A graduate who studied in Bucks can now say she was part of a billion-dollar project - and she got the chance to rub elbows with Hollywood's elite while she was at it.

Nina Rice, who graduated from the National Film and Television School (NFTS) in Beaconsfield over 10 years ago, has worked on some impressive shoots and won an RTS Award for BBC 1's Ben Whishaw drama 'This Is Going To Hurt'. 

The biggest bow to her string yet, however, was being recruited as Production Sound Mixer on the $1 billion grossing, widely-lauded film of the year, Greta Gerwig's 'Barbie'.

In an exclusive interview with the NFTS, Nina said she was initially called in for an interview with Gerwig herself and felt an immediate connection, in part due to their shared experience as mothers working in the film industry.

"There was a lot of pressure on me to step up to mixing such a large studio feature, but I felt I was able to rise to the occasion, mostly due to the fact I surrounded myself with an incredibly talented sound crew."

Nina's position as Production Sound Mixer meant she was responsible for checking the sounds that would be required for each scene in the film and scouting out filming locations to find the best spot to record the audio.

A part of her role was also helping the film's star-studded cast get mic'd up and she offered an insight into how she and her 2nd sound assistant, Laura Clough, creatively managed to attach a microphone to Ryan Gosling when his outfit made it less than simple.

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"For the sequence where Ryan Gosling's Ken is topless except for a large open fur coat, Laura negotiated with the costume department to sew his transmitters into the lining on both the left and right of his coat, with the microphone threaded into the fur on the outside. It allowed us to capture  a wonderful open-sounding dialogue."

Nina credited her time at the NFTS, as well as the decade she spent as a sound assistant for honing her abilities and instilling the confidence needed to pursue impactful projects.

"My time at the NFTS remains one of the most special periods of my life. It was two years of intense filmmaking and collaboration, having the opportunity to work with so many talented people on so many diverse projects was essential in shaping me to be the mixer I am today."

To learn more about the film school, visit here.