Go behind the scenes of Game of Thrones’ soundscapes with sound mixer Daniel Crowley

Game of Thrones is a show with a lot of technical know-how behind the camera. Obviously, the dragons and direwolves take a ton of doing to make happen. It’s easy to praise the stunt people for being willing to get lit on fire, or the costume designers for making the show’s many beautiful outfits. But there are professionals performing less obvious tasks, too.

Take Daniel Crowley, one of the show’s sound mixers. Crowley talked to Audio Media International about the equipment he uses to make sure we hear each and every word the stars say. “On Thrones, eight to 10 speaking cast members in a scene is a regular occurrence,” Crowley said, reminding us again that Thrones is unique among TV tentpoles. “Mixing DPA boom mics with DPA lavs allows me to get the best of each actor’s unique voice.”

Okay, let’s have fun with vocabulary for a minute. For those of you who aren’t professional sound mixers, DPA stands for Danish Pro Audio, a microphone manufacturer. To hear Crowley tell it, DPA mics are the preferred kind of microphones on the Game of Thrones set. Apparently, they can withstand temperatures anywhere from -4 degrees to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, which is important on a show that films in places as diverse as sunny Malta and chilly Iceland. “All scenes demand the same attentiveness to the dialogue and my DPA’s deliver every time,” Crowley said.

Then you’ve got two different kinds of mics. A boom mic, or just a boom, is a microphone on the end of a pole, which sound guys dangle in front of actors’ faces to pick up what they’re saying, like so:

HOUSTON – APRIL 27: Former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay (C) walks with his wife, Linda (R), away from the Bob Casey U.S. Courthouse after proceedings in his fraud and conspiracy trial April 27, 2006 in Houston, Texas. Lay took the stand again today for the fourth time. (Photo by Dave Einsel/Getty Images)

Okay, that’s not so much an actor as it is a disgraced business executive, but the get the idea.

Meanwhile, a lavalier microphone, or a lav, is a smaller microphone actors clip on their collars, so they’re speaking in to it the whole time, but the camera doesn’t pick it up. “The costumes in the Game of Thrones world are so varied,” Crowley said. “[W]ith the DPA mics, we can sew, glue, stick and staple lavs in every conceivable fashion through the costumes.”

The lav could be anywhere on this costume. ANYWHERE!

As Crowley explained above, it takes a mix of boom and lav mics to effectively capture the dialogue on a show as sonically complicated as Game of Thrones. “My favorite mic is the 4011C on the boom for interiors,” he said. “After years of use, it still amazes me how much detail is captured, even when pushed out by lighting or some other extraneous force.

"In [a] recent episode, Jon Snow pledged his allegiance to Dany, a scene where every word is important. Jon had no shirt on, which meant no lavs could be used, and the ‘morning sun’ lighting on top of the small four poster bed gave me mere centimetres above Jon and Dany’s heads. I could barely squeeze the 4011’s on poles over the actors, but even with limited space the results were astounding. This scene was mostly whispered but with my DPA’s the viewers didn’t miss a word."

So do you think Crowley likes DPAs?

Anyway, that’s some fun insight into what goes on behind the scenes of even a simple sequence on this show. I can only imagine how much complicated microphone-fu was involved in the Dragonpit sequence.

And what’s next for Crowley? “Season 8 is going to be massive and I can’t wait to get started again,” he said. Sounds good to us.

Next: Season 8 filming: Telltale pink signs appear at Linen Mill Studios at Corbet-Banbridge

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