Michael Minkler

Last updated
Michael Minkler
Born (1952-05-14) May 14, 1952 (age 72)
OccupationSound Re-Recording Mixer
Years active1969–present
Children Christian P. Minkler (son)
Family Bob Minkler (uncle), Lee Minkler (uncle)

Michael Minkler (born 14 May 1952) is a motion picture sound re-recording mixer. He has received Academy Awards for his work on Dreamgirls , Chicago and Black Hawk Down . His varied career has also included films like Inglourious Basterds , JFK and Star Wars , as well as television programs like The Pacific and John Adams . [1] Minkler works at Todd-AO Hollywood. [2] He is also the Managing Director of Moving Pictures Media Group, a company that specializes in film development, packaging projects for production funding acquisition. [3]

Contents

Early career

Minkler started working as a recordist when he was 17, and started mixing in 1974 when he was 22. His early projects included commercials, television shows and industrial films. His first major film came in 1976 when he was hired for temporary work on music and effects tracks for the foreign release of All the President's Men, with rerecording mixers Arthur Piantadosi and Les Fresholtz, at Warner Brothers' Stage 5. He continued to work with Piantadosi and Fresholtz on another 35 films, and considers them his mentors. [4]

Family history

Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Minkler was born into a family of sound-for-film professionals.

Darrell Minkler, his grandfather, worked at Chicago Labs in 1928, developing disc recorders. He came to Hollywood to work on the Vitaphone project at Warner Bros. Studios. Darrell Minkler also built a company then called Radio Recorders for music recording with such pop classic performers as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Tommy Dorsey. That studio later became a part of The Record Plant. [4]

Don Minkler, his father, began his sound career in the late 1940s and founded Producers Sound Service in 1964. Don Minkler's re-recording career includes such films as Easy Rider , Five Easy Pieces , The Last Picture Show and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls . [5]

His uncle, sound re-recording mixer Bob Minkler began working in the sound department back in the 1960s and won an Oscar in 1978 for his work on Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope . Other Bob Minkler credits include 10 , Hair and Bull Durham and Saturday Night Fever . His other uncle, Lee, also a mixer, shares the distinction of being on the Oscar Nominated Sound Mixing team for Tron with Michael and Bob. That is the only time that three members of a single family were nominated for an Oscar for the same film. [6]

Minkler's son, Christian P. Minkler, is also a re-recording mixer, who has worked on both television and feature film projects since 1990. Christian's most recent credits include Repo Man , The Proposal and Role Models . [7]

Professional experience

After a four year stint at Warner Bros. Studios, he took the job as the chief mixer and managing director of facilities, at Robert Altman's Lion's Gate Films in 1980. In 1984, Minkler struck out as an independent, working at a number of facilities, until 1990 when he helped design and staff Skywalker Sound's Lantana facility in Santa Monica. He continued to mix there after the facility was acquired by Todd-AO. While at renamed Todd-AO West, Minkler won a pair of Academy Awards, first for Black Hawk Down in 2001 and then Dreamgirls in 2006. In 2009, he moved to the Todd-AO Hollywood facility and quickly earned an Academy Award nomination for Inglourious Basterds.

Technical Advisor

In addition to his mixing credits, Minkler has been a sought after technical advisor for companies like Euphonix where he helped with the development of digital audio mixing technology, which is now an industry standard. [8]

Minkler has always been considered an innovator of technology and technique. On Inglourious Basterds, Minkler utilized a new technology developed by Penteo Surround that enables stereo music mixes to be converted and spread across a 5.1 surround sound field. [9]

Appears on

While Minkler is regularly profiled in trades magazines like Variety, Mix and Post, he's also appeared on DVD featurettes discussing the sound of a particular film. The Sound of Miracle appears as an extra on the DVD release of the 2004 film Miracle.

Awards and nominations

Michael Minkler has been nominated for 12 Academy Awards (three wins), six BAFTA Awards (three wins), eight Cinema Audio Society Awards (two wins), one Motion Picture Sound Editors Awards (one win), seven Emmy Award (one win) and four Satellite Awards (three wins).

In 2006, Minkler received the Cinema Audio Society's Career Achievement Award at the 42nd annual CAS Awards Banquet. The event took place at the Millennium-Biltmore in Los Angeles. He was the president of the Cinema Audio Society in 1981.

Academy Awards
BAFTA Awards
Cinema Audio Society Awards
Motion Picture Sound Editors - Golden Reel Award
Primetime Emmy Awards
Satellite Awards

Controversy

After winning the Oscar in 2007 for his work on Dreamgirls, Minkler exchanged the following dialogue with a reporter:

Reporter: Each one of you has won an Oscar before tonight. One of your other nominees, Kevin O'Connell, has never won in 19 tries now. Do you have anything to say to him?

Minkler: I kind of figured this question was going to come up, so they said if it does come up, go ahead and say something. I think Kevin should just like maybe just go away with 19 wins[ sic ] and just call it a record and that would be the end of it. We work really, really hard at what we do, all of us do in our craft. And if we, you know, stumble upon an award like this, somebody is willing to honor us with something like this, we are so grateful. And I just wonder what Kevin's trying to do out there by trying to get an award by using sympathy. And Kevin's an okay mixer but enough's enough about Kevin.

Reporter: You think he should take his name out of consideration?

Minkler: No, no, I just think that he should take up another line of work."

February 24, 2007 [21]

Several online [22] [23] [24] publications found the comments to be controversial, surprising, or otherwise noteworthy. L.A. Times contributor Tom O'Neil reported on the event after contacting O'Connell, receiving the following response from him:

"As you may or may not know, my mother Skippy passed away on Sunday night right after the Oscars. I was holding her in my arms when she died. I was not made aware of Mr. Minkler's comments until Monday morning. I have not seen them personally and at this point I have no intention of looking at them or reading about them. I'll get back to you when I get that far down on my list of what is important to me. Take care, Kevin."

O'Connell was with dying mom while being bashed at Oscars - March 1, 2007 [25]

Minkler apologized to O'Connell within a few weeks of making his original remarks in an open letter, and by calling and speaking to him personally, as referenced in the letter. [26] Minkler framed his apology with the statement, "A very unfortunate situation has developed because of my stupid answers to some inappropriate questions. I did not seek this spotlight—the press did, as they have in the past. It was wrong of them to ask the questions, and wrong, wrong, wrong of me to answer them the way that I did."

Writing on the controversy once again, Tom O'Neil characterized the apology in his LA Times blog as, "Minkler blames the media for his bashing of O'Connell." [27] As reported in the updated article, O'Connell accepted the apology cordially with the statement, "I think it is time for all of us to move on in the best interest of the sound community, and put this behind us."

Related Research Articles

The Academy Award for Best Sound is an Academy Award that recognizes the finest or most euphonic sound mixing, recording, sound design, and sound editing. The award used to go to the studio sound departments until a rule change in 1969 said it should be awarded to the specific technicians, the first of which were Murray Spivack and Jack Solomon for Hello, Dolly!. It is generally awarded to the production sound mixers, re-recording mixers, and supervising sound editors of the winning film. In the lists below, the winner of the award for each year is shown first, followed by the other nominees. Before the 93rd Academy Awards, Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing were separate categories.

Willie D. Burton is an American production sound mixer. His career has spanned five decades and has included films such as The Shawshank Redemption, Se7en, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Burton has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound or Best Achievement in Sound Mixing a total of seven times, winning twice; he has been nominated for two BAFTA Film Awards for Best Sound, winning once; and he was nominated for one Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Mixing for his work on Roots.

Kevin O'Connell is a sound re-recording mixer. He held the record for most Academy Award nominations without a win at 20, until he finally won his first Academy Award for Hacksaw Ridge (2016) at the 89th Academy Awards in 2017.

William M. Nicholson is a sound re-recording mixer at NBC Universal studios in Los Angeles, California. During his lengthy career, he has received numerous awards and nominations, including 5 Emmy awards, 22 Emmy nominations, 2 Cinema Audio Society nominations, and an Academy Award nomination for Martin Scorsese's 1980 film Raging Bull. He is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

John J. Thomson is a production sound mixer. He was nominated in the 28th Genie Awards for a Genie Award for Best Achievement in Overall Sound.

Wylie Stateman is an American sound director, supervising sound editor, sound designer, and post production media entrepreneur. Stateman has supervised over 150 sound projects, resulting in 9 Academy Award nominations, 6 BAFTA Awards, 3 Primetime Emmy Awards, and over 30 Motion Picture Sound Editor Awards. He also received a Science Technology award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1994 for Audio Track’s Advanced Data Encoding (ADE) System. In 2021 he won an Emmy Award for his sound design in Netflix’s original series ‘The Queen’s Gambit’.

Todd Soundelux is an American creative entertainment services company.

Harold William Varney was an American motion picture sound mixer. A two-time Academy Award winner, Varney shared the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 and Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981. Varney also received Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing nominations for his collaborative sound mixing on Dune in 1984 and Back to the Future in 1985.

Robert Alan Minkler was an American sound engineer. He won an Oscar for Best Sound and was nominated for another in the same category. He worked on more than 50 films between 1957 and 1992. Minkler died of respiratory failure at his home in Oregon.

Michael J. Kohut was an American audio engineer. He was a seven-time Academy Award nominee for Best Sound, a BAFTA award winner for Best Sound for Fame and was President of Post Production Facilities at Sony Pictures Studios. During his tenure at Sony Pictures Studios, he led the American team in the development of Sony Dynamic Digital Sound the discrete eight-channel playback system for motion picture sound.

Paul Massey is an English sound engineer working based in Southern California. He has been nominated for ten Academy Awards in the category Best Sound. He has worked on 200-plus films since 1982. He won the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing in 2019 for Bohemian Rhapsody along with John Casali and Tim Cavagin. In 2022 Massey received the Cinema Audio Society’s Career Achievement Award at the 58th annual CAS Awards.

Mark Ulano is an Academy Award-winning American production sound mixer. He has won an Academy Award for Best Sound and has been nominated for three in the same category.

Tony Lamberti is an American sound engineer. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Sound Mixing for the film Inglourious Basterds. He has worked on more than 140 films since 1991.

Simon Hayes is a British sound engineer. Hayes won an Academy Award for Best Sound at the 85th Academy Awards for his work on Les Misérables. He won a BAFTA for Best Sound for the same film. In 2022, the 94th Academy Awards included Hayes as a nominee for Best Sound Mixing for his work on No Time to Die.

Mark Taylor is a sound effects mixer and re-recording mixer.

Peter Grace is an Australian production sound mixer. He is best known for his work on critically acclaimed war-drama film Hacksaw Ridge (2016) for which he received the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing at the 89th Academy Awards, sharing with Robert Mackenzie, Kevin O'Connell and Andy Wright.

The Cinema Audio Society Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Motion Picture – Live Action is an annual award given by the Cinema Audio Society to live action motion picture sound mixer for their outstanding achievements in sound mixing. The award came to its current title in 2013, when feature motion pictures were separated into two categories; achievement in live action sound mixing, and achievement in animated sound mixing. Before this, the category was labeled Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Motion Pictures, and was given annually starting in 1994.

Warren Shaw is an American sound editor. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Sound for the film Greyhound. Shaw also won an Primetime Emmy Award and was nominated for one more in the category Outstanding Sound Editing.

Christian P. Minkler is an American sound engineer. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Sound for the film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

References

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  5. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0591442/ IMDB Credits for Don Minkler [ user-generated source ]
  6. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0591440// IMDB Credits for Bob Minkler [ user-generated source ]
  7. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0591441/// IMDB Credits for Christian Minkler [ user-generated source ]
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  25. Los Angeles Times
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  27. Los Angeles Times