FEATURE PRODUCTION
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Game Of Thrones
One of the biggest breakthrough shows of the past few years, Game of Thrones has received praise from critics and viewers alike. Jerry Ibbotsen catches up with the show’s production sound mixer, Ronan Hill, while on location in Iceland for GOT season four.
ONCE IN a while a TV series comes along that manages to capture both mass appeal and cult status, pleasing critics and hardcore fans alike. Game of Thrones is one such show. Based on the fantasy novels of George R R Martin, the series has won a clutch of awards and nominations and is one of the most talked about shows in television at the moment. The show’s production teams are broken into units – aptly named Dragon and Wolf – who shoot in a studio in Belfast as well as on
location around Northern Ireland and further afield. Ronan Hill has been production sound mixer with Dragon unit for all three seasons and is currently working on season four.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR ROLE WITH GAME OF THRONES? My main role as production mixer is to record the dialogue and produce a daily mix for editorial and daily rushes. Additionally, I also try to record stereo atmos audio during scenes with authentic
“The only way to work on most occasions is out of a bag.” Ronan Hill
Ronan Hill
or heavily textured backgrounds, using a pair of mics off axis with the dialogue.
THE SERIES IS SET IN A FANTASY WORLD. SO WHERE DOES YOUR JOB TAKE YOU (GEOGRAPHICALLY SPEAKING)? I’m with Dragon unit – the primary production unit on Game of Thrones. In seasons one, two and three we shot mostly on location in Northern Ireland. This year Dragon unit is also filming for two weeks in Iceland. Wolf unit also film in Croatia.
WHAT KIT DO YOU NORMALLY USE? I always like working on my cart setup with a Cooper 208D mixer, a Sound Devices 788T SSD recorder, a Sound Devices 744T as two-channel backup, an Audio Ltd RK6 rack and 2040 receivers. I also use two Sennheiser
IEM stereo transmitters, giving me four channels of IEM (in-ear monitoring). I’ve also got two Lilliput seven-inch monitors and six
30 September 2013
litepower Lithium golf trolley batteries. The batteries are very light and allow everything to be powered separately, eliminating ground noise issues, and they have enough power to last all day. The lithium batteries had
to travel separately to Iceland as they exceed the recently introduced 100Wh power limit for air freight! I also run a portable setup, with a second Sound Devices 788T CL8 and an Audio Ltd RK3 rack attached. This allows me to quickly switch from cart based to run and gun. The radio channel receivers can be easily swapped from the RK6 rack on the cart to the RK3 on the portable. When A and B cameras are leapfrogging setups you need to be able to keep up! For microphones, I use
Sennheiser MKH 60s and MKH 70s outside and Sennheiser MKH 50s and occasionally MKH 8050s, MKH 8040s inside. I prefer to use the Audio Ltd 2040 transmitters although I have a couple of miniTX. I use DPA 4071 lavalier microphones with them.
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