dutch/Indonesian mother and American father. His family relocated to the United Kingdom when Ian was two, living primarily in the small town of Fareham. Ian began making films at the age of fourteen and landed his first professional directing job at the age of nineteen. He has continued to direct ever since, making commercials, Film, music videos, documentaries and shorts, winning a number of awards in the process.

He has collaborated with and directed icons such as John Lydon, Idris Elba, Nile Rodgers and Elle Macphearson. He has directed and produced adverts for Sky, ITV, Nike, Huawei and many other notable brands. His first feature film, The Banksy Job, a comedy-documentary hybrid made in association with Pulse Films and Ipso Facto films, had its world premiere at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in New York and was listed in The Hollywood Reporter's selection of best films and Vogue Magazines pick of documentaries to watch. 

Ian recently won Best Music Video at The British Independent Film Festival and was nominated for Video of the Year, Best Director, Best Narrative and Best Ensemble at the Austin Music Video Awards 2018. He was shortlisted for a UKMVA in 2020.

His style has been described as ‘Mesmerising’ by publications such as Mass Appeal and Pigeons and Planes.

Director

Ian Roderick Gray

Ian Roderick Gray tackles body horror through a poignant lens, in his affecting promo for On Man.&nbsp;The concept for Survive This focus on John, a man who is ravaged by&nbsp;a gruesome mutation affecting much of his upper body.&nbsp;After waking to find it has grown drastically and painfully overnight, and believing it to be terminal, he decides to end his life and die on his own terms, much to the anger of his longtime partner.&nbsp;In the same vein as the previous collaboration between artist and director&nbsp;<a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2022/06/14/man-worse-it-seems-ian-roderick-gray/76818">Worse Than It Seems&nbsp;</a>- which saw a woman afflicted with an extra eye in her skin - Gray has a knack at tackling complex narratives and themes through body horror elements, and this is another project that knocks it out of the park.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1]In a nutshell, the video is a&nbsp;powerfully moving and uncompromising depiction of assisted suicide, exploring themes of love, mercy, dignity and mortality.<blockquote>I felt a responsibility to create a visual that would do justice to the haunting music.</blockquote>"When On Man approached me to direct the music video for his latest single, I knew that I wanted to try and create another hybrid between drama and music video, but in a more refined way than our last effort," says the director."When he first played me the song I was overwhelmed. It was so incredibly raw and powerful and genuinely emotionally evocative. I definitely felt a heavy responsibility to create a visual that would do justice to the haunting music and to some extent, the song dictated the approach of the video."We bounced around some ideas and after reading an article about a tragic number of illegally performed assisted suicides that had occurred in France amongst elderly couples, some of whom were living with terminal conditions, I pitched an idea that was inspired by one specific story - and also from my experience of living with an illness.&nbsp;As a Type 1 Diabetic, this was also an opportunity to explore what it is like to live with a condition and how the condition itself can often be more of a burden for the people around you than for yourself."Survive This is a deeply personal music video to both myself and On Man - who&nbsp;added his own ideas and we wrote the script together.&nbsp;It has become one of the most rewarding projects I’ve been involved with."&nbsp;&nbsp;

United Kingdom

Alizé Speed

On Man

Anthony Dias

Pablo Rojo

Lorine Plagnol

Alex Moffat

Ollie Craig

Alberto Allica

Jonny Tulley

Tim Bentinck

Christopher Fairbank

Houndstooth

On Man 'Survive This' by Ian Roderick Gray

On-Man-'Survive-This'-by-Ian-Roderick-Gray

A woman tries her best to hide an unusual medical affliction, in Ian Roderick Gray's video-cum-short film for On Man.&nbsp;Exploring discrimination and isolation, the video&nbsp;follows the&nbsp;story of a woman who has grown a third eye on her temple, and the derision she experiences from society as a result of her condition."On Man wanted to create something that would work as both a music video and as a film, with the song almost acting as a score," explains Ian Roderick Gray.&nbsp;"From the beginning, we wanted to avoid the tropes you often encounter in horror films or sci-fi. It was very important to us that the eye felt like a medical affliction and not a mutation or something you might find in the X-Men films."[imgtoken data:1]The concept takes a heartfelt approach to the narrative, never stepping into parody or overly bizarre territory, and is anchored by the visual effects work on the eye.&nbsp;"I was lucky enough to work with the incredible VFX supervisor Puff Pisanwalerd, and she put huge amounts of work into the design of the eye, to create something that felt like it could be a natural growth or an unusual condition. The target was to make people feel uncomfortable when they looked at it and then feel guilty about that discomfort. We knew very quickly, that if the third eye didn’t work, the music video would also fail."Luckily, that worry was unfounded, as the video works perfectly, ending on a hopeful, optimistic note. Brilliant work from Ian Roderick Gray and team.&nbsp;

Andrew Gannon

Adham Hunt

Carrie Sutton

Will Courtney

Rebecca Murray

Laura Prast

Tom Reid

Connor Hammill

Lucy Williams

Suzi Battersby

Jessica Kell

Tom Knowles

The Joint

Puff Pisanwalerd

Andy Gibbins

Richard Mason

Katie Clarkson-Hill

Singer-songwriter

On Man 'Worse Than It Seems' by Ian Roderick Gray

On-Man-'Worse-Than-It-Seems'-by-Ian-Roderick-Gray

JLS are back! And to emphasise the significance of the comeback of this hugely popular singing group - who had their original heyday in the early Noughties - Ian Roderick Gray has the band travel through time, to indicate that&nbsp;they rate up with the great singing groups of all.&nbsp;Gray takes us on a journey through the history of pop, with JLS performing their comeback single Eternal Love as performing on TV at different points along a timeline, from the Sixties to the present day, via the Seventies and MTV-era Nineties.&nbsp;Each era is recreated with admirable attention to detail - particularly in the style and quality of the TV coverage - and this really works in order to make its bigger point about the timeless appeal of JLS - who indeed look and sound in fine fettle.&nbsp;[imgtoken data:1]

Emily Vincent

Blindeye Films

Jack Lightfoot

Luke Goodrich

Matthew Emvin Taylor

Nacho Guzman

Lea Aubigne

Steve Cameron

Zenon Clements

Georgia

Kai Sawyerr

Nadia Altinbas

CHEAT

Louis Catlett

Marisa Garner

JLS 'Eternal Love' by Ian Roderick Gray

Jls-'Eternal-Love'-by-Ian-Roderick-Gray

Ian Roderick Gray was nominated for a UKMVA for his last collaboration with Charlie Winston - a live video&nbsp;of the singer-songwriter performing <a href="https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2020/05/04/charlie-winston-lost-memory-ian-roderick-gray/64634" target="_blank">Lost In The Memory</a> at a villa in the South of France. Now they collaborate again in another memorable location - La Frette Studios in Paris - for Here I Am.As the director&nbsp;explains below, the idea was to document the recording process of the song at La Frette and give it the dynamism of a music video. Subtitled, 'The Anatomy Of The Song', Gray has demonstrated how layers of sounds and intrumentation were added to the track via a simple method of a continual circular camera motion.&nbsp;Starting with Winston laying down the vocal track, he is then joined by each accompanying musician in turn to build the sound of Here I Am: tabla player&nbsp;Aref Durvesh, singers&nbsp;Maria Marolany and Marieline Marolany - and then finally legendary cora player&nbsp;Toumani Diabaté.[imgtoken data:1]

Grayscale Productions

Alfred Thirolle

Raphaël Dougé

Clement Duroux

Johnny Thorpe

Glassworks VFX

Athene Xenia

Chloe Ensor

Afishant

Charlie Winston 'Here I Am (The Anatomy Of A Song)' by Ian Roderick Gray

Charlie-Winston-'Here-I-Am---The-Anatomy-Of-A-Song'-by-Ian-Roderick-Gray

Movement and philosophy are explored in Ian Roderick Gray's spectacular mini-doc for Danny Keane.&nbsp;Remotely directed by Gray in&nbsp;London and shot in Mexico by DoP Pablo Rojo, the film focuses on Rojo's mother, the dancer&nbsp;Maité&nbsp;Guadarrama, and her philosophy on dance, intimately capturing her graceful movements and innermost thoughts in and around her beautiful house in Oaxaca, Mexico.Celebrating rhythm and the joy of being alive, the six-minute piece incorporates Q+A style questions and answers, dance solos and intimate portraits of Maité, who is clearly enamoured with the artform and the freedom she has to express herself everyday.&nbsp;Taking on a documentary-style format and shooting style, Rojo captures the spontaneity of the movement with zestful&nbsp;energy, and the unique relationship he has with the subject allows a certain freedom and access that might not be possible under different circumstances.Ajoyo is the first collaboration between Ian Roderick Gray and artist Danny Keane, and a film that transcends borders and celebrates diversity. Ajoyo shows that dancing is not restricted by environment, class or location, but can truly be performed anywhere, at any time and by anyone who feels rhythm - a true celebration of the power and universality of the artform.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Lucia Novoa Gil

Arturo Lavariega

Santiago Rojo

Maité Guadarrama

Dani Rotaru

Glassworks

Mitchell Siermans

Mkva

Convoly

Jazz

Danny Keane 'Ajoyo' by Ian Roderick Gray

AJOYO - A Celebration Of Rhythm (Mini-Doc)

Charlie Winston teams up with Ian Roderick Gray for a unique&nbsp;live-performance visual, filmed in a villa in the South of France.&nbsp;Whilst recording at the&nbsp;villa, Charlie Winston noticed the various acoustic qualities of the residence, and the different effects each room/ location had on the sound. So&nbsp;dozens of microphones were wired up around the villa, and Gray was tasked to capture a one-take video - shot with entirely live sound.&nbsp;This requred near-perfection from both the crew and Winston. One wrong move, and it would all need to be reset - which happened on numerous occasions, as Gray explains below. Finally, as the sun was setting and the light was fading away, they nailed it...&nbsp;

Mike Hannides

Pablo Dolado

Jonny Thorpe

Sony France

Thomas Burgess

Folk

Indie

Charlie Winston 'Lost In The Memory' by Ian Roderick Gray

Charlie-Winston-'Lost-In-The-Memory'-by-Ian-Roderick-Gray

Ian Roderick Gray's enigmatic and gripping video for British producer On Man centres around a disfigured young man locked into a nightmarish, perpetual pursuit by unseen assailants.It takes visual cues from the unsettling body horror of Cronenberg and combines them with the dark and surreal atmosphere of Lynch to create a haunting visual that matches the ominous tone of Squares and Triangles.

Andrew Harvey-Gannon

Red Girl FX

Charlie Baker

Alternative

On Man 'Squares And Triangles' by Ian Roderick Gray

On Man - Squares and Triangles (feat. F-M-M-F)

Ian Roderick Gray helms an action-packed tribute to classic movie dance routines for Charlie Winston&#39;s The Weekend, orchestrating a continuous shot through different set-ups on a film set with clever&nbsp;sleight-of-hand.Most impressive is how some characters appear to change before your eyes, as Gray&#39;s constantly moving camera travels through time as well as space, and always staying true to the concept.

Ian Roderick Gray

Director

2022 (2)

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2020 (3)

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