The creators of your favourite visuals
Photo: Jakob Owens/Unsplash
By Will Lofsky
Since the creation of YouTube, music videos have made artists’ careers. Canada has played a pivotal role in the rapidly changing mainstream visual marketplace. Here is a list of some of the top music video directors in Canada.
One of Toronto’s most famous directors, Zac Facts, has worked with some of Canada’s hottest artists such as The Weeknd, Jessie Reyez, Tory Lanez, NAV, 88Glam, Belly and Sean Leon.
Known for his dark and raw style, Facts has worked with Tory Lanez for most of his career, elevating his online presence before Lanez hit the global mainstream with one of his biggest records to date, “LUV.”
The visual for the very catchy dancehall track captures the beauty of America’s deserts and the joy of rich house parties in mansions. With dark clouds, a plot where Lanez gets manipulated and left alone by the end of the video and beautiful car rides down open, winding roads, Facts’ approach to visual storytelling shines through and through.
Video: Tory Lanez via YouTube
Facts’ visual treatment for Future’s hit record, “Low Life” featuring The Weeknd is mostly shot indoors in a grimy abandoned building with beautiful women and an antique piano with spotlights falling perfectly on the artists for an intimate up close and personal performance.
Future’s classic aesthetic of dark sunglasses, designer bandanas and flooded chains and The Weeknd’s iconic haircut prior to his album, Starboy, truly capture a moment in time that can no longer be emulated.
Video: Future via YouTube
Up-and-coming director, editor, and videographer, Marcus Letts, has worked with Anders, Ca$tro Guapo from CMDWN, Yung Tory, Dutch Revz, TRIPSIXX, and more.
With a similar aesthetic to the work of Cole Bennett and Lonewolf, Letts has brought the new school highly edited, fast cut style to Toronto in a short period of time.
Letts edited the Worldstar exclusive music video of one of Yung Tory’s biggest records, “Friends,” a remix of Marshmello and Anne-Marie’s global hit of the same name. Letts has worked on 16 of Tory’s released visuals since 2018 and also went on tour with him.
Video: WORLDSTARHIPHOP via YouTube
Toronto’s own Karena Evans, at only 24 years old, is becoming one of the most sought-after directors in the world. Evans worked on the music videos for Drake’s biggest singles off of his most recent studio full-length album, Scorpion.
The videos for “God’s Plan,” “In My Feelings,” and “Nice For What” have hundreds of millions of views, with “God’s Plan” leading the pack with over 1.1 billion streams.
Evans’ visual treatments are rich and colourful which compliment the upbeat, positive three hit records.
Each of the videos has a meticulously clear script, with “God’s Plan” showing Drake doing positive things for people in need, “Nice For What” paying homage to some of the most influential women in the world right now and “In My Feelings” pulling audiences into a comical love story full of quotable lines.
Video: Drake via YouTube
Michael Maxxis is an Edmonton director that has worked with Alexisonfire, City and Colour, Kygo, Sum 41, Elle King, and Billy Talent. Maxxis’ music videos are all very aesthetically different.
The visual for “Ex’s and Oh’s” by Elle King is bright, colourful, and full of life, while the picture for City and Colour’s record “Fragile Bird” is dark, sad, and uses film versus the Hollywood-quality high-resolution take on King’s song.
Maxxis’ treatment for Billy Talent’s “Saint Veronika” is both intense and disturbing, centred around a book called Veronica Decides to Die in which the Slovenian protagonist attempts to kill herself and gets locked up in a mental hospital. The claustrophobic hall shots, dark colour grading, and interesting creepy take on characters with sewed-on faces take the plot to the next level.
Video: Billy Talent via YouTube
Yassin ‘Narcy’ Alsalman is a professor, director, musician, journalist and producer. Narcy teaches one of the only hip hop courses in Canada at Concordia University and has worked with Talib Kweli, A Tribe Called Red, Anderson.Paak, Jay Electronica, and Yasiin Bey, also known as Mos Def.
Narcy performed in and directed the music video for A Tribe Called Red’s track “R.E.D” featuring Narcy and Bey off their third album, We Are the Halluci Nation. The video, shot in Sudan, is a vibrant and colourful picture with scenes in the desert and downtown.
A powerful picture, the visual has intermittent moments discussing the Halluci Nation and slow-motion segments with Narcy and Bey joking around and having a blast.
Video: A Tribe Called Red via YouTube
While there are many phenomenal Canadian directors to list all in one piece, these five creators stand out across all genres of music with their own trademark aesthetics.
