SIMON HAYES - Production Sound Mixer

Team Deakins

James Ellis Deakins

Tv & Film, Filmlighting, Deakins, Movies, Filmmaking, Production, Film, Cinematography, Film Interviews

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2025

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

SEASON 2 - EPISODE 135 - Simon Hayes - Production Sound Mixer

In this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast, we speak with production sound mixer Simon Hayes (WICKED, LES MISERABLES, SHAUN OF THE DEAD). At 14, Simon followed his father to set to learn sound. At 15, he then won the European BMX Championship. And at 16, he quit school, immersed himself in the industry, and honed his skills during the boom times of British commercials. Simon shares how early-career nights at Soho bars led to his professional relationships with directors Guy Ritchie and Matthew Vaughn, and we discuss the lessons he learned about protecting live performances on those early films. Simon reveals how an idea from Meryl Streep changed the approach to recording the songs of MAMMA MIA!, and he later shares his own views on the effectiveness of boom mics and radio mics. Simon also reveals how they actually recorded the live vocals of LES MISERABLES without pre-recorded backing tracks, and he reflects on how his experiences in recording studios enabled him and his team to coordinate the complex musical numbers in WICKED with seasoned recording artists and leading actresses Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Plus, Simon reveals where he hid Elphaba’s radio mic.

This episode is sponsored by Aputure

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi and welcome to season two of the Team Deacons podcast, a collection of
0:08.8	informal conversations between Roger and James Deacons and a guest.
0:13.7	We never know where the conversation will take us, so listen in and see where it goes.
0:21.2	This episode is sponsored by Aperture, a premier manufacturer of LED lighting with the industry's
0:28.6	greatest variety of fixtures for your complete lighting needs.
0:33.7	Aperture recently announced the new storm family of lights.
0:37.9	With LED white light quality that matches natural daylight and classic tungsten bulbs,
0:43.6	plus extreme low-end dimming while maintaining color quality.
0:48.2	Discover more about the new storm lights and the complete Aperture lighting ecosystem at Aperture.com.
0:59.1	Today we're speaking with an onset mixer.
1:02.0	His credits are many and include Les Miserables,
1:05.1	No Time to Die and Wicked.
1:07.1	We're pleased to welcome Simon Hayes.
1:09.8	Simon, thank you for doing this.
1:12.2	Oh, it's a real pleasure.
1:13.3	Actually, I've been wanting to talk to you guys for quite some time.
1:16.4	So thank you for finding time over the weekend to have this conversation.
1:20.8	I really appreciate it.
1:22.2	Well, it's great.
1:23.1	Lovely to see you.
1:24.2	Sure.
1:25.1	We'd love to ask our regular question, which is, how did you get to where you are today?
	...

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