Today we’d like to introduce you to Claire and Lily Andrew.
Claire and Lily, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
We are sisters, filmmakers and business partners.
We were born into the eccentric, historic, creative, hustling, colorful, crazy world of the film industry. We had set chairs before we had high chairs and knew set lingo before we could speak English. We were surrounded by a family of misfits, where everyone is excepted and can rise through the ranks if they have a passion and work hard. We caught the bug and as we grew up we pursued theater, photography and made short films with friends. We continued to watch and shadow crew from every department and began to act in tv and film.
After studying film at Pierce College and screenwriting in the UCLA Extension Program, we decided to form a production company with our parents called The Wildflower Sisters and produced our first feature length film – Max and Me.
We dove in headfirst, learning as we went, pushed past all the debilitating self-doubt and fear and somehow, after seven months, we had a film in the can. Claire wrote and directed. Lily acted and produced. We learned so much during that process. It truly is a magical thing to have a group of people come together every day and all work towards the same goal.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Haha! Definitely not smooth, but always interesting! Every day of pre-production, filming and post we were presented with challenges and learning curves. Permits, insurance, legalities, union rules, setting up base camp at 2am, call time mistakes, crew running out of gas, needing more money, etc…
But there are always challenges when you step out of your comfort zone and pursue a dream. You hear the trolls whisper in your ears that you’re “not good enough”, but the magic happens when you refuse to listen to negativity and realize you define your own limitations. You just have to keep moving forward and not be afraid to ask a million “stupid” questions. Everyone starts somewhere, and the only way to grow is to go.
Please tell us about The Wildflower Sisters.
If you aren’t given the chance to tell your stories, we think it’s important to create those opportunities for yourself and others. So in 2018, we formed our production company, The Wildflower Sisters, to produce content we are inspired by. We are passionate about making economical films yet not compromising quality by playing to the strengths of the script, utilizing production value, and bringing together a tight knit passionate crew. It’s important to represent young female filmmakers, and hopefully inspire others to go after their dreams. Change is in the Hollywood air and inclusivity of diverse storytellers is bringing about an exciting wave of film making.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
We are grateful for our good luck for propelling us in the right direction and also grateful for the bad luck for teaching us lessons along the way. Instead of seeing negatives as “bad luck” or “failures”, we try to see it as the MANY opportunities to learn and grow from mistakes. Growing up, we were always starting new companies, partnering with different people, creating products, etc…every “failed” project taught us so many lessons and focused us to really figure out who we are, what we want in life, and how we like to work. We always talk about how what looks like someone’s “over night success” was actually years of hard work, triumphs and disasters, and unrelenting perseverance.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.TheWildflowerSisters.com
- Phone: 310 745 9607
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @MaxAndMeTheFilm + @ClaireBryettAndrew + @LilyBleuAndrew
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaxAndMeTheFilm/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaxAndMeTheFilm
- Other: IMDb – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9070798/
Image Credit:
Erin Scabuzzo of Hello Pinecone (first image, Claire and Lily laying on ground together).; The rest of the images are behind the scenes images from filming Max and Me.
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