Stephen Smith exudes a quiet, humble strength. No one could guess the places he has been—they include the Super Bowl and countless movie sets—or the plethora of famous people he has met. Life has led him into a fascinating series of projects that even he sometimes finds hard to believe.
Stephen Smith struggled with learning disabilities as a child. Now 46, he still recalls being removed from class for special education enrichment. “Of course, the other kids were mean about it and called me the dumb one,” he said. “I failed third grade and had to repeat it.” Smith did not believe in himself until he attended an open campus with alternative learning. “In high school, I challenged myself and realized that I could do it,” he said. “I made myself take the hard classes. I passed them and graduated.”
Smith’s deep interest in music led him to Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida, to learn how to record his songs.
“Music had a huge influence on my decision to study audio engineering,” he said. Smith moved to Atlanta in 2002 and interned at several studios. He even built a basement sound studio, which he still uses to record and mix other artists’ music. Even so, Smith’s audio career took a while to lift off. “There was a 12-year gap between graduating and starting serious work,” he said. Sporadic sound mixing gigs kept his skills honed while he worked at a trucking company to pay the bills. “At that point in life,” Smith said, “I was not in a good place. I was unhappy, in a downward spiral, addicted to alcohol.”
Smith believes those dark years taught him how to seek God’s will entirely. “God was working on me,” he said. Smith points to his alcoholism and depression as self-indulgent behavior that affected everything, including his relationships with his wife, McKenzie, and their children. “I wasn’t a new believer, but I had to reach that point of truly giving everything to God. I said, ‘I’m at the bottom end. Help me.’ And things started getting better.” When the film industry amped up in Georgia, the Smiths prayerfully took a leap of faith by quitting their jobs. McKenzie wanted to become a stay-at-home mom to their children, and Smith invested in professional soundman gear to freelance in sound engineering.
“Leaning on God gave us the confidence to do that,” he said. “He started opening doors, and I gradually started getting gigs. It was a really slow start, but I kept at it. It really took off the next year.” One of his first film jobs was in construction utility, pushing a broom and maintaining sets for “The Vampire Diaries”—a popular television series that was filmed in Covington and ran for eight seasons, starting in 2009. “I did that to get my foot in the door,” Smith said. “I ended up meeting some sound guys and, through networking, met a sound mixer named Tracy Duncan. We became friends, and he took on a mentorship role. That’s when things became totally different.”
“Your full potential is attainable if you trust and allow God to lead your life.”
Stephen Smith
Duncan provided the insider knowledge Smith needed to flourish in the industry. Smith started working in reality TV as a sound mixer. “That’s the guy with the boom mic and recorder, putting microphones on the talent and making sure they sound clean,” he said. Later, he switched his focus to electronic press kits, a collection of material used to promote a film or other media. Smith began recording behind-the-scenes director interviews with actors. “My niche is bag mixing; I document the making of the movie,” he said. “It’s basically a storytelling job, explaining why this director, these actors, this storyline.” Before long, the self-proclaimed film geek was elated to find himself working behind the scenes on Marvel movies.
“The coolest film I worked on was ‘Ford vs. Ferrari.’ We filmed the race scenes, the crashes, the actual drivers,” Smith said. “We got to see the fast-paced car scenes up close [and] how they aged the car to look like it’s been in the Petit Le Mans, 24-hour race. It was different from anything I’d ever done before.”
Another highlight was documenting the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s 10-Year Anniversary, as more than 80 actors and filmmakers gathered at an Atlanta studio in October 2017. They took an iconic “class photo” and Smith was there with his boom mic, capturing cameos from some of Hollywood’s biggest names. “Every actor who’s been in a Marvel film was there: Kurt Russell, Don Cheadle, Michael Douglas, Samuel L. Jackson, everyone. When I was walking across the stage with my boom, I almost ran over Jeremy Renner,” Smith said. “I think the Tony Stark character was based on Robert Downey Jr.’s actual personality. One time, I needed to mic him. He flung his arms out dramatically and said, ‘I’ll allow it.’” Another memorable moment was when actor Chris Hemsworth gave Smith a giant “bro hug” on the set of “Avengers: Endgame.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic caused a lull in the movie industry, one of Smith’s cameraman friends invited him to work on a crime TV film crew.
“I visited 32 cities in one year,” he said. “I’ve been everywhere but Hawaii, Alaska, the Dakotas and Maine.” Diving into those interviews taught Smith a lot about crime investigations. He admits processing some of the graphic details he witnessed was difficult. “They’re blurred on camera, but of course, we saw the raw crime photos on set,” he said. “It was really hard to meet the victims’ families, especially when kids were involved, but it was interesting seeing how different people deal with the worst thing that can happen to them.”
As a freelancer, Smith has been hired by CBS, NBC and other major news networks to cover presidential events for Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. He covered behind-the-scenes stories at the Super Bowl in 2019 and 2020 and has covered The Masters twice.
“Those were really cool for a sports guy like me,” he said.
Smith will celebrate 10 years of sobriety in October.
“Any time I think about drinking,” he said, “God reminds me of what life was like on that path versus what it’s like now, and it stops me.” Smith remains grateful for the season of growth he endured before his career took off. “Your full potential is attainable if you trust and allow God to lead your life,” he said. “Learn all you can and find the right people to guide you. Don’t quit your dream just because it’s not working at the moment. If God is waiting for you to take a leap of faith, always go for it.”
Click here to read more stories by Kari Apted.
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