00:00www.mesmerism.info
00:20I've been lucky enough to have been working on it for about 4 years now
00:24and after all the things I've worked on, this represents the pinnacle of anything I've ever been involved with
00:30It's just the most amazing project and the most amazing team of people
00:34I can't believe all the incredible people that are making this whole vision come to life
00:39Every time I play a video game, the sound enhances the experience so much
00:43and I was so glad to be a part of the audio team at Avalanche
00:46because we can enhance that experience and make such a great, memorable thing for the players
00:52This job of writing music for something just lifts the whole thing
00:55It's already a good game, but the music I think takes it to another level, makes it fantastic
01:06We wanted to make Hogwarts Legacy our own
01:08We wanted to put our own stamp and our own brand on it
01:11You can hear it in the music
01:13Not only does it sound new and fresh, it's nostalgic
01:20You know, I wanted to harken back to nostalgia factors
01:23That was the biggest thing for me
01:24I feel like today's game scores, it's a lot of texture-based kind of scores
01:29And so I wanted to bring back the heroic kind of fanfares of trumpets
01:33or melodic elements with the violins
01:35and kind of bring back the magic and the childlike awe and wonder
01:42The one thing we felt like is that the brilliance of John Williams' Hedwig's theme
01:47He hadn't even seen the movie and he wrote that incredible piece of music
01:51where the celeste and the violins is so brilliant and it just sounds like magic
01:59I suppose the biggest factor for the scores was trying to help it fit in with the other music that
02:05we have for the Harry Potter films
02:07We were thinking about the idea that what if there was an older melody of lore
02:11that might have been an earlier version of Hedwig's
02:14And so the ancient magic melody kind of grew out of that idea to say
02:19what if it could be a relative of Hedwig's theme
02:22You just hear a little bit of something recognizable
02:25And I think that just makes the experience a bit more fun
02:29And I think it's a perfect fit, it fits really well
02:39It can be kind of tricky to know what to write, to know what notes to play
02:44Some of these darker moments, they're balanced with some real beautiful music
02:49And so the music does go through quite a shift
02:51It goes from big powerful combat music
02:58To very slow, very emotional strings
03:07Not every moment in the game has music
03:09Not every moment in every film has music
03:10But when you need it, it makes all the difference
03:27I have to say this is the most challenging thing I've ever been involved with
03:32Just because of where the music has been going
03:35Where there's so many variations and options and things that we're exploring
03:39And the creative direction on this
03:41We have to account for every single action that the player can do
03:44While music is playing
03:45So for example, if you're out in the overland
03:48And you want to mount or fly
03:49We have to consider that the player can do that within a mission
03:53Or they might start a mission
03:54Or they might enter a cavern
03:56Or they might enter a building or a shop
03:58And music, we want to be dynamic and change through all those different experiences
04:02And we had to account for all that
04:04And every single thing that the player could possibly do in the game
04:06You've got to transition all these scores
04:08And hopefully they all kind of blend together, right?
04:10And so that's the really difficult part
04:12As opposed to linear film, you know, linear storytelling
04:14It's like you have to put in a lot of different music
04:17To make that magic and the ancient magic theme
04:20And all those themes really match the whole feeling
04:24Of these different moments in the game
04:25That's been, you know, just such a collaborative effort
04:29We had to make every area interesting
04:31And there are places like the herbology area
04:35Or the common rooms that we have custom music for
04:38Just to make that exploration and that kind of newfound area
04:41More special and more important to the player
04:49Right in all the different common rooms
04:51You had to infuse all the different characteristics of each one of those
04:53And I studied up on all those different houses
04:56And how do you make that and infuse that into a score?
04:59We've tried a lot of unique things that we've never tried before
05:02And anything else that we've worked on
05:03One instrument that we were looking for a giant piece of sheet metal
05:07And we're calling it a thunder sheet
05:09And so you'll hear in the ancient magic theme
05:11That you'll hear the thunder sheets coming in
05:13Almost like waves of emotion coming in
05:20And then that combined with another really unique instrument
05:23Called the water phone
05:24It just makes these sounds that literally sound like magic
05:34We care so much about the music
05:36And the time that we spent on each individual
05:40Little granular part of the mission
05:42And each score that is associated with it
05:45Kind of speaks for itself
05:47Every note, every chord progression
05:49Every chord, every harmonic structure, everything
05:52I pour so much into that
05:54It takes the best elements from the films
05:57And it adds something new
05:58And so it'll be familiar
06:00And feel like it fits
06:01And is at home in the Harry Potter wizarding world
06:04I love the team that I'm working with
06:07I love this project
06:08I'm so proud of what everyone's done
06:09And like to me
06:11Like last night
06:12Some of the people we were talking about with the orchestra
06:14We had the orchestra over at the studio
06:15And I had comments saying like
06:17You know, this was probably one of the greatest moments in my life
06:20You know, working through these scores
06:22And getting together as a team
06:24Just the spirit of everyone there together
06:26Thank you so much
06:28And thank you to the fans
06:29Really, because without the fans
06:30This wouldn't even be possible
06:32I just feel so lucky
06:33Thank you to everyone who's made this happen
07:03Thank you
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