Episode 104 Dolby Creator Talks

Sir Kenneth Branagh and the Sound of Belfast

December 9, 2021

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Today we are joined by director Sir Kenneth Branagh to discuss his deeply personal new film, "Belfast." The film tells the semi-autobiographical (fictionalized) story of "Buddy," a 9-year old boy living in the city during the "The Troubles" of 1969. It is an intimate portrait of a small family on a tiny city block surrounded by chaos and upheaval.

To help convey the overwhelming feeling of menace, seemingly just around every corner, the director tapped Simon Chase — Sound Supervisor and Re-recording Mixer, Niv Adiri — Academy Award-Winning Re-recording Mixer, and James Mather — Emmy Award-Winning Sound Supervisor, all of whom join us today on the podcast to discuss how they crafted such a rich soundtrack for such an intimate film.

And, as it turns out, the inspiration for this project was actually a sound from Sir Kenneth Branaugh's memory:

A lot of people have asked me, 'why did you want to write it?' And interestingly, given what we're talking about today, what I found myself coming up with was to revisit the moment when I heard a sort of surreal twenty seconds where literally my life changed. And it was to do with hearing. 'Is that a bumblebee I'm hearing? Are those bees I'm hearing? They're not. What are they? What is that fuzzy thing at the bottom of the road? Those aren't bees. Oh no, those are people. Oh no, this is a riot.' But all of that in my mind [and] in my memory is what drove the writing of it... You might describe those 20 seconds, in sound terms, as an element of the film that describes the last day of my childhood. Because after that, everything changed.

Sir Kenneth Branagh, Director, Writer, and Producer, "Belfast"

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