Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1535806
18 S U M M E R 2 0 2 5 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y M E E T T H E W I N N E R S Music biopics succeed or fail based on their portrayal of emotional authenticity. In A Complete Unknown, 2020 Cinema Audio Society Filmmaker Award recipient James Mangold succeeded by providing an environment in the filmmaking process that prioritized creativity and provided space for actors and sound artists to explore and collaborate. The film chronicles Bob Dylan's transformative years, detailing his journey from a struggling 19-year-old artist in New York City to a world-renowned phenom. It features sound mixing team members Tod A. Maitland CAS, 2025 CAS Career Achievement recipient and production sound mixer; Paul Massey CAS, 2022 CAS Career Achievement recipient and re-recording mixer; David Giammarco CAS, re-recording mixer; Nick Baxter, scoring mixer; Kevin Schultz, Foley mixer; and David Betancourt, ADR mixer. To fully embrace lead actor Timothée Chalamet's stunning performances as Dylan, director James Mangold challenged the production team to record musical performances live on set, departing from many common practices such as lip- syncing, pre-recorded tracks, or click tracks. Production mixer Tod A. Maitland explains, "Our goal, as it always is, is to capture everything we possibly can as cleanly as possible MOTION PICTURES – LIVE ACTION A COMPLETE UNKNOWN b y K a r o l U r b a n C A S M P S E for post-production. This is especially true for period films; the more cleanly recorded elements we capture, the better the sound picture post can paint … much like a painter having pure colors to work with. The post-production team of this film painted a beautiful picture! But as a production mixer, it's all about the dialogue, and in this film, singing was treated the same as dialogue. During our first performance, Timmy said, 'We're going live,' and we never looked back!" Maitland's team of Jerry Yuen and Terence McCormack Maitland recorded 35 songs live to camera, which Timothée Chalamet often performed while playing guitar and harmonica—and entirely without earwigs, playback, or click tracks. Chalamet, who portrays Dylan, dedicated five years to preparing for the role by studying Dylan's body language, verbal characteristics, and musical style. Maitland describes how they were able to make it work: "Ultimately, the success of the production sound was the collaboration of many professionals—my team, Michael Jortner, the property master who found our period mic source; Joshua Lutz, the period mic master and tech; and the music department of Nick Baxter and Steve Gizicki, who were there every minute as we all tried to follow the bouncing ball. But again, if Timmy didn't do what he did, we couldn't have done what we did."