The new film showreel is online! This latest reel features 3 new clips from “Long and Winding” as well as scenes from “A Headline Romance”, “Don’t Look at Me (I’m Ugly in the Morning)”, and “On Friendship and Fidelity”.

Really hope you all enjoy it!

Please be aware the showreel contains spoilers for “Long and Winding”

‘Long and Winding’ is a 2009 short drama directed by Jane Langford and produced by Michele Maurer. It is a beautifully shot road movie, filmed in rural America and follows a couple as they revisit the locations that led up to their eventual engagement. Powerful, deep and encompassing, the film meanders through their journey until the end where a twist is revealed. For this film I wrote a song, and based all the cues around the melody of this track. I put together lush ensembles of strings, guitar, piano and slide guitar to give a typically traditional American sound that was rich enough to portray all the emotions present in the film. For the closing piece there was a full version of my song ‘Lost’, with the vocal performed by friend and collaborator Phil Vincent.

Find Out More:
Official Site

Dez is currently hard at work on a new film by Same Moon productions entitled ‘Long and Winding’. It’s a romantic road movie shot on location in America and due to be released sometime this summer. In the meantime, a more ambient demo track called ‘Haunted’, written for the film but not destined to make the final cut, has just been added to the site’s mp3 player. Enjoy!

‘Where is My Solomon’ is a 2009 documentary directed by Shoshana Eilon. It explores the lives of the Darfuri community in Tel Aviv, which has been established in the wake of the Darfur conflict as thousands of refugees have fled north. For this film I contributed three tracks, along with other composers, and together we created an eclectic mix of Middle Eastern influences that reflected all cultures in the region. I was lucky enough to contribute the opening piece, which used my favourite nylon string acoustc guitar, downtuned to sound like a tradtional middle-eastern Oud. Another contributed piece entitled ‘Wasteland’, was a string and piano piece, which you can listen to in the showreel.

Find out More:
IMDB Entry

There is a new track in the mp3 player! “Wasteland” is from an upcoming documentary I am working on entitled ‘Where is My Solomon?’, which explores the lives of various refugees from the Darfur region of Sudan, who have fled their homes and the troubles that surrounded them to settle in Israel. The film explores the various cultures that come together in the Darfuri communities of Tel Aviv. I hope to bring you more news on the completion of the documentary soon!

My first project of 2008 was Chris Purnell’s ‘Don’t Look At Me (I’m Ugly in the Morning)’, which was also my first feature length project. It is a drama with elements of black comedy, focusing on three siblings suffering after the death of their abusive Father. Here I had a really defined sound, with more experimental sound design pieces for the intimate scenes, and more pop/rock orientated pieces for the rest, including two original songs. With a great cast including stand up comic Ed Byrne, as well as the very capable Chris Condie, this was one of my best projects to date.

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Find out More:
IMDB Entry

Dez is currently wrapping up the scores to two films. Firstly there is the feature film ‘Don’t Look At Me (I’m Ugly In the Morning)’, a superbly dark but emotional drama and Dez’s first feature length production. The film follows the lives of 3 siblings as they cope with the aftermath of their father’s death and features Irish stand-up comic Ed Byrne. Secondly there is the romantic short “On Friendship and Fidelity”, a beautifully shot piece exploring the boundaries between friendship and romance as the characters question their lives and morality. Both films feature Dez playing to his strengths, with intimate use of piano, guitar and solo strings, through to electronic ambiences and dark sound design pieces.

‘On Friendship and Fidelity’ (Directed by Tania Andrade) is a beautifully shot romantic short that I worked on in Spring 2008. Again I used my favoured combination of strings (cello in this case), piano and guitar to accompany the blossoming of a romantic relationship between the two main characters. This was a really competent effort from the production team, who themselves were a lovely group to work with, but it also encouraged me by showing further to myself the higher calibre of project I was now attracting.

A Headline Romance (directed by The Fdz / Produced by Cracked Lens Productions) was my second non-animated short and presented me with an opportunity to put together a very eclectic sound. The story addressed the issues of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict through the telling of a romance story between a Jewish male and Muslim woman. The score that I put together combined elements of sound design, along with intimate instrumentation and programmed rhythms, culminating in the final credits piece, which I feel is still one of my best works.

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Umbillicalripcord (directed by Adam Goodwin) is an action-packed animated short from 2007. Unashamedly clichéd both visually and musically, it is set in a post-apocalyptic future where a resistance fighter tries to steal what is known as ‘The Prophecy’ from the base of the Empire. Although I consider the music to be very ‘Bondesque’, this was a great opportunity for me to practice a large orchestration synchronised to specific hit points. This was a fun film to work on, but marks my last venture in to animation, favouring live-action work since then. Unfortunately the version below was a re-edited update, so not all the music synchronizes as originally intended, but it’s still pretty close!