In a male-dominated industry, these female music video directors have risen to the top.

KYLIE KANG - SL8

SL8IGHT VISUAL LABS commonly referred to as SL8, is a production company that houses director duo 725. The duo consists of male director Jeon Jihoon and female director Kang Dongyeon, known as Kylie Kang.

725 sat down with American music video editor Jordan Orme to analyze one of the duo’s most popular music videos “God of Music” by SEVENTEEN. 725 has become the main directors of SEVENTEEN’s music videos also having worked on “Maestro,” “LALALI,” “Spell,” “Cheers To Youth,” and “Speak Up.”

The duo started working together in 2018, making commercials, short films, documentaries, and music videos. They created their first music video together in July 2018 with “Fish Wish” by Seora.

Over the years they have worked with iKON, SHINee, CIX, Stray Kids, NCT DREAM, aespa, Red Velvet, Xdinary Heroes, ZEROBASEONE, BOYNEXTDOOR, and more. 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SL8official

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/725.kyliekang/?hl=en 

SL8 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sl8_official/?hl=en

LEE RAEKYUNG (A.K.A ITCHCOCK)

Lee Raekyung always dreamed of working in cinema. She attended KyeWon Arts College where she originally studied television broadcasting, and later transferred to the video design department. She received the grand prize at the KyeWon Arts College graduating screening awards ceremony and was scouted by director Yongi’s production company, Donald Syrup.

After her work at Donald Syrup, she became an assistant director. She started off making commercials working as an assistant director and unfortunately faced sexism in the industry. Raekyung then attended Hongik University where she formed relationships with alumni that would help her to establish a name for herself in the industry. She decided to become a director and began working for a music video production company. However, she was never paid for her work and later decided to start directing for no-name artists for free. 

After directing “Sunflower” by Zitten she could not find more work for a year. During that time she worked part-time as a video editor. She debated giving up on her work to attend graduate school, but luckily she was contacted by Magic Strawberry Sound and was finally able to direct music videos that she was getting paid for.

In 2017, Raekyung was discovered by IU’s label, allowing her to work with a well-known artist for the first time. Coloring is a signature detail in Raekyung’s work, she utilizes both unsaturated and oversaturated scenes, juxtaposing both cold and warm feelings. Raekyung commonly uses cool color palettes and many pastels in her work, however they are not as washed out in her current work as they were years ago. The coloring makes her videos feel nostalgic and calm as does her directing style since she steers away from chaotic camera movements, and often opts for static shots.

These nostalgic visuals and coloring can also be seen in her recent work with Doh Kyungsoo in the “Somebody,” “Mars,” and “Popcorn” videos.

A prime example of her techniques as a whole is ONEW’s “O (Circle).”

She now works with Behind The Scenes production company. Her other recent work includes KIHYUN’s “Youth,” SHINee’s “The Feeling,”  K.WILL’s “내게 어울릴 이별 노래가 없어 (No Sad Song For My Broken Heart),” Wendy’s “Wish You Hell,” and Jaehyun’s “Smoke.”

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itchcock/?hl=en 

Behind The Scenes website: https://btsfilm.net/