IFTN caught up with Ronan to disuss his fondest memories of the show, the people he worked with and what projects are on the horizon.
Belfast based Production Sound Mixers Ronan Hill and Simon Kerr with Cork based Daniel Crowley, have won a Primetime Emmy (outstanding sound mixing for a comedy or drama one hour), for their work on Season 8 Game of Thrones.
The three mixers attended the award ceremony at the Microsoft Theatre Downtown Los Angeles on Sunday were they collected their Emmys before attending The Governor’s Ball. It was Simon and Danny’s first Emmy win and Ronan’s fifth, having previously won four Primetime Emmy’s for the show.
Hill spoke with IFTN to reflect on his time working on HBO’s record breaking show.
IFTN: Starting out, did you get a sense that the show had the potential to turn into the international sensation that it has become?
Ronan: “I was first approached when HBO came to Belfast to conduct interviews with potential Heads of Department for the Pilot for a new show called Game of Thrones. When I was working on the pilot I got a sense that this could be a great show. HBO had good reason to be excited by the project but I had no idea it would provide me with ten years work and an array of awards including five Primetime Emmys and five CInema Audio Society Awards.”
IFTN: What is your fondest memory working on Game of Thrones?
Ronan: “Its difficult to pick one moment. My favourite episodes are The Rains of Castamere (The Red Wedding) and Battle of the Bastards (BOB). The first for the human drama and the second for the immense battle with great sound opportunities.
My two favourite locations were Fair Head on the North Antrim coast, as it was another opportunity to show the beauty of the area I grew up. The second was standing on a glacier in Iceland - this was definitely somewhere out of the ordinary!”
IFTN: What was a given day like whilst working on Game of Thrones?
Ronan: “Days on Game of Thrones were quite varied. You could be in studio or on a remote location filming battles with many cameras or dialogue scenes with many cast, in every possible weather condition!
It was a job you needed to prepare for and carry a wide variety of spares.”
IFTN: Can you tell me a bit about the people that you worked alongside in the sound department during your time on the show?
Ronan: “It was a great pleasure to see production sound mixers Simon Kerr and Danny Crowley honoured at this year’s ceremony alongside me. Danny has contributed to the show as a mixer since season two and Simon who worked as my boom operator on seasons one through six and countless jobs previously, returned to cover for me as mixer during my absence for medical treatment.
I also need to pay tribute to my team, boom operator Guillaume Beauron and sound assistants Jonathan Riddell and Andrew McNeill. The cast and crew on Game of Thrones made it possible for us to achieve our goals and throughout the seasons we continued to improve our production infrastructure and train new crew.”
IFTN: What projects are you currently working on / do you have coming up?
Ronan: “The last project I worked on was a Pilot for HBO which is a prequel to Game of Thrones. Hopefully it will come back as a series next year.My next job Is ‘The Deceived’ - a four-part thriller for Channel 5 and Virgin Ireland written by Lisa McGee and Tobias Beer.”