Professor Hanna Maylett: “Without time spent together, a shared vision cannot emerge”

What has your career path been like? What about its highlights?

“I wanted to be a film director even as a child, and I was accepted to study at the Department of Film Art at the University of Art and Design Helsinki in 1994. One of my first major highlights was when my short film The Rose of the Railroad (orig. Ratapenkan ruusu) – which I directed and wrote while a student – was selected for the Cinéfondation competition at Cannes in 1998. I graduated as a film director in 2000, and since then I’ve had the opportunity to direct a wide variety of drama films, documentaries, and television series. Along the way, I’ve received some wonderful international recognition, most recently the Golden Nymph Award in Monte Carlo for the TV series Piece of My Heart (orig. Pala sydämestä) 2021.

Alongside my work, I’ve always wanted to teach as well: I began teaching immediately after graduation and joined Aalto University in 2017. One of the most important turning points in my career has been my appointment as an associate professor of film directing. This role actually combines my three great professional passions: the art of film, teaching, and research into creative collaboration and artistic leadership.

“Perhaps the most meaningful highlights, however, aren’t the awards or nominations, but those moments when the team discovers something together that no one could have achieved alone.”

Your research is about the director’s artistic leadership – what does that mean in practice?

“The director’s job is to take responsibility for the artistic integrity of the work as a whole, but they cannot - and do not need to – come up with everything on their own. A director’s job isn’t just to decide what a film looks and feels like; rather, they must get a diverse group of artists to work toward the same goal and a cohesive whole.

Film production involves a vast number of different artistic professionals, each with their own area of expertise. The director’s task is to identify where it’s worth drawing on other people’s expertise and how to get them to aim toward a common goal.”

How can a director give others room to influence artistic decisions while still maintaining responsibility for the whole?

“Involvement doesn’t mean giving up responsibility; rather, a strong artistic vision and effective collaboration can coexist. The director’s role is to activate, engage, and invite people into the process, while at the same time leaving room for them to figure out together how to get there.

A director must identify what is essential in the work and in which areas other people’s ideas can help move it forward. The director can set boundaries for the artistic team, within which people have the space to do their own work and seek solutions together.

My research interviews revealed that this is precisely what artistic professionals hope for from a director. At a later stage, the director’s role is to monitor these artistic directions and intervene when necessary.”

Can you give an example of a situation where good collaboration changed something essential in a scene or a film?

“As part of my research, I conducted my own experiment in artistic leadership while working on a TV series. In it, I deliberately emphasized the creative process at the group level and sought to optimize and maximize the artistic contributions of those involved.

Based on that, I came to understand why it’s sometimes worthwhile to open up the creative process to the entire group for scrutiny. That’s when surprising encounters and interpretations arise among the participants.

The experiment reinforced my view that there are levels of creativity that emerge only when the entire group works together toward a common goal.”

Have you learned something through your research that surprised even you?

“Perhaps the biggest surprise was how director-centric filmmaking still is. The involvement of the crew depends very much on the director and their leadership style. At the same time, I was surprised by the many different ways directors actually lead artistic collaboration – there isn’t just one right way to do it.

It was also surprising how little the entire artistic team was led as a cohesive unit – meaning that its enormous potential isn’t being harnessed. A collective art form does not, therefore, automatically mean that it is created collaboratively as a collective. One of my key findings was that the value of group-level interaction and collaboration has largely gone unrecognized and untapped.

My personal takeaway from the research was that shared leadership and a participatory leadership style are here to stay – in the workplace in general, and thus also in filmmaking. This doesn’t mean any one specific model, but above all the ability to create a way of building collaboration that suits each situation and to provide space for collaboration.”

What kind of leadership do you think is needed today?

“A director must be able to manage a wide variety of situations. Rather than having all the answers, they must know how to create a process in which those answers can be found.

Strong artistic leadership and good collaboration are not mutually exclusive. Finnish filmmaking is already characterized by a flat hierarchy. Above all, it requires trust, participation, and interaction.”

If there were one thing to change about how future directors are taught to work with others, what would it be?

“Artists of this generation are already taught collaboration and leadership skills just as much as artistic skills. These are things that can be fully learned and practiced. Directing students understand early on that the way they organize collaboration is linked to the final result.

In my opinion, students should also be given the tools to recognize different forms of collaboration, power dynamics and conflicts. It’s not enough for the toolkit to include tools for developing an artistic vision; collaboration, interaction and leadership skills are just as central to the whole.”

What else interests you besides your work?

“I love the archipelago and the sea, and I relax best at my cottage doing garden work and restoring old windows. My secret talent is garden and yard design, which I learned somewhat by accident – mainly by first making enough mistakes in my own gardens.

During my dissertation years, I unexpectedly got hooked on aqua jogging. I’m a huge fan of Mozart, I read a lot, and I enjoy knitting the most difficult patterns possible, even though I’m otherwise hopeless at crafts. What’s rewarding about knitting is that you end up with something tangible relatively quickly – unlike, say, a dissertation or a movie.”