Emmy the Great Helped Write the Soundtrack for 'Austenland' and this is What Happened

Last year I was asked to write some songs on the soundtrack of a movie called Austenland, which my friend Ilan was scoring. Austenland follows the exploits of a Jane Austen fan from America, who spends all her money on a super dorky Austen LARPing experience in England, and finds herself caught between real and fictional loves. The movie was being made by a hero of mine, Jerusha Hess, who wrote and directed Napoleon Dynamite and probably my favorite movie, Gentleman Broncos. And Austenland was being produced by STEPHENIE MEYER (caps lock intentional). It had a ridiculously cool cast and most importantly was completely hilarious. So I was like, "Sure, I'll try and carve some time into my schedule of snoozing between 4-5pm and creating group iMessage conversations like this one:

My songs had to be the voice of Keri Russell's character Jane. They were supposed to underline the moments when she is thinking about the choices she's made and how they might not work out. I was sure I was the right girl for the job because I've made a lot of bad decisions. Plus, I look great in a bonnet.

We started work in February of 2012, and the film comes out this month in the US (the NY premiere was last night). I'm sure that other, much more vital members of the cast and crew have better stories to tell, but here are some of my major memories from the last 18 months of being involved with Austenland.

IT SNOWED IN HACKNEY
I started writing the songs in the first week of February 2012. One night there was a huge snowstorm in east London, and I got stranded at my friend's house. It was like that episode of The Simpsons. Everyone went out on the street, and we threw snowballs at the number 30 bus and made this sad, grimy, east London snowman. On the way home the next day, I wrote a ballad for the film, called "Souvenirs". I also ate noodles.

I SLAMMED A DOOR AND COST THE PRODUCTION £150

We did a bunch of the strings in Studio 1 at Abbey Road. It costs approximately £8 million a day to record there, especially if you've hired the London Metropolitan Orchestra. At one point I slammed a door while walking into the viewing balcony. Everybody stopped and stared at the noise, costing the production, realistically, £150 pounds. I ducked. To this day they all think it was Tim Wheeler [from Ash], who had been doing the guitars and was just innocently standing there when it happened. I never owned up. Except I guess now I have. Sorry everyone!

I INVITED BRITAIN'S PREMIER FILM BLOGGER TO THE RECORDING

I decided that we needed to document the recording at Abbey Road so I invited the only film journalist I know, Charlie Lyne, of "Britain's premier irreverent film blog"* Ultraculture. I don't think Charlie minds me saying that he didn't do anything useful except get drunk and wander round all the studios with us looking for Beatles memorabilia. Here he is on the right in the Abbey Road cafeteria comparing blondeness with Tom Odell [left, a wildly popular singer in the UK] and Andy Burrows [middle, former Razorlight drummer turned solo artist]. Still waiting for that blog Charlie!

I TOOK THIS PICTURE…

…in the Abbey Road reception to show the caliber of films that have been scored there.

WE WROTE A COMEDY SONG
There is a scene in the film where Keri Russell's character Jane takes a romantic boat ride with Bret McKenzie's Martin. Ilan and I wrote a comedy song for it called "Martin's Theme." It's a creepy power ballad about dating, animal husbandry, and taxidermy. We got Jerusha and her husband Jared to help us brainstorm lyrics and made Tim record what we described as "the wackest guitar solo you can think of." Which was pretty wack.

BRET WON AN OSCAR
Just as someone was going to email and ask if Bret would sing "Martin's Theme," he won an Oscar and probably received 500,000,000 emails in one day. The Oscar was for Best Original Song, yikes. We never got "Martin's Theme" on to the film, but it will be on the soundtrack as a bonus song. I'm also open to licensing it for events to do with people called Martin, but be warned, it is inappropriate for use on Martin Luther King Day, as it's quite bizarre and pretty offensive. In the end, we got Gabriel Bruce to sing it. We also asked him to sing it "as bad as you can make it without being unlistenable."

Too much or not enough? WE SENT COLDPLAY A FRUIT BASKET
Not content with ruining the orchestra recording, we also caused some havoc at the Coldplay studios by using it to record drums and then recording drums too loud. Thankfully someone had the idea to send a fruit basket, which obviously solved everything.

I like to say "blousey."

I ENJOYED FRILLS
Like all of Jerusha's films, Austenland is visually very funny. Most of the characters look like they've been hit by a truck driven by the 1800s. Some of my favorite looks from the movie include…

These hats.

This curly situation. The lady on the right is Jane Seymour's sister.

Emmy and Ilan.

WE WENT TO SUNDANCE

After we finished the music, things got back to normal and we all went back to our lives, then suddenly we got an email telling us Austenland had been accepted at Sundance. So in January Ilan and I flew to Park City, Utah, to be reunited with the team and serenade the cast at their junkets. For some reason I decided to attend the Sundance premiere dressed as a cat. Austenland got an incredible response at the festival, and was sold to Sony pictures. Everyone was really happy, we celebrated; some with prosecco, and some with meat.

There was a goodbye dinner on the last day and I met this cool couple, Christy and Munn Powell. Munn was the cinematographer on Napoleon Dynamite and Gentleman Broncos. Christy took me around Salt Lake City and to the Mormon Temple and stuff. Most people in Salt Lake City are Mormons, and on special occasions they come to this main temple. We did an interactive quiz about Mormonism at the day center, and then we met two Mormon teens on a mission who had vowed not to use the internet for 18 months. I tried to communicate with my eyes what had happened to MySpace.

And this is my favorite paper in Utah.

I CHANGED MY HAIR

Here's Shannon Hale (left), who wrote the book the film was based on, and here's me with Jennifer Coolidge, who is the funniest person I've ever sat in a room and stared in awe at.

I LOOKED BACK ON THE CRAZY AMAZING WOMEN I MET ON THIS JOURNEY

Since the movie started screening there has been a lot of journalism dedicated to how many incredible women were involved in its making. For someone as prone to girl crushes–as I am—this led to a year of fangirling and Asian peace signing.

Erica Elmer, who is Jerusha's assistant, and who gets the whole peace sign thing (left), and Jerusha and STEPHANIE MEYER (right).

And here's one of my favorite photos from the premieres. Kawaii!

Emmy the Great knows an awful lot about "Sailor Moon." She's on Twitter - @emmy_the_great.

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