Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1544300
26 M PS E . O R G indicate about the character and who that character is, and what it means to the story? I just didn't connect to any of these ideas about story … because no one taught me to, and that took a long period of personal and professional growth. I started by taking acting classes, improv comedy lessons, writing seminars, and cinematography classes. All to round out my cinema education. I did get there, and I feel proud about that accomplishment. This education connected me to my filmmakers' stories in a much deeper way, so much so that I could finally begin talking intelligently with them. I hate to think what it was like working with me then. A time when my conversations were probably, "Oh, I recorded these immersive backgrounds" or "That gunshot will be great in the subwoofer." In retrospect, I was completely missing the point. I have spent a career since, Mark Mangini and the Rack of Doom c. 1992 determined not to let myself, my craft or my community be typecast as mechanics or technicians. SSS: Wow. Now, how on earth did they recognize that you were part of the organic storytelling. What did it take? MM: What I discovered is that I had to start leveraging my ideas, my creativity, and my understanding of the story the first time I met a filmmaker, so that I was speaking their language. I remember a seminal interview I did 25 years ago that put these ideas in context. I went on that interview, and I talked about the story instead of sound for the film. I didn't talk about how great my sound library was. I didn't talk about what we're going to do with those explosions. I only talked about my understanding of the characters and what I thought the director was trying to achieve on a narrative level, on a dramatic level, or a comedic level. Those conversations started to last more than five minutes and I could see the director leaning in like, "oh, yeah, you know, I never thought of that, you know, this is what I wanted to do." And I would say, "I got that. But I think we could drive that idea home a little bit better if we maybe try sound or music or something in this way," and they could see that my focus was the success of the film, not the success of the sound. My goals became the success of the film, not the success of the sound or Mark Mangini. I remember a film editor telling me, after I got hired, a story that put this in perspective. He told me I was one of three people interviewed. I knew that, because when I walked into the director's office, the Academy Directory, a list of every film that's ever won or been nominated for an Academy Award, was on the coffee table I interviewed at. I could see two yellow Post-its for the two individuals I was up against. They had won Academy Awards. I hadn't. I ended up getting that film, and the editor told me later that the other two supervisors came in and did all the things I just described, talking about how cool their sound library is and the type of microphones they have and frequency response. I think that puts most directors to sleep. I think most directors want to know you're on the same page dramatically. That's when I knew my studying was working. SSS: Very cool. Are there colleagues of yours that you feel understand that language? MM: There's so many. I generally find re-recording mixers have a deep or even deeper understanding of the language of storytelling. Sound editors tend more often to get stuck in the weeds because we have so much to do and we get attached to the sounds themselves, especially if we recorded or designed them. Re- recording mixers have no such vested interests. They don't (or shouldn't)