For me there have been two key turning points in film sound in the last few years. First we had Les Misérables and the amazing work by Simon Hayes and his team by turning around how musicals are recorded and shot. This year James Mather showed how huge amounts of time can be saved by mixing a film in the box using Avid controllers like the S6 and S3. We have talked to them both for podcast extra interviews - Enjoy...

Les Misérables

Back in January 2013 Russ sat down with Simon Hayes, the Oscar and Bafta nominated Sound production sound mixer for Les Misérables, although his credits include X-Men, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and many more hit movies.

This extended interview talks about his journey into the industry and then focuses in on the groundbreaking audio work on the acclaimed Les Misérables. This is an unmissable episode that helps both those with industry experience, or those who are simply fans of the film, to understand the work that went into getting the audio right with an enormous challenge.

Listen and find out how having three Pro Tools systems on set made the entire project possible and much more about this landmark project.

Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation

Emmy winning sound editor James Mather began his career in animation working for Aardman Animation on projects like Chicken Run. The lessons he learnt taught him how to turn fantasy into reality. This stood him in good stead for his work on four films in the Harry Potter franchise. His latest project was Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation.

We caught up with James at IBC in Amsterdam this year. In this Podcast Extra Interview James and Mike talked about the ground breaking work that took place when it was decided to take 6 months out of the post production schedule to bring forward the release date, and how mixing in box, and a flexible team made this possible.

You can also find these on our iTunes podcast channel too. These are my turning points in recent history. What are your turning points?