How the ‘Belfast’ Sound Team Anchored Environment in Childhood, Memory and Nostalgia
variety.comJazz Tangcay Artisans EditorKenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” is very much anchored in the filmmaker’s childhood memories and a sense of nostalgia.
Loosely based on his own experiences, the film opens in color in modern-day Ireland before audiences are transported back to Belfast, 1969, where a quiet residential area explodes as a mob shatters the tranquility and “the troubles” begin.The sounds of the community were key for MPSE Golden Reel nominee James Mather (Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Feature Effects/Foley ), who served as the film’s sound supervisor. “We start with this modern-day city, and from that moment we were introducing sounds that felt very relevant and resonant,” he says.
When the sequence transitions to black and white, Mather says Branagh wanted there to be the sound of the joy of childhood. “It was the sound of freedom, liberty, joy and innocence.
I wanted the audience to feel that they were being brought into an almost-perfect world,” explains Mather. While the visuals played on that idea, Mather used music, the busy street with adults and the kids playing to encapsulate that magic period.
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