Photographed by Scharad Lightbourne
What part of the Bahamas are you ladies from?
We are from the capital of the Bahamas on the island of New Providence.
How did Duet Studios come about and did you first launch?
Duet Studios came about from a love of good stories, great visuals, and great storytelling. We first launched part-time in August 2016 and as of April 2017, we are now full-time.
Did you both go to school for film making?
No. For our undergraduate degrees, Anaya studied media production/filmmaking while Santia double majored in International Business and International Studies with Spanish. Nonetheless, we both received our undergraduate degrees from Taylor University in Indiana. We received our Master’s Degrees in Entrepreneurship from the University of Nottingham, at one of their 3 campuses in Ningbo, China. We’re both innately creative individuals so we married our learned skill sets with our natural skill sets.
What type of services do you provide?
Our services include writing, directing and producing narrative, and commercial films. We also provide writing and producing for animations along with digital marketing.
What type of clients do you work with?
We tend to work with a number of corporate entities and some medium to small enterprises as well.
How would you describe your creative approach to filmmaking?
We would say our creative approach to filmmaking is in being genuine. We like to focus on real stories that people can relate to and that can help change lives for the better.
Can you briefly describe your most recent project and where it can be seen?
Our most recent project is a short film entitled “Thirty”. It follows a few hours in the life of Tre, a newly aged 30-year-old, who finds herself in the most tumultuous experience of her life. It will be available for viewing in a couple of months on our YouTube channel ‘Duet Studios’.
What do you love the most about what you do?
We love telling stories and we love to see the reactions from the audience. When we see people truly being moved in a positive way by something we produced, it is a very meaningful and gratifying feeling.
What would you say is the most unique offering of your service?
The most unique offering of our service we believe is the Bahamian flare. Our first narrative short film was titled “Guava Duff”, named after a popular Bahamian dessert. We love to include some Bahamian element in all of our work.
Some people find it difficult to work with family. How do you sisters make it work? And what advice would you give to anyone looking to go into business with someone close to them?
We would say to take everything with a grain of salt. 🙂 It’s actually an advantage at times when you know you can be brutally honest without fear of any fundamental damage to the relationship – after all we will always be sisters. Seriously, we would say to genuinely take into account your current relationship with that person, if there is an honest line of communication between you and mutual respect, then go for it. We believe often times most hurdles can be solved through open communication and respect.