Black Minds Matter: GCRS's Miles Henry Debuts Film 'Taking Flight'

Last week, GCRS’ young sound designer Miles Henry reached a pivotal moment in his career, as his first piece of high profile solo work for Black Minds Matter, ‘Taking Flight’ went live. 

He discusses why this project is particularly poignant for him in more ways than one. 

Completing my first piece of sound design work is incredibly exciting, let alone one that is so high profile. It feels even more special that the work is for Black Minds Matter as this is a cause that is very important to me.

Told through the experiences of Team GB Gymnast Dominic Mensah, ‘Taking Flight’ is a beautiful film directed by Luke Nutt that endeavours to explore some of the challenges and prejudices faced by so many young black and women today. 

The music track, A Caged Bird by The Cinematic Orchestra and Roots Manuva was so vital to the film and so the challenge was how we balanced the voiceover and sound effects with the music. I had to approach the film quite delicately, wanting to achieve a gradual build. I brought in subtle, realistic atmos and ambience that eventually reached a crescendo in the middle of the film. 

This is a key moment when Dominic enters a train tunnel and descends into darkness. The voiceover says, ‘when you feel the darkness around you, find the light.’ As he returns to the light this is where I created a dramatic transition to cinematic sound. When Dominic reaches the rooftop the film then slows down. At this point it was my intention to capture all of Dom’s movement using various elemental sound effects whilst keeping the music dominant in the mix.  

The premise of the film is that everyone should be acknowledged for their skill not their skin and I can definitely relate to that. There have been challenges in my life but, on the whole, I’ve been fortunate that my career path is based on merit, education and training. I am surrounded by creatives from every gender, sexuality and race every day and that has made success feel even more possible. 

The recent awareness for the Black Lives Matter movement should only be a good thing, but sometimes the message feels like it gets lost in lots of noise. Conveying the message through art, for me, feels like a better way.