Soundtrack to Sixteen - Anna-Elizabeth and Hillary Shakespeare
Hillary Shakespeare
Being sixteen isn’t an easy ride, insecurities and pressures of forthcoming ‘adulthood’ can feel earth shattering. These themes are explored in the brilliant feel good film Soundtrack to Sixteen. Directed by Anna-Elizabeth and Hillary Shakespeare, a sister duo who write, direct and produce together. The sisters spoke to us about the making of their film, the inspiration behind the story and who they admire in the industry.
Your film is set in the 00's as per your childhood, which elements of the decade were you keen to include?
Hillary: In the “Noughties” when we were teenagers, it was a time before mobile phones and social media really played a big part in our social lives. That’s the world we really wanted to set the story in because I think it’s probably a very different experience coming of age today with so much of teenager’s social lives taking place online. But that was the experience we had lived through and wanted to explore and look back on slightly nostalgically but I think the underlying themes are just as relevant today - that sense when you’re a teenager that if something embarrassing happens, the world basically ends and that what clique you’re in at school completely determines your worth seem to be universal no matter what time period you’re growing up in.
What is it like working together as sisters?
Hillary: It’s great! We know each other so well and have so many of the same references so we usually have very aligned visions of where we’re going with our films. We also have no shame with each other so it’s very easy to float ideas and not be embarrassed if the other one hates it.
Anna-Elizabeth Shakespeare
Do you have a certain process when working together a directing duo?
Hillary: For Soundtrack to Sixteen, technically I was the director, though we co-wrote it and produced together with Ben Jacques. Anna was on set the whole time giving her opinions so it’s always felt like a team effort but for this film we thought at the time it was easier to have one director. We have since co-directed our second film Much Ado (currently in post) and for that we pretty much did everything together interchangeably which felt very efficient on set because we could be in two places at once! As our visions were so aligned we could go and talk to different actors and crew between takes and get around everyone faster.
You must have come across some challenges during production?
Anna: Guerilla filming was definitely difficult at times and we did get turfed out of places by the police a few time - but it was worth it! We still managed to film a whole scene in Hyde Park and one on a night bus.
How did you find the casting process of your first film?
Hillary: We mostly found people from posting on casting websites. At first we were quite nervous because it was our first time auditioning anyone but it was really exciting when you find the right person, you can just feel so energised seeing it coming to life.
On set of Soundtrack to Sixteen
Why the night bus?
Hillary: It was actually on a bus that I first had the idea for the film. I was listening to music and a song came on by chance that I used to like when I was sixteen and it really took me back so I started making a playlist of all that music. That’s probably why I always envisioned a bus scene in the film. Also when I was sixteen and at a girls school, like Maisy I didn’t really know any boys so I always fantasised I’d just happen to bump into the perfect guy just out of nowhere somewhere in public so this bus meeting for Maisy and Ben was sort of my teenage fantasy.
On set of Soundtrack to Sixteen
Did you pull from any real life experiences during making the film?
Anna: Definitely! Maisy is a lot like us at that age: a desperate teenage girl. We also went to a girl’s school so the whole thing about never meeting any boys and them being this alien thing was quite taken from real experience. Filming it in our old school made that feel even more realistic.
On set of Soundtrack to Sixteen
What was the best part of making this film?
Hillary: It was our first experience of how fun it is getting close to everyone in set and working so intensely as a team for those three weeks, it was really sad when the shoot was over!
Your film is screening next week! So what’s next for you both?
Anna: We are currently on post-post-production on our second feature: a teen Much Ado About Nothing. It was really fun adapting Shakespeare for modern day and we did some fun things with setting it in a house full of university students and rugby boys. We’ve also allowed more room for Hero’s story than traditional tellings, we thought quite a lot about the story from her perspective as a teenager and what that means for the film.
On set of Soundtrack to Sixteen
Thank you for your time girls, Finally which female directors inspire you?
Anna: I watched a film called Jeune Juliette by director Anne Émond the other day and really loved it. It’s French/Canadian about a teenage girl who is is bullied for being fat which sounds heavy but it’s actually autobiographical so it’s quite self-aware and funny.
Hillary: A bit more mainstream but I really enjoyed how in Autumn de Wilde’s Emma the guys were portrayed really sensitive and there was amazing chemistry.
