Electric Shock: How “A Complete Unknown’s” Oscar-Nominated Sound Team Re-Created Bob Dylan Going Electric

In the first part of our conversation with the Oscar-nominated sound team of James Mangold’s music biography A Complete Unknown, they talked about delivering an intensely music-centric film without using playback and differentiating between the soundscapes of 1961 New York, when Bob Dylan (an immaculate portrayal by Timothée Chalamet) first arrives in the city, and four years later towards the end of the film. Now, we continue the discussion with sound mixer Tod A.

“A Complete Unknown”: Orchestrating 60+ Live Performances for Oscar-Worthy Sound

In one of this year’s tour de force performances, Timothée Chalamet’s Oscar-nominated portrayal of one of America’s greatest singer-songwriters took almost six years to perfect (partly thanks to COVD-19 delays in production). For director James Mangold’s music biopic, A Complete Unknown, Chalamet not only learned to play the guitar and harmonica for the film, but also mastered Dylan’s famously idiosyncratic style to deliver over 40 flawless live-to-camera performances as the narrative charts his meteoric rise after arriving in New York in 1961.

“A Complete Unknown” Costume Designer Arianne Phillips on Channeling the Bob Dylan Mystique

Costume designer Arianne Phillips has never met Bob Dylan, but she did discover a personal connection while researching the singer’s early days for her new project A Complete Unknown (in theaters now). “I was born in 1963 in New York City on Cornelia Street,” she says. “I thought I knew a lot about Bob Dylan, but in the course of my research, I learned that right around the corner, Bob Dylan was living on Fourth Street at the very same time. 

Timothée Chalamet is Bob Dylan in Electric New “A Complete Unknown” Trailer

“You tramped all the way from Minnesota,” says Edward Norton’s Pete Seeger at the opening of the official trailer for A Complete Unknown. “Why is that?”

“I wanted to catch a spark,” comes the answer from a young man named Bob Dylan, played here by an appealingly understated (if still undeniably charismatic) Timothée Chalamet. A Complete Unknown, from director James Mangold and written by Mangold and Jay Cocks,

Timothée Chalamet is Bob Dylan in First “A Complete Unknown” Trailer

The first trailer for James Mangold‘s A Complete Unknown has arrived, revealing a glimpse of Timothée Chalamet transforming into Bob Dylan in one of the most intriguing films set to land this winter.

A Complete Unknown was written by Mangold and Jay Cocks, and follows the legendary musician’s early years in New York City, leading up to the era-defining moment, one of the most iconic moments in music history,