Mixing A Complete Unknown

by Tod A. Maitland CAS & Terence McCormack Maitland

From the moment Timmy Chalamet and Jim Mangold announced we were recording all the music in this film live, I felt the weight of what we were about to undertake without the safety net of prerecords, earwigs or even a click track. Every day, we were recording an album, and not just any album, a piece of history. This is a film about sound and music, in which 98% of it was recorded live, in a multitude of challenging locations and scenarios; sixty live pieces of music and one hundred and thirty cues. It’s raw and real, I don’t know of any film that’s had more live music.

Microphone choice and microphone technique was the first piece of the puzzle and would become a major factor to the success of the sound in the film. During the pre-shoot rehearsals, I watched the way Timmy held the guitar, similar to Bob, with the body of the guitar very high up, where a wireless lav would normally be placed. At that moment, I realized the only way to record his nonperformance music pieces would be by micing Timmy in his hair, putting a wireless mic inside his guitar and deploying a multitude of strategically placed ambience mics. For the performance pieces, we used more than forty-two period practical mics all chosen for specific venues to add a different texture and quality to each performance. Period mics from the early ’60s had a specific sound, they were quite mid-rangey, they got warmer year by year. For the audiences, we had a robust speaker system with microphones dedicated to recording that amplified sound. We also had live monitor mixes on stage for the live performers. Add to that the standard boom mics, wireless lavs, ambient and effects mics and about five crowd mics and you had a creative potpourri of sound. Most of the time, we were mixing all the above all the time.
We mixed the entire film as if it were a live performance. Jim wanted the energy of the music happening all the time; during dialog, street scenes, phonographs playing, radio, TV. He wanted real sounds over everything so the actors would feel like they were truly in the environment, living it, and sound became a huge component in that. For example, with the Cuban Missile Crisis scene, we played sound from every TV we saw on the set. We added sirens, newscasters, anything to help add to the panic of the scene. For protest scenes, the protests were all happening over the dialog. For the Greenwich Village scenes, all the street musicians were fully live. We stashed speakers playing music in basement club doorways as you walked by, and of course, vintage cars. My team, Jerry Yuen and Terence McCormack Maitland, have a passion for finding sound elements to record. We keep four shotgun mics on armature wire and transmitters ready to deploy at any moment, and they go out all the time. We strive to give post as many sounds and perspectives as possible. The true challenge recording in this live environment style is to capture each element as cleanly as possible. You can imagine how difficult that was.

The essence of Bob’s (Timmy’s) voice was another challenge and required every trick in the book. Not only for his forty live pieces of music, but for Bob’s complicated voice. Bob had four different voices: He was a known mutterer (always fun for those of us trying to record them), there was his normal talking voice, which he rarely used, then his low-level twang and his over-the-top, sarcastic, ear-piercing twang. Both Timmy and Edward Norton used nasal plugs that restricted air giving them that folk twang.

The idea of getting an actor’s voice in your head as a Production Mixer is nothing new, I always explain it to people that it takes twelve weeks to shoot a film but you watch it in two hours. The voice quality has to remain the same no matter what the situation, acoustics, background noise, wardrobe, whatever. But to get four voices in your head for one actor is another thing. That’s in addition to all the other actors.

The most challenging and complicated part of the film for us was Newport ’65. We filmed the master shots for the entire closing scenes end to end in one 23-minute take. Starting with The Railroad Gang, the MC’s, Bob and his band going electric for the very first time, to the chaos offstage, and Bob’s acoustic with the final farewell sing-along with everyone onstage. We had more than thirty mics and forty total channels for that 23-minute scene.

Mixing this film was one of the most complicated, challenging, and rewarding experiences of my career. The level of quality and artistry that this film was built on at every level and every department required constant attention to detail and excellence. It is a movie about sound where sound is up front and never lets up. My hat is off to Timmy for his desire and courage to push the film to be live. At one point before we started doing performance scenes, Timmy said to me, “I worked 5½ years to become Bob Dylan, we’re not doing playback!” And we never did. Timmy even played to all the other actors when he was off camera. When have you ever seen that?

I would say that one of the greatest accomplishments of this film is how we established sound as a character in the film. It’s real, raw, not polished. It’s great when that happens, it doesn’t happen often. I was so happy with the post mix on this film. The post team of Paul Massey, Don Sylvester, Ted Caplan, David Giammarco and Nick Baxter killed it.

Terence McCormack Maitland

Utility Sound Technician
Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way: Yes, I am the instantly recognizable “Sound Recordist” seen on the courthouse steps early in A Complete Unknown. A truly dazzling tour de force performance, I know.

Tod Maitland, Production Mixer, (and my uncle), Jerry Yuen, Boom Operator, and I, have had the pleasure of working on several music-based movies in the last decade or so. Each one presents their own particular challenges and joys. We knew going into A Complete Unknown that we would be recording live singing, but we didn’t know just how lively it would prove to be.

Mic Tests & Rehearsals

Tod has been doing lavalier microphone tests before we start shooting any movie for a while now, but it’s especially important on the music-based films that have become a bit of a specialty for us. The test itself is pretty straightforward: We line up six lavalier mics of various makes and models and one Sennheiser 416 as the control. We have the actors go through some spoken dialog and singing at different levels. Tod then listens back to each person’s voice, A/B testing between the lav and 416 to see how each voice matches, and then trying to match that to what they sound like in in person. We’ve found each mic accentuates or attenuates different parts of each voice and sometimes we end up preferring different microphones for speaking versus singing

On A Complete Unknown, we were able to sit in on weeks of rehearsals with the cast, the music team, and our Director, James Mangold. This time proved to be invaluable as we could see how the actors inhabited their roles, including their postures while playing guitar or in a duet, for example, and it was an opportunity to reinforce good onstage microphone practices. It was also a good time to get these lavalier tests done in an unobtrusive way.

The rehearsals were also when we first got the chance to test the dozens of period vintage mics we used over the course of the movie. These were sourced by and cared for by our excellent property department, led by Michael Jortner, and Joshua Lutz, the operator of JML Studios, an encyclopedia of vintage microphone knowledge, and the owner of most of the mics we used. We did our absolute best to use the accurate microphone for each performance, with only a few substitutions to either get better sound or because the size of the wind protection they used was intrusively large.

This was when our collaboration with Mangold began in earnest. He made it clear to us that we should try to keep everything we do as accurate as possible, while not getting in the way of the actor’s performance or the movie at large. We learned that when we put as many microphone stands and mics out for the first rehearsal as there were seen in some of the reference photos of the Newport Folk Festival. It looked very cumbersome and busy. This made sense for the sound people who were running the live show back then, but they would not help us tell this story.

Meet your Heroes

One of the earliest scenes in the movie, when Bob Dylan as embodied by Timothée Chalamet, visits his hero, Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), in his hospital room, the first song we hear Dylan sing in the movie is “Song to Woody,” which is just him and his guitar, and yet for a song as seemingly simple as this, we had five mics going. One DPA 6060 on Timothée, a 416 from overhead, me on another 416 from below, a COS-11 inside the guitar, and another 416 hidden on the far side of the room to catch ambience and slap if the wire ended up being the best option.
On the first take or two, my job was to try and mostly get the guitar, but as the scene progressed, it became clear that Bob’s somewhat introverted and shy playing position (performing for your idol can’t be easy) was such that it would a: be impossible for me to avoid Timmy’s voice, and b: that, from below, I would have the best shot at getting in front of his mouth. Then the job became trying to balance the sounds of the guitar and Timmy’s voice. Between you and me, I love this kind of booming: Mixing with the 416 is a kind of three-dimensional auditory puzzle that is so rewarding when you nail it. Different parts of the guitar produce very different sounds: The sound hole is more bassy and boomy, wherever the strings are plucked can have a lot of finger noise and be quite harsh, the frets lose the bottom end and can over-emphasize the sound of the fingers moving between the frets. The twelfth fret is usually the sweet spot, or at least a good place to start. I found myself with the tip of the 416 somewhere around the tenth fret pointing back toward the twelfth and up at Timmy’s face. After a little searching it clicked, and sounded great, of course we kept all the other mics for safety and in case he looked up suddenly, Jerry would be there, matching my distance to ease the transition.

On top of all this, we recorded a clean guitar pass with our Music Producer, Nick Baxter, playing, and some impulse wave sweeps using the same mic placements. This way they would have more elements and options to help maintain the same sound and feel across different angles.

Newport

At the Newport Folk Festival, we had a lot to figure out; live singing, amplifying it for the crowd and the musicians, recording general ambience, and a whole bunch of characters in the wings having side conversations and the occasional brawl. It was also a ton of cabling. With this in mind, we were able to secure a permanent spot in an on-camera tent behind the stage. But this also meant that when we were doing sound checks, the board was on the wrong side of the speakers and too far to make any quick adjustments or mute a channel while you’re working on it. I ended up setting up a small Wi-Fi network to be able to control the Allen & Heath SQ-5 mixer via the SQ MixPad app on my laptop. This made a huge difference in my daily check to make sure nothing got unplugged and more importantly, meant that Tod could set some basic speaker levels and EQ’s while the speakers were actually pointed at him.

Since Timmy never wore in-ear monitors, the on-camera monitor wedges had to be fully functional, and this was one of the crucial examples of collaboration across departments. Our Production Designer, Francois Audouy, had construction build custom speaker cabinets for our wireless QSC speakers. Thankfully, they also fit the tube amplifiers for the pair of Neumann M582 mics we used for the main vocals and guitars throughout the festival. Normally, the playback operator would have control of the speakers, but since there wasn’t any playback at all, we took control of the monitor speaker outputs so Tod would be able to give Timmy the levels he needed to sing and perform fully while not overpowering what we were trying to record. The SQ-5 was an ideal board for us on this project. We were moving channel strips around between takes as new cast gained or lost lines in scenes, all while being able to control the outputs to the monitors on the same layer.

In addition to the vintage stage mics, the wires, and our booms, we always had several FX mics out. We’d set up multiple ambient mics to capture the crowds, especially as there were many sing-along moments throughout the movie. We also made sure to capture what the speakers were putting out so they could add that in at will in post as the camera either got further from the cast or included the speakers.

We always have four Shure AD4Q racks totaling sixteen wireless channels installed on the cart, with more available on the truck to single out interesting sounds, car mufflers, inside motorcycles, EFX mics, mics for the speaker effect.

Columbia Studios

I was really looking forward to the scenes at Columbia (CBS) Studios. They were the last thing we shot and were in many ways, a culmination of everything we’d learned and established from the beginning of the job. Since we were recording a number of different songs over a number of years for Dylan, we had to prepare many mic setups. In all the studio scenes, we used more than twenty different vintage mics. We had thirteen hardline ins, seven outs, in addition to the wireless booms and lavaliers that went out each day

For larger installs like this, I often create signal flow and cabling diagrams. Making these diagrams is for me to think through the routing before we get there and to help the rest of the team know where we’re running cables. Half the time, the actual install is very different but at least I can build the SQ-5 board setup on my laptop before we get there. One thing we had to figure out was how to make the meters move in the control booth. I have to admit that this is a bit of a pet peeve for me as there is little that pulls me out of a movie faster than when I see the meters stationary or not match the action on screen. We hardlined new mixes out of the SQ-5 into the various meter setups. This way, we could send separate feeds for voice, guitar, and whatever else as the scene demanded. We ended up daisy chaining and splitting those three mixes to high heaven as there were dozens of components like compressors, the custom-built prop board with its VU meters and reel-to-reel recorders that all required signals. I even mentioned to DOP, Phedon Papamichael, and our Gaffer, John Alcantara, that the VU meters were all functional so they could dim them to their liking.

What stands out about our time at the Columbia set was the cast/band would stick around during setups, and if they have an instrument in their hands, they’re gonna play it. And play they did! We ended up rolling sound through a lot of the “downtime” on set while they jammed away. It was really fun to watch them, Timmy included, play and sing out for the joy of making music.

Soundplant and Playing Back More Than Music

Another highlight of working on this movie and working with Tod, Jerry, Playback Operator, Derek and our Music Team, Nick and Steven, was that our first priority is always getting good and clean recordings. This movie features “live” performances, but also “lively” performances, and not just during the music scenes. When we are on set when possible, we create a realistic soundscape for the cast. Actors can give a better performance in a real set experience rather than in front of a green screen. Therefore, we think giving actors immersive sound on set helps their performances.

In order to do this, we used many tools, but the newest one for us is Soundplant, a deceptively capable app that turns one’s computer keyboard into triggers for sounds. For example, there was a scene where Bob is in a diner, as the crescendo of the Cuban Missile Crisis is unfolding around him. There is panicked dialog happening among the staff of the diner and the TV is on with newscasters describing the situation. I was given recordings of Cronkite and brought some other sound effects to create a layered soundscape by using a separate speaker outside the set for a police siren to pass by on cue. These sounds all ducked and dived around the on-camera dialog and were used as prompts for the actors.

Soundplant allows for a sort of live performance that can also be recorded. This meant that once I got a timing that worked out, I was able to reproduce that exactly, every time. We actually did this a lot as we were aiming for “Live” in more than just vocal performances. We wanted a live(ly) immersive sound environment for the actors and for dailies.

The sheer amount of music in this movie is daunting, with several scenes, including multiple layers of music going on at once. We were able to create different zones with different songs in each. When Bob storms out of the Kettle of Fish, and walks past multiple venues, each had a different wireless speaker playing different and overlapping music; there were also people singing, “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” and a man playing a tabla and singing. We heard all of it on set, and recorded the people performing live. It’s important to try to make as much of what’s happening in the script possible on the day. It doesn’t always work out, but that’s the goal. I’m totally aware that much of this work won’t be heard in the final mix. We’re telling the story in more ways than the Dolby Atmos sources moving around a 3D space in the theater. We strive to open up and create depth in setting to help ground performances.

Recording Sound with Atmos in Mind

We built our current main cart for West Side Story (2021), and we’ve been loving and adding functionality to it for more than five years. The Shure wireless system and the SQ-5 have both been dreams to work with. I’m able to create a robust RF coordination that lasts us the day, and sometimes several blocks of reception from packs worn on an ankle

Tod’s cart with the four AD4Q receivers (with two more on the truck) have allowed us to have a lot of fun singling out effects as they occur. On a period movie like this, we try to get as many tracks of cars and motorcycles as we can. So after we get through the critical work, we give post options, thinking about the Atmos mix while we’re recording on the day.

A Complete Unknown is a film we are immensely proud of, and one I’ll remember for a very long time. I’m proud of our work as a team and the crew at large. We all worked very hard every day to make this movie an experience for you all to see.