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New Project: John Williams Potter Scoring


Potter Scoring Project

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That Harry in Love is a really nice variation on what we know.

Makes it sound a bit new again.

 

Always love Christmas at Hogwarts and it makes a welcome return here.

Hermione's theme is especially gorgeous.

Good job on that one!

 

Hedwig's Waltz is nicely choreographed.

And I really appreciate that you managed to sneak Double Trouble in there for a little bit.

 

Oh... And Entrance to Hogwarts, of course!

Such a great piece of music; really puts me back in the past.

 

All in all... Good job again!

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On 4/13/2020 at 3:14 AM, Ravendor Studios said:

Hi everyone, we couldn’t comprehend splitting these guys up so here are 3 (three!) cues for you this week. 

 

Happy Yule Ball!

Cue No. 21: Harry Asks Cho to the Ball

Cues No. 22: Christmas Again and the Yule Ball, and No. 23: Yule Ball Waltz



This. Is. Perfect.
I would love to watch the full movie with your music properly mixed in!

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9 hours ago, redishere said:

This. Is. Perfect.
I would love to watch the full movie with your music properly mixed in!

 

Thank you!! We really appreciate it and we're hoping to at least post the full audio to line up with the film when it's done.

 

There are two new cues up for this week! First is a moment for Ron and Hermione as the Yule Ball ends (Cue No. 23 part 2), followed by Cue No. 24: Vision of Voldemort. Let us know what you think and as always, thanks for listening!

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This is a fantastic idea, I applaud all the work that's been done so far!

I love the series, but it has been a bit of a bother that the musical style changes so rapidly from the earlier films to the last few. I appreciate each score in isolation enough, (some more than others), but it's just fascinating to think of what an overall tapestry of music might look like for the whole series.

Good luck and I can't wait to see if there's more!

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Oh, my, God. I won't say I prefer this approach to Doyle's because it's too firmly rooted in what JW wrote for the previous movies, but hearing these cues remains just so special. The dance cue doesn't really work for me because I'm pretty sure JW wouldn't have had them dance to his own themes, but, yeah, I can't help feeling... something special when listening to this.

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Thank you both, it's great to hear your feedback and reactions!


@FrankFWJH we definitely wanted to position this as the middle film in a tapestry, and have always wanted to see where all of the existing themes could have gone even as the style of the movies changed. Continuity and growth have definitely been at the front of our minds. Glad you've liked it so far!

@bollemanneke that makes sense. We knew we might agree to disagree with people on the overall approach, just like all of the discussions that have happened here about the existing Potter films or about TLJ vs. TROS, for example (in terms of the amount of reuse and which is better/more inspired). Either way, we're so glad to hear that you're enjoying the score! We've been trying to keep the tone of this movie in mind, returning to some of that nostalgic magic, as well as the placement within the series as we've decided where to use direct throwbacks, too.

All in all, we've always wanted to emulate that feeling of John Williams magic when watching these films, so that means a lot. As a side note/devil's advocate, we know Hedwig is diegetic so we took advantage of the opportunity! ;) 

MS

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Oh, the magic/nostalgia aspect most definitely works for me. This is just my two cents, but Doyle's score also worked for me on that level: I just can't describe the feeling I got when hearing that score for the first time. I do miss A LOT of magic in HP5 and 6, though, so it would be very interesting to see what would happen if you tackled those. Doyle's score, as you already have pointed out too, works very well, but HP5 and 6 beg for re-writes. (Make that re-shoots).

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Great stuff as always @Ravendor Studios, the frustrated Hermione motif works really well when she collapses on the stairs!
 

As for the other HP movies, I've nothing against them: I'm just not a fan of Yates' direction, it feels a bit soulless to me, especially in the fifth. HP6 and 7.1 are on point though. Didn't like 7.2 that much when I first saw it, and I must admit I still feel a bit underwhelmed when I rewatch it. Speaking of the non-JW soundtracks, Doyle surely made the most memorable one; Hooper's Phoenix score to me is not that great, while I think the Half-Blood Prince one works pretty well. Hallows 1&2 have some nice stuff, but action-y ostinato-filled scores bore me. I like Desplat, but a lot of the magic is gone in the last movies: I get everything is dark and gloomy, but man, I still think there's a parallel universe in which JW score every HP movie and we're all holding a big-ass LLL boxset in our hands, so this Ravendor project for me is the best thing :D 

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Thank you as always for listening @redishere! There is for sure an alternate universe where we have that box set. We've even talked in our meetings about how we would have been prepared to drop a large amount of $$ for that 8 movie (hopefully 20+ disc) John Williams Harry Potter Collection. Honestly the genesis of this whole project was partly us saying that we know that won't happen, so we did it ourselves.

 

BP

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27 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said:

Are you planning to upload the whole score once it's complete in lossless form without the video?

 

With custom cover art hopefully :)

 

Yes we are! We'll be working out the details in the meantime but we have some fun posts planned for after the score is done, and complete audio is first on that list. As the creative/editing/design side of this, I'm very excited to make custom art. Stay tuned. :) 

 

MS

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17 hours ago, Ravendor Studios said:

Yes we are! We'll be working out the details in the meantime but we have some fun posts planned for after the score is done, and complete audio is first on that list. As the creative/editing/design side of this, I'm very excited to make custom art. Stay tuned. :) 

 

MS


That's great news! Even in mockup form, it's something I'd listen to with a smile on my face... it's a nice "what if" score! 
Would love to hear it with a less "midi" sound, but I imagine it would be quite hard to do even with fancy plugins. 

(well, if you're planning to record it with a real orchestra, I might faint)

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54 minutes ago, redishere said:

(well, if you're planning to record it with a real orchestra, I might faint)

 

Crowdfund?

 

Would be nice but I'm thinking WB would not permit it.

 

Wonder what Williams would think of this project if it ever reached his ear.

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6 hours ago, JTWfan77 said:

 

Crowdfund?

 

Would be nice but I'm thinking WB would not permit it.

 

Wonder what Williams would think of this project if it ever reached his ear.


Well I'm sure with a few tweaks and cool plugins results may be really satisfactory… the midi mockups they made already flow pretty well into the original cues!

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21 hours ago, redishere said:


Well I'm sure with a few tweaks and cool plugins results may be really satisfactory… the midi mockups they made already flow pretty well into the original cues!

 

Indeed. I could see this coming out really well with some Kontakt or EWQL instruments. I imagine this was done in Finale or some other notation software.

 

It would be quite the conversion, but it would be pretty awesome to hear.

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8 hours ago, Ravendor Studios said:

We'll someday have the budget for Kontakt. I've been looking at it for a while now and am so excited to have it eventually. Hopefully in the near-ish future!
BP

 

That would be awesome! I wish I had time to help out since I've got Kontakt and EWQL. Maybe I could do one or two of the cues for fun if you guys would like, but I couldn't commit to the whole score at the moment. Still got tons going on at my day job (Video Editor)

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41 minutes ago, TSMefford said:

 

That would be awesome! I wish I had time to help out since I've got Kontakt and EWQL. Maybe I could do one or two of the cues for fun if you guys would like, but I couldn't commit to the whole score at the moment. Still got tons going on at my day job (Video Editor)

 

Thanks for the offer! Although you and others who have reached out with similar resources would be helpful right now, we're also working on getting the hang of a lot of this ourselves so that we can improve. As Goblet of Fire is currently done and in the editing phase, we're going to let it stand as is. In a couple of spots, we were able to record solos on a colleague's keyboard who has some Kontakt libraries. However we are hopeful about access to better libraries ourselves soon, too. But we really appreciate it! 

 

MS

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13 hours ago, Ravendor Studios said:

 

Thanks for the offer! Although you and others who have reached out with similar resources would be helpful right now, we're also working on getting the hang of a lot of this ourselves so that we can improve. As Goblet of Fire is currently done and in the editing phase, we're going to let it stand as is. In a couple of spots, we were able to record solos on a colleague's keyboard who has some Kontakt libraries. However we are hopeful about access to better libraries ourselves soon, too. But we really appreciate it! 

 

MS

 

Awesome! Looking forward to hearing it. You guys have been doing some great work!

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On 4/20/2020 at 12:58 AM, Ravendor Studios said:

There are two new cues up for this week! First is a moment for Ron and Hermione as the Yule Ball ends (Cue No. 23 part 2), followed by Cue No. 24: Vision of Voldemort. Let us know what you think and as always, thanks for listening!

Hermione's Theme again! Always a welcome one.

And works wonders right there.

Such a sweet sound for such a sweet, disappointed girl.

 

That Double Trouble variation is also really fun.

 

Three Note theme is nicely foreboding too.

But I wonder if Voledmort's Theme could've fit in there.

That one tends to be more terrifying to me.

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1 hour ago, Pieter Boelen said:

Three Note theme is nicely foreboding too.

But I wonder if Voledmort's Theme could've fit in there.

That one tends to be more terrifying to me.


Thanks very much! We have been very conscious of the use of every Voldemort theme in this score, and can promise that there is a payoff for each one by the time the credits roll!

BP

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If you guys do decide to tackle OotP I hope you will consider retaining Dolores Umbridges theme by Hooper, as it's quite Williams (Hook) esque and suits the character beautifully.

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19 hours ago, Ravendor Studios said:

Thanks very much! We have been very conscious of the use of every Voldemort theme in this score, and can promise that there is a payoff for each one by the time the credits roll!

In Ravendor, we trust! :D

 

15 hours ago, Ravendor Studios said:

No. But we're doing HBP. :P

Huh? Why skip one?

 

14 hours ago, JTWfan77 said:

If you guys do decide to tackle OotP I hope you will consider retaining Dolores Umbridges theme by Hooper, as it's quite Williams (Hook) esque and suits the character beautifully.

Alternatively, keep the game one by James Hannigan!

That's a pretty good score altogether.

Some nice Hedwig's Theme.

 

But really, the main thing they both need is MORE FAWKES

It's not called the Order of the PHOENIX for nothing!!

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6 hours ago, Pieter Boelen said:

Huh? Why skip one?


Lol we were just being sarcastic.
 

21 hours ago, JTWfan77 said:

If you guys do decide to tackle OotP I hope you will consider retaining Dolores Umbridges theme by Hooper, as it's quite Williams (Hook) esque and suits the character beautifully.

 

7 hours ago, Pieter Boelen said:

Alternatively, keep the game one by James Hannigan!

That's a pretty good score altogether.

Some nice Hedwig's Theme.


Actually when we prepped Goblet of Fire, we considered keeping or quoting material from Doyle's score. Ultimately, we decided to make it an all-or-nothing project because we wanted to unify the style with John Williams and also didn't want to make it about personal favorites. So our goal was to make this a completely separate thing, and in any future films we would most likely take the same approach.

MS

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4 hours ago, Ravendor Studios said:

Lol we were just being sarcastic.

Ah!

That explains a lot. :P

 

4 hours ago, Ravendor Studios said:

Actually when we prepped Goblet of Fire, we considered keeping or quoting material from Doyle's score. Ultimately, we decided to make it an all-or-nothing project because we wanted to unify the style with John Williams and also didn't want to make it about personal favorites. So our goal was to make this a completely separate thing, and in any future films we would most likely take the same approach.

Makes sense.

 

I do think Doyle was a bit too far removed from Williams for my liking.

Hooper wasn't much better.

But Hannigan's one almost fit.

Too bad he used only Hedwig's Theme and not any of the others.

 

Oh well; good thing we've got you then! ;)

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17 hours ago, Ravendor Studios said:

Here's a cue for this week as we prepare for the second task! We've got some setup, some character moments, and the return of everyone's favorite bathroom ghost. Let us know what you think of Cue No. 25: Bath Time!

Fun one again!

Couple of nicely magical touches in there.

I like the atmosphere you have when those nutty taps switch on.

And Myrtle's Theme returning makes SO much sense!

Plus with some entertaining variations too. :D

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On 4/27/2020 at 9:37 AM, Pieter Boelen said:

Fun one again!

Couple of nicely magical touches in there.

I like the atmosphere you have when those nutty taps switch on.

And Myrtle's Theme returning makes SO much sense!

Plus with some entertaining variations too. :D

 

Thanks!! Yes, we were excited to re-use Myrtle’s material since this was the only time outside of Chamber of Secrets that she appears. We had fun playing around with it.

 

BP

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It's time! Today we're so excited to release Cue No. 27: The Second Task, along with a short cue that precedes it, Cue No. 26: In the Library and Across the Lake! This time, we go in a completely different musical direction than in the first task, and hope you enjoy Harry's submerged struggles as much as we do.

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Loved the new cues this week! 8 minutes of solid music guys, fantastic work - I particularly like how you let the underwater sequences from the Phantom Menace inform the second task's accompanying underwater setpiece.

I understand once the score is all done, you're thinking of posting the full film with the score added in? I'm not an expert, but I think there are pretty straight forward ways to maintain all sound except for the music.. might need some looking into but I'm sure you guys are far more familiar with what I'm talking about than me. Anyway, it'd be so cool (provided copyright stuff doesn't get in the way...) to have that with your score, a complete film experience. 

Well done & good luck

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16 hours ago, FrankFWJH said:

Loved the new cues this week! 8 minutes of solid music guys, fantastic work - I particularly like how you let the underwater sequences from the Phantom Menace inform the second task's accompanying underwater setpiece.

I understand once the score is all done, you're thinking of posting the full film with the score added in? I'm not an expert, but I think there are pretty straight forward ways to maintain all sound except for the music.. might need some looking into but I'm sure you guys are far more familiar with what I'm talking about than me. Anyway, it'd be so cool (provided copyright stuff doesn't get in the way...) to have that with your score, a complete film experience. 

Well done & good luck


Thanks so much! Great to hear you enjoyed the second task.

To clarify, we'll be posting the full audio of the score that will sync with the film. We'd love to mix it in properly too, but that can get messy legally and technically. We also won't be uploading the entire video of the film. So we'll upload our work for viewers to have as a movie-length file that can easily be matched for playback.

We hope you will enjoy a score-only version!

MS

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Watched your latest and it's another good one.

Clever use of "Forward to Time Past" and "Hogwarts Forever" makes a welcome return too.

I also appreciate you sneaking in that Phoenix Wand motif again.

Always a good one. ;)

 

You missed an opportunity though to throw the Theme from Jaws in there for a little bit.

But at least I quite enjoyed your own Durmstrang Theme.

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On 5/8/2020 at 11:51 AM, Pieter Boelen said:

Watched your latest and it's another good one.

Clever use of "Forward to Time Past" and "Hogwarts Forever" makes a welcome return too.

I also appreciate you sneaking in that Phoenix Wand motif again.

Always a good one. ;)

 

You missed an opportunity though to throw the Theme from Jaws in there for a little bit.

But at least I quite enjoyed your own Durmstrang Theme.


Much appreciated! Honestly, that would have been great to have a Jaws cameo. Pretty sure it was in the temp just to be funny.
MS

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Voldemort's theme.

Still chilling to the bones...

 

But the real winner is Window to the Past and Hedwig joined together.

Works surprisingly well!

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Hey, just thought I'd probe something quickly.

So, I know that you've already written the Goblet of Fire, but I was wondering if you knew about Williams' frequent use of the Ludlow motif, and if you'd ever consider using it in an appropriate place if/when you guys wrote for another one? Here's a compilation of its use in Williams' scores (not included is its use in Williams' main theme for Solo in 2018 as the video was uploaded in 2017)

As an aside, it was used in all Quiddich-related incidental music from Years 1-3 by Williams, if you'd want a reference for its use in Harry Potter

 

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8 hours ago, FrankFWJH said:

Hey, just thought I'd probe something quickly.

So, I know that you've already written the Goblet of Fire, but I was wondering if you knew about Williams' frequent use of the Ludlow motif, and if you'd ever consider using it in an appropriate place if/when you guys wrote for another one? Here's a compilation of its use in Williams' scores (not included is its use in Williams' main theme for Solo in 2018 as the video was uploaded in 2017)

As an aside, it was used in all Quiddich-related incidental music from Years 1-3 by Williams, if you'd want a reference for its use in Harry Potter 

 

Interesting point! The ostinato actually was purposely used in the first task for some of the texture building. It’s such a good musical tool, and really lends itself well to action sequences, as seen in that video as well.

BP

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14 hours ago, Ravendor Studios said:

 

Interesting point! The ostinato actually was purposely used in the first task for some of the texture building. It’s such a good musical tool, and really lends itself well to action sequences, as seen in that video as well.

BP

Ahh! Thanks for that, I'll take another look.

Thanks again, and good luck!

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25 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

Just listened to the Myrtle cue. Loved her returning theme, but I cannot help thinking JW would absolutely not have scored the ending of that scene as you did.


Haha possibly. The wrap-up wasn't long so we focused on moving forward to the library scene. I’m in no way John Williams so there will absolutely be parts of this score that fall short of his genius, lol

BP

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Here are two cues for this week, with some dark plot elements unfolding and recollections of ominous schemes. Let us know what you think of Cue No. 29: The Pensieve and Cue No. 30: The Dream From Summer, and thanks for listening!

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3 hours ago, Phoenixius said:

Merlin's beard! I'm really enjoying this project for the past few months, my compliments for incorporating the Williams into Goblet! 

I also loved hearing Myrtle's theme and the fusion of Window to the Past and Hedwig's theme. 

 

Wow, thank you! Great to hear and we're glad you've been enjoying it. We've had an awesome time and love first-time comments from listeners!

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Hi everyone! The time has come and we've reached the third task - Cue No. 32! Enjoy the beginning of the end!

We have a short little cue for the fanfare leadup, Cue No. 31: Hogwarts Fanfare, then we dive into the maze. We had fun with this one as it's so different from the other two tasks and leads right up to the biggest scene...

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