Noises on British sound engineer’s work on Belfast in the mix for Academy Award

A British sound engineer who was rejected by Call the Midwife is up for an Oscar tonight after Sir Kenneth Branagh “took a chance” on her. Denise Yarde, from London, has been nominated for the Academy Award for best sound for her work as a location sound mixer on Branagh’s Belfast.

The 50-yearold had faced difficulty finding employment before working on the film, having only £5,000 earned in the previous year. Ms Yarde said: “He took a massive chance on me because I didn’t have very much that said on I’m my a CV good sound mixer. Before Kenneth Branagh gave me this job I couldn’t get a job on Call the Midwife… I was really struggling.” A location sound mixer’s role is to collect the sound that is recorded on set as clearly and cleanly as possible. This is to prevent the actors having to record lip-sync or re-record afterwards.

Belfast won the outstanding British Film Award at the Baftas last month but it wasn’t nominated for best sound.