Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1525212
37 F A L L Q 3 I S S U E F E A T U R E Michael Minkler. "That was the first thing that we at- tacked," he said. "We put a team of field recorders together. They went out for four days. [Fellow Supervising Sound Editor] Jack Whittaker and Re-Recording Mixer Duncan McRae went with us. They went out and recorded B-17s for four days, doing ev- erything possible on the ground and in the air. You'd see microphones and four digital recorders recording everything — and that gave us a huge library of material." That library was essential for the sound designers to do their magic with the sound effects for the B-17 engines — beefing them up, pitching them, giving them expression. "Those engines had to be very descriptive — especially since the show features scenes in which the planes go from four engines, to three engines, two engines, one engine to no engine," Minkler added. A three-time Academy Award-winning sound re-recording mixer ("Black Hawk Down," "Chicago," and "Dreamgirls"), he has mixed more than 275 motion pictures over the last five decades. Among other no- table collaborations with iconic producers and directors, he has enjoyed a long collab- oration with Playtone Productions and its producing team led by Gary Goetzman and Tom Hanks. THIRD GENERATION Minkler is also the family's third-gen- eration film sound professional. His father, Donald Minkler, was an owner of his own i n d e p e n d e n t p o s t - p r o d u c t i o n s o u n d facility, Producers Sound Service, and his grandfather, Darrell Minkler, was a pioneer in the field of sound recording for both films and records as well as part-owner of the Hollywood landmark Radio Recorders. CineMontage recently caught up with the younger Minkler to learn more about his work on "Masters of the Air" and his advice for the next generation of sound editors and mixers. Q: How did you first get involved with this project? Minkler: We [Play tone and Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners] have been working together for quite a few years on many projects including "The Pacif ic," which we did 13 years ago. It was another similar limited series about the war in the Pacific, so I knew this one was coming up. I was, of course, extremely excited about it, so when I got the call that it's a go, and they went into production in 2021, they said, "OK, Mike, let's put the team together." W hen this group of people decides they're going to make one of these limited series, they go for it. This is basically four feature films as opposed to a nine-part television limited series. They have the budget for it and have the spirit of it, and everything is taut — you look at the art direction, the costume design, the actors and what they went through to learn their parts. There's 350 speaking parts in this and a crew of 1,500 people on the set for over a year. Everyone was just working at the peak of their game to deliver something that was, I think, unbelievably perfect. Q: Tell us more about how the authenticity of the B-17 sights and sounds helped the actors capture the real-life horror of what the 100th Bombardment Group's airmen experienced? Minkler: The actors were reacting to a playback that was done on the set to allow them to experience certain things that may occur in flight. But once those visual effects