The Directors: Hannah Pearl Utt

Hannah Pearl Utt’s latest feature film, Cora Bora, starring Megan Stalter premiered at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival in the Narrative Spotlight section and landed her on IndieWire's 28 Female Filmmakers to Watch list. Her first feature film, Before You Know It, which she also co-wrote and starred in, premiered in competition at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival where she was listed as one of IndieWire’s 25 Female Filmmakers to Watch. In addition to her feature work, Hannah directed, co-wrote and starred in the Superdeluxe digital series ‘Disengaged’, alongside Jen Tullock following the success of their short film, Partners. Hannah has been selected to participate in numerous programs through the Sundance Institute, including their inaugural Catalyst Women’s Initiative, Screenwriter and Directors Lab, and Film Two for her upcoming feature, Best Original. Hannah is a recipient of the Adrienne Shelly Foundation Women Filmmakers Grant.

Name: Hannah Pearl Utt

Location: Los Angeles

Repped by/in: Epoch

LBB> What elements of a script sets one apart from the other and what sort of scripts get you excited to shoot them? 

Hannah> Any script with a clear voice and point of view stands out to me. If that point of view aligns with my sense of what’s funny, beautiful, or poignant, I want to do it. 

 

LBB> How do you approach creating a treatment for a spot?

Hannah> I take the agency deck as a jumping-off point, gauge where my vision intersects with theirs, and then try to come into that first call with a take that excites me. I’ll adjust my approach according to what I learn on the call, but this way, I have a base of my own creative instincts going into creating the treatment. I’ll then start working with a graphic designer. I repitch them my take, incorporating what I’ve learned from the call, send them examples of prior decks, and direct them toward films from which to pull stills. I’ll have them do a couple of big image pulls while I work on the writing. I then narrow down my image selects and share what I’ve written so we can marry the visuals with the words. The treatment is the first example the agency and client have of my storytelling style, so I try to ensure it reflects that. I.e., If I plan to use a cut point to land a joke in the film, I’ll use that technique in the deck by putting the setup on one page and the punchline on the next.   

 

LBB> If the script is for a brand that you’re not familiar with/don’t have a big affinity with or a market you’re new to, how important is it for you to do research and understand that strategic and contextual side of the ad? If it’s important to you, how do you do it?

Hannah> I try to familiarise myself with the brand/product as I would familiarise myself with a genre for a film. I think it’s important to understand the audience - historically, who that audience has been, and how I can expand it. I’ll look up past campaigns and talk to friends who have experience with the brand. My primary goal with filmmaking, in general, is capturing and eliciting feelings, so if this research helps me understand what those feelings are, great. If not, it’s just more context, and that’s never a bad thing for me. It’s also virtually impossible for me to work on projects I can’t personally get behind, so this is an important part of how I figure out if it’s something I want to pursue. 

  

LBB> For you, what is the most important working relationship for a director to have with another person in making an ad? And why?

Hannah> Most of my work thus far has been within feature films, and within that, my primary collaborator is the DP. On the last job I pitched, I brought a DP into the process at the treatment phase, and I found this to be hugely helpful in building on and expanding my ideas. The DP is such a huge player in translating the vision - I need to be in lockstep with them but also be able to negotiate and renegotiate shots based on eye, preference, and technical challenges. We need to be a solid team in order to gracefully and swiftly handle everything thrown at our best-laid plans.

  

LBB> What type of work are you most passionate about - is there a particular genre or subject matter or style you are most drawn to?

Hannah> I love character-driven stories. I love stories about people on the verge of nervous breakdowns. I love comedy that has characters with lots of conviction and little self-awareness. I love things that are funny because they’re also sad. I also love anything that can capture beauty in the quotidian and universality through specificity.

 

LBB> What misconception about you or your work do you most often encounter and why is it wrong?

Hannah> I find there’s an assumption that because my work typically centres on women and queer people, that’s the primary audience, but I’ve weirdly found that older straight men really respond to my films. I think - I hope - it’s because I bring empathy to even my most difficult characters - since I’m not judging them, the audience knows they’re also not being judged and feel at home in worlds that might otherwise seem alien to them. 

 

LBB> Have you ever worked with a cost consultant and if so how have your experiences been?

Hannah> I haven’t! But I could certainly use one in my daily life… 

 

LBB> What’s the craziest problem you’ve come across in the course of a production – and how did you solve it?

Hannah> I did a job virtually during the pandemic - cast, shot, and edited it. I was in LA, and production was in Vancouver, and the creatives decided at the last minute that they wanted the actors in a specific type of footwear, which is when I found out all four of the women I had cast and only ever seen on Zoom had size 11 feet. It was a weekend during a pandemic, and size 11 stilettos can be hard to find on a normal day (as a big-footed woman with a penchant for buying day-of-an-event outfits, I know). While my costume designer set out on a panicked shopping trip, I tried to understand the reason behind the sudden desire for high heels. It turned out the creatives and I had different interpretations of the word “chic” – I’m an LA Echo Park hipster, and they’re Upper East Side boss ladies. Once I understood this, it was easy to find wardrobe options I still thought were cool, but that also had a higher-end/dressier flare without putting all of the women in Manolos. 

LBB> How do you strike the balance between being open/collaborative with the agency and brand client while also protecting the idea?

Hannah> I learned from the experience I described above that the clearer I am with my vision early on, the fewer compromises I have to make down the line. It will always be a dance on a work-for-hire, whether it’s a film, TV show, or ad, because you’re hired for your voice, but you’re also hired to deliver on specific expectations. I think the more I can establish and reiterate where our expectations of a project align, the happier everyone is with the final product. 

LBB> What are your thoughts on opening up the production world to a more diverse pool of talent? Are you open to mentoring and apprenticeships on set?

Hannah> I think I have an unhealthy obsession with mentoring. For the past few years, I’ve gotten to mentor young filmmakers through Sundance’s Ignite Fellowship, and it takes everything in me not to give up on my own projects and act as an assistant to my wildly talented mentees. The mentorship I’ve received throughout my career has been instrumental to my development as a filmmaker and a professional, and being able to pay that forward makes me really happy. As far as hiring goes, I keep an eye toward diversity while ensuring I’m never working with someone because of their identity. Different points of view make for a more interesting and authentic product and a better all-around working environment.

 

LBB> How do you feel the pandemic is going to influence the way you work into the longer term? Have you picked up new habits that you feel will stick around for a long time?

Hannah> More handwashing? Practically, no, but emotionally yes. I learned that life is too short and this profession is too hard to waste any time being scared. 

 

LBB> Your work is now presented in so many different formats - to what extent do you keep each in mind while you’re working (and, equally, to what degree is it possible to do so)?

Hannah> I’ve found it to be virtually impossible. I direct with the optimal format in mind while understanding that I won’t be able to control how people view my work. I try to do watchdowns on as many different devices as possible in post so I can adjust the mix or colour if necessary.  

 

LBB> What’s your relationship with new technology and, if at all, how do you incorporate future-facing tech into your work (e.g. virtual production, interactive storytelling, AI/data-driven visuals etc)?

Hannah> I haven’t used much of it, but it does scare the shit out of me. I think AI can be useful in creating a very specific image for a deck, but I would always rather find my images in the wild or use something that communicates what I’m going for in a less literal way. I’ve written some branching narrative scripts and found that to be a fun storytelling challenge - figuring out how to give the viewer autonomy while still curating their experience. I find virtual production very difficult - doable, but it took a lot of the joy out of it. I love working with actors, and doing that meaningfully over Zoom was tough. I also love the camaraderie on set, so sitting alone in my office, switching back and forth between three different devices, wasn’t great.    

 

LBB> Which pieces of work do you feel really show off what you do best – and why?

Hannah> My first feature, ‘Before You Know It,’ shows off my ability to juggle different tones while maintaining a consistency of voice; it is at times farcical and at others melodramatic but maintains a nuanced emotional reality throughout.

‘Disengaged’ was one of my earliest experiences with short-form storytelling, and it showed off my use of blocking and specific behaviour to create comedic but real moments that give the full picture of a situation in a limited amount of time.

I think ‘Cora Bora,’ my most recent feature, which will be coming out at the top of 2023, shows off my versatility and ability to marry my voice with a script I didn’t write. I also think it shows off my work with actors.