AVATAR 2 : The Way Of Water TRAILER CASE STUDY
I’m extremely honored to have been a part of AVATAR 2 : The Way Of Water TRAILER, and excited to share a bit of the behind the scenes journey that went into creating the music for this breathtaking trailer.
It all started a few years ago, when I co-wrote and co-produced a track called “Magnifique” for the artist Lucid Dreams (Afterlife Album) released on Bashful Tiger Records. From the start I knew there was something special about this piece. It’s just that feeling that you get when everything comes together perfectly, and it seems as though you have just cracked into the secret code of the mystery of music. You know? Or is it just me?
The funny thing is that the inspiration of this piece was based, not on a sound, but on a feeling: the feeling of flying. We wanted to capture that sense of freedom within majestic motion. The main theme had to be simple yet powerful. Emotionally charged but beautiful. We were attempting to capture that feeling in your chest you feel when you are on a cliff staring down into a great canyon, or on a boat in the middle of a vast ocean, or underwater admiring the limitless beauty of nature.
Eventually we got a call from the agency that was working on the trailer for Avatar 2.
They loved the piece and thought it could work for this movie. Just the fact that James Cameron heard our music and like it, it was a huge honor. They asked us to customize it, and incorporate the gorgeous theme by James Horner from the original Avatar. This is always a challenge. Pre-existing melodies don’t always fit into all chord progressions, but in this case: something magical happened: We managed to make our piece dance beautifully with Horner’s fantastic theme. It was kind of crazy how well the two pieces flowed together.
Due to confidentiality, we were not allowed to see a single frame of the trailer - so no, I didn’t get to see the movie (nor the trailer) before anybody else. We had to work semi-blindly. The direction from the agency music supervisor and editor were key to the success. They would ask us to create a longer intro, shorten a moment, extend a theme, create a breakdown, reprise the theme with different orchestration, and so on. This is not the normal process, but Avatar 2 is not a normal movie.
This process took place over a period of 14 months and endless revisions, adjustments, mixes etc. But the result paid off. We are incredibly proud of this project, and extremely happy with the collaboration with everyone involved, from the music supervisors, editors, producers, clients, label, film makers, mixers and so many more. The trailer is truly magnificent, so it is only fitting that the cue be called Magnifique.
Now that you know the story check out Avatar 2 Magnifique + and Lucid Dream instagram Bashful Tiger