Director X, whose real name is Julien Christian Lutz, is a 41-year-old Canadian music video director of Trinidadian and Swiss descent known for "tweaking the letterbox format" in his music videos. He has directed videos for major artists like Rihanna, Drake, Justin Bieber, Kanye West, and Jay-Z. His signature style involves splitting the black screen horizontally or vertically at the beginning, giving his videos a surreal film-like quality. He often uses vibrant colors and slow pacing to set light-hearted or fantasy-like scenes for songs.

1. DIRECTO
R X
DIRECTOR STUDY

2. KEY FACTS
• Full Name: Julien Christian Lutz
• Goes by the names of: Director X, Little X, X
• Age: 41
• Origin: Canadian born and bred but of Trinidadian and Swiss descent
• Education: Mayfield Secondary School and North Park Secondary
School
• Distinctive music video trademark: “Tweaking the letterbox format”

3. NOTABLE STARS OF WHOM DIRECTOR X HAS WORKED
WITH
The Wanted
R. Kelly
Usher
Kanye West
Jay-Z
Korn
David Guetta
Nelly Furtado
Sean Paul
Justin Bieber
Drake
Nicki Minaj
T.I.
Little Mix
Rihanna
Union J
Fifth Harmony
Iggy Azalea

4. FURTHER INFO ON TWEAKING THE LETTER BOX
FORMAT
• Right from his very first hit music videos, Lutz often opens his
music videos in a very distinctive way. It will frequently start with a
black screen then the black will either split horizontally or vertically:
this is called the letter box format. Its an extremely clever way of
framing the surround for the music video. This individual style
always gives the music video a very surreal film feel as opposed to
a serious straight to the point performance video.
To demonstrate the
years of which Lutz has
been putting his stamp
on music videos,
attached are two videos
10 years apart both
opened in the same
letterbox style.

5. LITTLE MIX - BLACK MAGIC/ HAIR
• Two of little mix’s biggest hits
have had their music videos
filmed by the iconic director X.
Their fun flirty fantasy of music
videos certainly fits in with
Lutz’s fortes. The iconic
letterbox opening of the
videos perfectly frames the
light hearted fantasy narrative
to come in the two videos.
There is wide usage of vibrant
pastel colours and the editing
seems to be relatively slow
paced to give the laid-back,
careless feel of the songs that
follow the recurring theme of
ex relationships.

6. IGGY AZALEA & RITA ORA - BLACK WIDOW
• Though substantially less light
hearted than the songs filmed
for little mix, this music video
for the song Black Widow is
still very much a film type
narrative music video where
there is a lot of surreal
settings and animations. The
frequent use of bright colours
and animations are similar to
that of the little mix videos
though this one in particular is
slightly more dark in its
theme.

7. PERSONAL OPINION
• Prior to studying Director X I would probably say the music videos
he has created are amongst the most interesting I have seen. Once
I knew they were all connected it was easy to make the connection
and see the recurring themes and techniques used. There is a
continuous use of strong narratives and storylines in his music
videos, quite often they will be uncomplicated and light hearted but
still very interesting. His music videos, even from his earlier days
with Rihanna etc have always come across very clean looking and
are always an easy watch.