Music Video Directors Who Shaped the Canadian Look

The directors

1. The MuchMusic-era auteurs — the in-house directors (see our MuchMusic feature) who shot the 80s and 90s canon (see our videos feature): fast, cheap, and inventive under channel budgets.
2. The Spike Jonze-adjacent Canadians — the directors who crossed to features (see our screen feature): the visual language of the 90s indie (see our features).
3. The Toronto commercial wing — the directors who made the big-budget Canadian videos (see our videos feature): gloss, concept, execution.
4. The DIY generation — the band-member directors (see our Grimes feature): the self-directed aesthetic (see our features) of the 2010s (see our features).
5. The vertical natives — the TikTok-era directors (see our video-rebirth feature): the loop as the canvas (see our features).

The Canadian video aesthetic

The look (see our features): the specificity (see our features) — the weather (see our winter-songs feature) — the understatement (see our craft feature) — the invention under constraint (see our MuchMusic feature). The directors (see our features) gave (see our features) the videos (see our videos feature) the national signature (see our features): the cold beauty (see our features), the quiet oddity (see our weird-songs feature), the craft (see our features) beneath the budgets (see our features). The look (see our features) is (see our features) Canadian (see our features). The (see our features) directors (see our features) made (see our features) it (see our features) so (see our features).