After seeing SouthSide, M J McMahon’s last short film at the Short Film Corner at the Cannes Film festival 2 years ago, Sgrin Wales approached M J McMahon about writing something for the “Screen Gems” scheme as it was 2 years ago. They wanted a 3 minute thriller and this is where Hawk was born. Sgrin liked the idea of a killer who lived in the hills and stalked the local village, but M J McMahon wanted to shoot it in North Wales around Snowdonia, which was not permitted under the scheme at the time.

After careful consideration M J McMahon decided to take the idea and develop it further as he felt the story had a lot of potential and would be a better film if slightly longer and set in the Snowdonia hills. He wanted to create a more detailed and grand short film that would challenge conventional norms as to what is possible within the boundaries of short film making.

Hawk began life as a serial killer film about a wild welsh hermit who attacked local villagers who strayed to far into ‘his’ territory. However after a few early script drafts a story this basic seemed unsuitable to short films and M J McMahon decided to take the narrative down a far more mysterious path. Having grown up in North Wales and visited Snowdonia on numerous occasions, M J McMahon has always dreamt of making a film that utilizes the epic, scale and beauty of the Welsh hills – a film that celebrates the landscape and moulds it into a wild and lonely place ideal for a fantasy film founded on ancient legend. M J McMahon collaborated with film school friend Sean McArdell, an artist and designer who began the complex task of visualising the script through a series of concept art sketches and drawings.

M J McMahon then decided to bring in Matt Jones, Creative Manager of 'Bytesize' Cinema. Matthew’s deep knowledge of Short films and what is possible in 10- 15 minutes has proved invaluable to the development of Hawk. Matthew introduced M J McMahon to hit short films such as Jo Jo in the Stars – The BAFTA Winner from 2004. Watching short films is something many short filmmakers do too little of –
M J McMahon and Matt Jones understand short film audiences and have watched many short films to recognize the difference between making a feature film and making a short film.

M J McMahon also brought in Alex McArdell as a writing partner to inject more meaning and integrity into the script. Alex was initially asked to introduce motivations and meanings behind the main protagonist’s acts. The presence of a Hawk as the killers’ accomplice reminded Alex of American Shamanistic beliefs, and having an animal as a talisman. Alex had been a personal interest in Celtic and pagan folklore for some time, and he wanted to bring a more spiritual feel to the film. Developments from then on worked towards making Rowan a far more sympathetic character. Prior to this he had killed largely without reason; Alex brought Rowan a greater sense of identification with the audience; converting the character from a malevolent force to much more of a misunderstood, tragic figure. This is where the story really turned a corner with the introduction of The Antlered God and emphasis on local legend and mythology which pushed the script to the final shooting draft.