Don’t pass up Part 1!

LIVE ON THE SET

For A Complete Unknown, the decision was made early on that all musical performances—those with Timothée Chalamet (who plays Dylan) and his acoustic guitar, and those with a full band—would be recorded live, particularly the former. “He always has his guitar with him,” Maitland says.

While an acoustic performance in a film would normally involve placing a wireless lavalier on the actor’s chest, Maitland says that wasn’t possible because, “Timmy held his guitar in a similar position to the way Bob did, with the body of the guitar up high, which would cover a mic on his chest.” Instead, he opted for placing a DPA 6000 Series subminiature lavalier in the actor’s hair, more typically done with Broadway actors.

For instances where Chalamet is playing in a setup without a stage mic (either a small club or in his apartment), Maitland miked the guitar from the inside. “We took a Sanken COS-11D lavalier mic and cut the cord, so it was just the plug and mic, and attached it to a Shure ADX1M micro-bodypack transmitter with Joe’s sticky tape, inside the belly of the guitar.”

For the band, shown inside the studio set, the actors/musicians all played live on set, tracked by Maitland using the working vintage studio mics seen in the frame. The equipment was set up by Terence McCormack, Maitland’s tech (and nephew), and his longtime boom operator, Jerry Yuen.

There were also prerecords for all band scenes, tracked a year prior to filming (which was delayed by a year due to industry strikes) by executive music producer Nick Baxter, who also provided on-set music direction. The tracks were recorded with session musicians at The Village Recorder and Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, with vocals recorded at Igloo Music Studio.

Chalamet was tracked live, though, on set, and not included in prerecords, except for instances where the playing required was beyond the actor’s reach. “The only thing that would be tweaked in post by Nick where instances where there was some intricate guitar or…