Based on the beloved hockey romance book series by Elle Kennedy, Prime Video’s Off Campus tells the love story between Hannah, a music major who expresses herself through music, and a hockey player, Garrett. Their relationship starts off as a handshake deal to fake a relationship together, but slowly grows into real romance.
Music is the soul of Off Campus. Hannah’s first crush, Justin, is a songwriter and frontman of a band. While she’s attracted to his showmanship, creativity, and confidence, she connected with Garrett on a more personal level through their love for classic rock and oldies. Music is not only central to the core relationship, but it also weaves into the storytelling and the identity of the show.
Bright shared that nearly every actor and actress had a playlist for their character. When she was tasked with bringing Hannah to life, she made a playlist that helped her get into character. She revealed that to prepare for the emotionally heavy scene where Hannah talked to her mom on the phone after breaking up with Garrett, she put “Call Your Mom” by Noah Kahan on repeat to get into the headspace.
Throughout the show, music not only pushes the story forward but also serves as a crucial emotional backdrop for the audience. Each character has its own unique musical identity, and each relationship has its own musical language. From throwbacks to current songs, constructing the sonic world of Off Campus takes a lot of experimentation and collaboration. While the blueprints were in the script, building from there took a lot of conversations. “I think our guiding light is what feels intentional,” said Amanda Thomas, the music supervisor on Off Campus.
Press Q&A with Ella Bright, Composer Alana Da Fonseca & Music Supervisor Amanda Thomas
Q: What song off the ‘Off Campus’ soundtrack feels most aligned with your own personal taste? And how does the track connect to Hannah and your own experience playing her?
Ella Bright: The one that stands out to me is “Vertigo” by Griff. That was my favorite song for so many years. It’s working toward a big pivotal moment in Hannah’s life in the show. That’s probably the one that resonates the most with me. I was so excited to hear that.
Q: What is the biggest challenge in building an original soundtrack that feels authentic to both the beloved book series and the television audience discovering these characters for the first time?
Ella Bright: It’s always so special to create this world that’s coming off the page and hearing Hannah’s voice in real life. It’s something I was so honored to do.
Amanda Thomas: As a book girlie, it was very important that it felt very authentic and telling this story too. One of the things we wanted to do was the soundtrack. Louisa is such a genius. All the blueprints were in the script. It was tapping into the timelessness with the sound and the cover. It was part of the blueprint from the very beginning. We also wanted the show to feel current for kids in college today. And finding that mix was sort of a conversation every time – is this a moment for throwbacks? Is this a moment for current songs? I think our guiding light is what feels intentional – if it’s a throwback, why is it a throwback? Is it because it’s a Hannah and Garrett song?
Alana Da Fonseca: Before we wrote anything, we got on with both Ella and Josh, who plays Justin, and dived into their musical taste – what inspires you? What sound would you like to have your character to sound like? That also helps keep it current because they’re obviously in the demographic. So that was part of our process, too.
Q: When I was watching the show, I noticed that the two central relationships – Hannah and Garrett, Dean and Allie – each have quite distinct musical identities and genres surrounding them. How did you approach defining the sonic world for each relationship?
Amanda Thomas: Again, a lot of it started in the script. From the very moment you have this amazing rock track. I think very early on, when we met Hannah and Garrett, like classic rock and oldies connect that couple. And that starts right from the beginning, it goes a bit back, and it goes to the end. That was something that was a sort of guiding star for Hannah and Garrett right from the beginning, and then it was just sort of building that and like what Ella and Alana have said – how do you build that into the current side? We definitely started with our own Hannah and Garett playlist in our library and sent those off. We listened to Ella’s playlist. It started with that seed of this connective tissue between these characters that you see many times in the pilot, and then it just sort of spun off from there. It was so collaborative. We used that and built on it with everybody. And then with Dean and Allie, again, it really did start with the brilliant writers and those moments in the script. With Dean, we started playing a couple of moments, like Garette is classic rock. Is Dean hip hop? In the score, there was a moment where they were playing hip hop on the radio, and that was a thought like maybe that’s something to play with for him. There was a lot to explore, but it’s just all experimentation and trying what feels right in the scene, and how we contrast.
Q: As an actress, what’s the importance of having a soundtrack to help you best understand the character?
Ella Bright: For both Hannah and myself, music means so much. You can find out a lot about a person from their music taste. So the first thing I did when creating Hannah was make a playlist. That relaly helped me get into my headspace. During scenes, like they were really emotional – I remember there was a scene where Hannah was on the phone with her mom. There isn’t any music in the scene, but “Call Your Mom” by Noah Kahan was the song I kept listening to on repeat to get into that emotional headspace. It is so impactful. It really drives the story forward. It helps me progress in my character and during my scenes. I think all of us have playlists.
Q: What is the most challenging part of performing some of that music on screen compared to acting?
Ella Bright: It’s pre-recorded, which was amazing. We had a lot of pre-records in the studio a couple of weeks before we went to shoot. If I wake up on the day and don’t have a voice or I don’t feel like hitting certain notes, I would always have the comfort of the pre-record, which is so helpful and definitely relieved a lot of anxiety for me. But on the day, we would do a whole bunch of different takes. We would always have an earwig in, or it would be on a big speaker. The earwigs were the most stressful because you can hear the soundtrack, and you know the whole crew can. So like all you know is you can hear my a capella singing to everybody else. That was terrifying.
Q: Just speaking about the point of finding the right song, the song “Girl That I Am” Ella performed in the finale is so great and fits the moment perfectly. Can you guys talk about the process of finding that song and why it felt right for that particular moment for Hannah?
Alana Da Fonseca: In the process, there were so many ideas going around about who was going to write the song and what it would be like. We had our fingers crossed for Amy Allan because she’s such an icon, and the way she writes lyrics really invites the listeners to the experience. She collaborated with Louisa. She got into the character of Hannah and wrote this incredible song. We were obsessed with the song. For the show version, there was this concept of looping – we wanted to loop the hockey sound. We wanted to pull in all of these things from Hannah’s experience so far this season. Ella is a fan of the vocal looping scene from ‘Pitch Perfect 3’ that I had actually done. It was such a cool moment to really bring that to life for the show.
