The Directors: Jeremy Leibovitch
Born in Boston and currently based in Brooklyn, the unique perspective of rising director Jeremy Leibovitch draws on his passion for telling textured and human stories - spanning documentary, narrative, and experimental storytelling forms. His reel features bold, authentic, multi-format, and visually immersive campaigns developed alongside leading creatives for Amazon, American Express, Estée Lauder, Major League Soccer, Ram Trucks, Uber, and many others.
Name: Jeremy Leibovitch
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Repped by: Bella (part of Fivestone Studios)
LBB> What elements of a script sets one apart from the other and what sort of scripts get you excited to shoot them?
Jeremy> A script’s gotta have heart! Authenticity is key for me, especially as a director coming from a background in the documentary world. I love scripts and concepts that revolve around capturing a very specific moment - a defining choice in the life of a doc subject, a special time in a brand’s journey. Whatever it may be, tapping into the hefty stakes surrounding a story or a brand helps motivate real, thoughtful decisions from the initial pitch through the final edit.
In the flow of director life, you pick up cues and tricks that help tick client and agency boxes on a project. It can be way too easy to flip into autopilot and sufficiently tackle executional mandatories. When I read a script that feels like it hinges on a real moment - I’m buzzing. That’s when the exciting and truly motivated work gets made.
LBB> How do you approach creating a treatment for a spot?
Jeremy> Any successful project for me starts with finding a series of references, styles, and cues that I connect with. Often it can start with one frame from a project that I’ve saved. I’ve got a couple digital stash spots where I’m constantly saving work that inspires me - a fun edit moment, a sick shot/composition, a VO style that feels fresh. We’re so lucky to live in such a lush digital landscape that hosts film and ad communities who share killer work.
So within the first five minutes of boards landing on my desk, I’m digging through my “liked” Vimeo videos, IG saves, and a running iPhone note - plucking out each strand of DNA that will serve as the building blocks of a given project. I’m also not shy about pulling refs from my own work - my style cues are often the reason I was brought onto a project in the first place!
Getting visually and stylistically grounded as early as possible in the process helps me build confidence in the approach I’m pitching from the get-go. The last thing I want is to finish writing the meat of a treatment, and only THEN begin digging for the visual references that flesh out the creative. My writing needs to be motivated by the visuals blasting through my head.
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?
Jeremy> My goal is always to find the intersection of my voice as a director, and the brand voice I’m writing for - I’m never committing to a script where I only feel confident in 50% of that equation. End context and ad placement is also super important to me even at the earliest stages of a project.
Understanding that brand voice happens in a few different ways - referencing past spots from a given brand is a good starting point, but I like to go beyond that. How do customers/fans of a brand interact online? What kind of content is that audience into when not consuming ads? What does the client’s core demographic care about on a personal level?
Reddit communities, niche YouTubers, even Google Reviews - so many unconventional sources I tap into as resources when trying to understand a brand and the community that it serves/supports.
LBB> For you, what is the most important working relationship for a director to have with another person in making an ad? And why?
Jeremy> The un-snappy yet truthful answer to this question is - it depends! My work over the past few years specifically has spanned across a few spaces and styles, and the key collaborative relationship on a given project that brings everything together has varied.
A big, bold, montage-y brand anthem? My producer is my saviour and guiding light - the blood/sweat/tears poured into an intensive pre-pro process, getting all of the moving parts aligned, schedule tight, talent wrangled, is beyond essential.
An intimate doc-style spot? A super tight relationship and in-sync communication with my DP means everything. They need to be able to think the way I think and react the way I’d react in the moment, often with little more than a glance or a gesture to get that message across. That’s a relationship I’ve only built with DPs I’ve been in the trenches with for a while.
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?
Jeremy> I’m a massive, massive soccer fan. Like, I can’t possibly overstate my love of the global game. The number of obscure streaming subscriptions I maintain can vouch for this.
For me, choosing the wild ride that is a director’s career path means I need to commit to telling stories in spaces I’m passionate about. Spaces that will continue to energise me and push my creative limits. We’re so lucky to live in a time where the game is absolutely exploding in North America, and it feels like footie brands are frothing at the mouth to capitalise on the moment and expand their reach into the States.
I’ve spent years in the dive bars, watch parties, vintage kit pop-ups, and supporters sections that define this wild culture. Now that there’s a unique moment for me to plant a flag and find my place telling stories within US soccer culture, I’m not missing the opportunity. To quote the great Marshall Mathers, “would you capture it, or just let it slip?”
Brand anthems, product-focused work, doc stories, I’m ready for it all. Brands looking to tap into that culture recognise directors who have a real stake in that world, and understand it on a deep level. I’m pumped to see both soccer-world ad spends and storytelling opportunities explode in North America and beyond. The World Cup is coming to our shores in 2026, so please send any and all footie boards my way :)
LBB> What misconception about you or your work do you most often encounter and why is it wrong?
Jeremy> A lot of my proudest work sits firmly in the documentary style, and I battle the misconception that my background in doc work doesn’t translate to a fully scripted format in terms of what I bring to the table.
If anyone has any doubts, let’s talk after you see my prep documents…
The level of research and iteration that goes on in doc pre-pro is wild. We’re not just preparing for Plan “A”. We’re preparing for Plan B, C, D, E, and F as well. The lack of control in many doc scenarios means I’ve had a career devoted to exhaustive preparation trying to exert every sliver of control we do have. Not only has that fully prepared me to tackle the challenges of scripted prep and execution, but I think also gives me problem-solving skills and in-the-moment creativity that elevate stories to the highest levels.
LBB> What’s the craziest problem you’ve come across in the course of a production – and how did you solve it?
Jeremy> I had a pretty juicy pandemic production crisis that threw me for a loop! In early 2022, I headed out to LA to shoot a spot with American Express and a Venice Beach-based pizza chef. At this point in the pandemic, standard covid protocols had loosened to allow for some traveling crew, but still retained a strict regime of masking and testing.
I tested negative before I flew out, negative the day I arrived, but got pinged with a positive the night before the shoot. Eight hours before crew call. No symptoms, no inkling the virus was lurking. Just a series of VERY positive readings on several rapid tests.
Holed up in my hotel room, I was lucky enough to be surrounded by an incredible production team, crew, and talent, who rallied to pull together a streaming setup so I could remotely monitor our camera feeds from the safety of my hotel room.
Through a system of zoom calls and a bluetooth speaker in the kitchen studio, I was able to relay notes and direction and we were able to sail through the day with very few snags. So fortunate to have such calm and collected collaborators who pivoted our whole day without blinking an eye, and I’m very thankful for the prior couple years of remote production experience. I did miss out on testing some very special pizza that day, however.
Outside of a successful shoot, I re-watched all of the Lord of the Rings extended cuts over the next couple days while waiting to test negative in my hotel room. Silver linings!
LBB> How do you strike the balance between being open/collaborative with the agency and brand client while also protecting the idea?
Jeremy> I’m lucky to have the kind of relationship with my closest creative collaborators where I invite them to challenge me on my ideas and approaches. Constant constructive stress tests, and forcing me to verbalise the reason behind my choices strengthens the project, builds confidence behind my creative vision, and prepares me for an open and collaborative conversation when it’s time to CC in the agency and brand client.
If I’ve done my job well, we’re instantly jumping into the part of the creative conversation where we’re fine tuning a shared vision for the project. Confidence in my vision, the knowledge that I’ve taken the time to listen and understand the agency/client’s vision, backed up by good prep and thoughtful motivations has always led to super constructive creative chats.
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?
Jeremy> Oh hell yeah, big time. I’m big about tapping into the background, culture, and passions that define you to produce creatively fresh work. We need more unique voices from more places to make the production world even richer. I leap at any opportunity to play my part in opening doors to any untapped talent pool.
I was fortunate to shadow a few directors I admired on-set early on, but even more impactful than that has been having a mentor on speed dial. Someone soaked with experience, someone who’s familiar with you and your journey, and most importantly, someone to whom you’re not afraid to ask the “dumb” questions.
Having a respected creative mentor who can help be a bounceboard, a thought-starter, and sometimes show you the tough love and tell you to “figure it out on your own” when you need to hear it, is essential.
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?
Jeremy> Although I’m not eager to hear the term “remote production” any time soon, I’m the first to admit that I walked away from my pandemic production experiences as a far stronger communicator. My remote shoots completely stripped me of the shortcuts and physical cues I use as a director while on-set to not only direct talent, but communicate to my DPs, gaffers, and problem-solve on the fly. I had to build a whole new language and challenge myself to reflect on the way I verbalise my direction.
It also forced me to boil down shoot approaches to their simplest form without diluting the creative, to make everyone’s job easier when it came time to roll the cameras (or fire up the zoom calls). Brands, agencies, everyone’s been on board with the simplified approaches - and I’m always down for shedding unnecessary complexity.
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)?
Jeremy> I admit to warming up to this situation over the past few years. At least three of my last five projects called for deliverables to be natively shot in a 9:16 format, and I’ve loved it.
There have been times recently where I’ve opted to fully commit to a portrait orientation, and capture with our cameras rotated 90 degrees. At every level of the commercial game, work ends up on vertical-first platforms, and it’s important to me to understand the visual language of those spaces at a high level. It’s become such a huge part of my visual vocabulary that I probably snap 90% of the stills I take on my Canon R5 in a vertical format. It just feels natural - I’m so happy to have proven the Jeremy of 8 years ago wrong.
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)?
Jeremy> It’s been awesome to see how quickly the film community has embraced new tech and AI integration into all aspects of production. The ability to whip up the perfect reference frame - where the talent is posed just right, with just the right light vibe - all via a couple lines of text in a Midjourney query, has unlocked a new level of pitch clarity for me. As I mentioned before, reference stills and clips are so important early on in the production process for me, so the ability to iterate visually on just a kernel of an idea is mind-blowing.
In my work in the branded doc side, new remote production tools have also helped unlock a whole level of nimbleness and agility in a fast-paced shooting environment. We can deliver clients a streamlined video village experience from the comfort of their own homes, and enable my DPs and team to be right in the action. Innovations like this are definitely here to stay, and I’m embracing them with open arms.
LBB> Which pieces of work do you feel really show off what you do best – and why?
Jeremy> I’m super proud of the diverse genres of work I’ve helmed, all while maintaining a unique style that can serve as a “Leibovitch” calling card. My brand anthem for the Philadelphia Union and Major League Soccer is a great example of what I think the marriage of a doc-style mentality, big and punchy visuals, and a multi-format and kinetic edit style can be.
