Meet Hannah Leikin

We were lucky to catch up with Hannah Leikin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hannah, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

Keeping my creativity alive is something I’ve struggled with in the past and as a result had to find a system that nurtures it continuously, even if it’s just a little bit at a time. In all honesty, my creativity is sustained by inspiration, dedication, and tedium.

Like most kids, my imagination flowed in abundance. I could easily go between elaborate worlds where my friends and I were fairies in lush purgatorial gardens or humanoid squirrels running away from cruel experimental laboratories to the normalcy of mundane classrooms and family dinners. My creativity sparked anytime I needed it and it churned out a never-ending supply of fantasy. I never questioned it and therefore I didn’t bother to develop any tools for intentionally keeping it healthy and alive. That was until I turned 20 and out of nowhere it stopped, like a snuffed out campfire or a discarded zippo lighter.

Suddenly, all my ideas were absolutely boring, unbearably cliche, or simply nonexistent. The imaginary no longer was boundless and exciting but flat and dull. I felt like Peter Pan when he lost his shadow. I was beside myself as I looked for it everywhere: acting classes, random parties, bookstores, museums, movie theaters. I spent most of college googling “how to get your creativity back” as I barely staggered past the finish line of each creative assignment. What once came so easily to me now felt like a chore, if not impossible. My own past felt like a myth.

This continued until I turned 25. Perhaps it was my prefrontal cortex fully developing or maybe it was a quarter life crisis, or a potential combination of the two, but I changed. I took a hard look at my life and myself and recognized that things felt off. I realized that I was not in the right living arrangement, romantic relationship, and friend group so I made other choices. I moved in with Craigslist roommates, I broke up with my boyfriend, and I parted ways with some toxic friends. All of these things were passively taking so much energy from me because I was in the wrong situations most of the time and trying to acclimate to them.

Once I separated myself, I had all this new free time so I started revisiting my favorite authors, movies, and television shows from childhood. Suddenly, I felt giddy and excited about how I was spending my time and my dreams became bouncy and vivid. Before I knew it, I was journaling a lot, sometimes about things I saw in my sleep or sometimes just random vignettes that came across my mind. I decided to try writing again, starting with chronicling my breakup and navigating the modern dating world. I turned those essays and poems into zines just for myself. I had found my formula: reading, rewatching, writing, and making passion projects.

So now, when in doubt, my first line of defense is reading books. The best thing you can do to learn from the greats is read their best work. Authors are my teachers when it comes to building my imagination and narrative story telling. I always reread Patti Smith’s Just Kids, Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Diamond as Big as the Ritz.

Then I rewatch some of my favorite films and TV shows to inspire visual curation and world building.

My go-to films are the following:
In the Mood for Love
The Royal Tenenbaums
Empire Records
Wild at Heart
Only Lovers Left Alive
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas

My go-to tv shows are the following:
Charmed
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Golden Girls

And finally, I’m ready to create. It’s a lot of sitting down and fleshing out concepts, shot lists, and creative pitches to make my ideas tangible in order to share them with others. Visual media is a collaborative process so it’s important to iron out as many details as possible to ensure everyone is on the same page. I also find it helpful to have an ongoing writing project that I can focus any overthinking or overflowing energy into while I’m directing.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

One thing about me is that I am insatiably curious. I ask a lot of questions and eagerly await the answers, no matter how boring or dense the subject matter. Yes I do want to know what you had for dinner, what your annoying coworker did, and how your distant relative still can’t get their shit together. In fact, please tell me everything with as many specifics as possible. Details are everything to me. They make life and art so much more interesting.
When I was growing up, my dad always said “there is no such thing as useless information.” That meant that any tidbit of trivia, random fact, or inane story became a well of potential.

As a writer, director, and producer with the ultimate goal of writing and directing films, curiosity and details are at the heart of everything I do. From communicating my vision to talent and crew, to conjuring up storylines that bring concepts to life. I would say that my signature approach is to fully develop characters even if it’s just a product shoot. There is always circumstance, context, and back story. Even if I have to anthropomorphize a soda can a la the Brave Little Toaster.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The first area of knowledge that has been deeply impactful to me was my exposure to stage acting. My family went to see plays all the time and I was trained in the theater as a kid from age 4 until 22. Auditioning, taking acting classes, and performing were all things the theater gifted me. From there I was able to get experience in stage managing, costuming, and eventually directing. The whole world of theater is electric and cooperative and it taught me how to collaborate, lead and follow simultaneously.

To me, directing means leading and believing in your creative vision even if it doesn’t completely make sense to others how it’ll all come together yet inspiring trust and a willingness to see it through in the people around you. It means collaborating with the keys of your departments effectively by knowing and communicating the proper terminology when it comes to lighting, camera, color grading etc. And finally, it means always learning from the people you work with and trusting their expertise. Ask them questions and really listen to their explanations. Every role on set has something to teach you, I promise.

The next is producing. I learned how to produce projects and let me tell you, knowing how to plan, execute, delegate, negotiate, and keep track of money will always be useful tools to have in your pocket. Especially if you want to create your own work.

Finally, flexibility. This is basically an entire lifestyle more than a skill. Accepting that nothing is ever going to be perfect and learning how to roll with the punches. Pivoting in some capacity is always necessary because there will never be enough time or resources. Not being afraid to do the grunt work and starting from scratch in order to acquire a skill. I have had to do this with editing, costume designing, set building and more. It’s okay to be a beginner and in the wise words of one of my mentors, “no matter how successful you become, you will always be getting someone’s coffee.” Meaning, it’s important to stay grounded and understand even if you are in the most elite circle, someone might turn to you and ask you to grab something and it pays off to be a team player than to have a fit and say you’re too important to do a basic task. Sometimes you just need to do the thing in order to get the project done.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

Currently, I am directing music videos and art directing photo shoots which has been incredibly inspiring. I’m always looking for people to collaborate with. DPs, editors, production designers, and wardrobe stylists especially! People who are flexible, communicative and open minded please feel free to reach out to me via instagram.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hannahleikin.com
• Instagram: @leikin_it
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahleikin/

Image Credits

Images 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 8: Sean Michon
Images 6 & 7: Dan Chapman