Maxance Vincent
Directing duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, best known for having helmed It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Mississippi Grind, and Captain Marvel, joined Masters of the Air in helming the fifth and sixth episodes. The fifth episode is far more action-heavy than the sixth, focusing on the war’s impact via Crosby’s (Anthony Boyle) and Rosie’s (Nate Mann) point of view. Speaking to Awards Radar on Zoom, the directors explained that each episode brought a different set of challenges, starting with how the planes were built for the fifth episode’s biggest action scene:
Says Ryan Fleck, “The first challenge is that the sets of these plans were built on a one-to-one scale; they were basically replicas of the actual planes. When we showed up, we wondered why these were not built ten or fifteen percent bigger for our cameras because the planes were not designed to have a film crew on there with heavy equipment. We realized it added to the claustrophobia of it all: How do we maneuver in there with the guys in these small, cold spaces? That added to the feeling of being constrained for the actors.”
Anna Boden explains that the two closely worked with the grip crew to “invent some new rig to figure out how to get the camera moving in a way that we wanted it to within the confines of these sets. That was really cool, and it made it feel dynamic and alive in a way that might not been possible had we not had those constraints.”
Boden also explained that they worked meticulously with cinematographer Jac Fitzgerald on how they wanted to shoot this sequence based on the internal perspective of the fighters:
“We storyboarded most of the sequence ahead of time and ensured it was being told from that specific internal point of view. It was such an important part of that process. We do have some shots from outside the plane to let the audience know when they got hit and when a plane went down, but they tend to be mounted to the plane because we wanted to keep that perspective and feeling of being with the crew on the plane.”
Episode six allowed Boden and Fleck to take a step back with the characters as they grapple with the loss of over one hundred men in three days and explore the inner turmoils of both Crosby and Rosie while also continuing John Egan’s (Callum Turner) story as a prisoner of war, thinking that his best friend, Gale “Buck” Cleven (Austin Butler), has perished during a mission.
Boden discussed working with Nate Mann to expand Rosie’s arc in the sixth episode, stating, “He is such a mature actor, even though he’s so young. One of the great things about him is that he really understands the character and shows so much on his face. He has so much depth and is comfortable with stillness and quiet.”
In directing him during the scene where he discusses his inner turmoil with a doctor, Boden explains that “it was about that journey and realization that he’s more than just a pilot. He is coming into his own as a leader of these young men and learning how to do what is right for him and what’s right for this entire group of people whose lives he is in charge of and is helping to make sure they get back safely. Throughout this episode, he starts to step into that role and begins his journey to becoming a really important leader of the 100th. This episode is pivotal in that journey for him.”
The sixth episode also follows John Egan’s story, in which he directly sees the effects of the Holocaust for the first time. As he boards a train with other prisoners of war, Egan sees another train full of Jewish prisoners on their way to a concentration camp, screaming in agony with their hands out of the window, pleading for help.
In capturing this specific, harrowing moment, Fleck explains that “when you put the camera on this train that’s coming through with hands poking out the window and screams coming from inside and shooting it through the perspective of someone who is seeing it for the first time, all of a sudden, it just hits you.
I think it was a really emotional moment for me and a lot of people on the set that day, getting that one shot in a way that I was not prepared for. I was pretty floored by shooting those events.”
Boden also reminds audiences that “this is the moment when Egan and all of these men are first seeing a train full of concentration camp victims. This is a moment in the war when people didn’t exactly know what was happening with the Jewish population. They didn’t know that there were death camps. The idea that they saw it with their own eyes for the first time felt quite real and haunting. It was an extremely powerful moment for everybody on set, including the actors and the crew.”
During our audio conversation, seen below, we also discussed the process of delving deep into the character of Crosby for its sixth episode, how they added their own styles and personalities to the episodes they directed, their familiarity with Donald L. Miller’s Masters of the Air, and what they feel is their proudest moment as directors for the series.
You can listen my full conversation with Anna and Ryan below, and stream all episodes of Masters of the Air on Apple TV+ today:
[Some of the quotes in this article were edited for length and clarity]
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