Faroukh Mistry - Director of Photography

lilithfilm:

Music for the Weekend: ‘Canto 8’ by Dälek, from the ‘Lilith’ Original Score.

At long last, I can give my readers a taste of the sonic world that Lilith is enveloped in. Dälek have been hard at work doing the final mix on their original score for the film, and the results have been astounding. I’m really, really blown away by what these two guys have done. (p.s. listen to it with headphones or a system with good speakers and you’ll get the full effect, with all that incredible low-end bass).

The hunt.

This composition is from a sequence featuring a hunt, where our plucky protagonist Sarah Wilson is being gunned down by a mysterious man in a gas mask. I wanted the sounds to have a tribal feel to it, a primal breakdown of all that is civil into evil. As the hunt progresses, Sarah begins to use her ingenuity and fights back. It’s all in the film, but you can watch it in your head when you listen to this track. It’s an amazing progression of a serene calm that is systematically destroyed. Coupled with Faroukh Mistry’s amazing visuals, Chris Stangroom’s incredible sound design, and the unhinged performances of Julia Voth and Karl Toth, I’m incredibly proud of what we achieved with this sequence.

And hats off to Dälek. My brothers from another mother have been on point since they laid down their first note. This is really really cool stuff, and a new definition of horror film music.

Also of note; MC Dälek’s solo side project, iconaAclass, will dropping a new album and tour in the coming weeks. Check it out, it’s some classic hip-hop blasted through the visionary filter of dälek!

Have a great weekend!

lilithfilm:

Music for the Weekend: Adagio for a Spring Portrait by Rene Hell.

I remember a year ago when we were driving back to the hotel from the set of Lilith that my cinematographer, Faroukh Mistry, saw my pained face as we drove through the streets of Cleveland on a early, early morning. We had just finished an incredibly productive but stressful day, having filmed almost ten pages of material, but I was starting to crumble from the stress. We had completed seventeen days of shooting.

Faroukh, who is a veteran of filmmaking for two decades and for whom cinema runs through his blood and heritage, knew what I was going through and he smiled and told me that “once this production is completed, I guarantee that however bad or stressed you feel now, you will miss this feeling forever.”

I looked over at Faroukh, feeling the stress collect in my neck muscles, and smiled back at him.

“I call bullshit on that,” I said to him, laughing.

I chose this song because it reminds me of our last day of shooting Lilith, a grueling 22-hour day where we pushed and pushed and finally got it all done. I thanked my crew for giving me their lives and sanity for three weeks, and after everyone dispersed I went off to a corner of the dilapidated warehouse we were shooting in and held my head in my hands, completely exhausted and fully spent. I remember Julia quietly sneaking up behind me and giving me a big, heartfelt hug. We all went outside, having not seen the sun for almost three days due to rain, and a full rainbow was in the sky to greet us in the morning light. I captured it on my cellphone:

This song takes me back to that day.

You were right, Faroukh. I miss that feeling dearly.

Have a great weekend!