Editor’s Note: They are leaders. They are inspirational. They are mentors. They are visionaries. They are, quite frankly, badasses. They are our 2020 Reel Women During Women’s History Month, you will be able to meet these incredible personalities in Advertising, Entertainment, Media and Production. Get ready.
Hana is a professional film and video editor with over 15 years of video production experience. As one the co-owners and exclusive editor at Impakt Studio, Hana began her career editing music videos for Chicago artist Omen from J Cole’s Dream Ville label, Lupe Fiasco, and Syleena Johnson.
Her resume also includes Grammy nominated music videos for Eric Roberson, Lalah Hathaway, and Terisa Griffin. Some of her other credits include promotional videos for Jamie Foxx, and Floyd Mayweather.
Though her training started with music videos with an emphasis on narrative storytelling, Hana turned her focus on features, short films and documentaries. Some of which have screened at several major film festivals . Her creative editing can also be seen in the feature films Pierre Jackson which is currently on Netflix, London Mitchell’s Christmas which aired on Magic Johnson’s Network Aspire, and “My Online Valentine” which had a national theatrical run early 2019.
She is looking forward to the Impakt Studio produced sci-fi fantasy anthology film Paradigm Grey to be streaming later this year, in which she edited most of the stories as well as serving as one of the Executive Producers. You can see her work on her companies
What did you originally want to be when you grow up?
When I was younger Ive always pictured myself being a business owner of some sort. Not necessarily having a specific field in mind at the time, you know… but I just knew that whatever I ended up doing, I’d be the owner / boss.
How did you get into the film industry?
I got introduced to the business at 16 years old. A friend of my sister was a set designer for films, and I remember her inviting my niece and I to help work on set as production assistants. I just fell in love with process, specifically the work that goes on behind the scenes.
Who were your mentors?
So, I’ve never really had any formal mentors, but I absolutely have had individuals who have inspired me, and guided me throughout this journey.
What is your greatest achievement?
My greatest achievement outside of becoming a wife and mother has been to be the Co-Owner and partner of Impakt Studio for over 20 years and being able to continually push our creativity further than my business partner Christopher Adams and I could dream of.
What is your biggest disappointment?
My greatest disappointment has to be the lack of Black women operating successful independent Black owned media companies as well as the lack of real distribution opportunities for Black productions.
ALSO READ: MORE REEL WOMEN
What are your predictions for the film industry over the next decade?
I predict that AI (artificial intelligence) will push into all aspects of film production from writing and editing to eventually maybe helping directors direct. It’s not hard to imagine a system that has been fed information on the types of edits popular directors and editors have used in their movies and then selecting a preset in the editing software like lets say a “Spike Lee/Barry Alexander Brown” style edit on one scene then a “Quentin Tarantino/ Sally Menke (RIP)” style edit on another scene it’s not as far fetched with the current state of machine learning. These new technologies will still need a “human” touch to really get the nuances of what we do…for now..we shall see 🙂
Name a job you had that would surprise people.
My first and only job I had was a Stock Market floor runner for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Basically I transferred orders received by phone clerks to brokers for execution in the pit.
Who plays you in your life story?
Angela Bassett plays me in my life story. Yup.
What do you wish you had more time to do?
I wish I had more time to blog/write.
Do you talk to yourself?
I talk to myself all the time. I have whole conversations with myself, out loud and internally. Motivational and Complementary. I think It helps you clarify your thoughts.
What inspires you to be creative?
I tend to gather my inspiration from other artists who’s work I admire. That always seems to push me to be more creative..
