How Drex Lee Forged a Breakthrough Style All His Own

Drex Lee's videos are full of smooth pans, smart stitching, and an infectious, kinetic energy. Drex started with early camcorder music videos for bands in Stockton, CA, came through the ranks of commercial videography, and finally established himself as an independent content creator and filmmaker, working with big name brands and celebrities alike. Despite his experience and notoriety, Drex still sees every project, every shoot, and every angle as a chance to learn and relearn the tools of the trade.

Early influence

Drex's calling card—the slaloming, continuous “Epic 1 Shot”—feels palpably contemporary, forged in the snappy edits and lucid dissolves that proliferate on vertical video platforms. Yet the technique is rooted in his childhood.

“I love those long, continuous shots because they're so demanding. Action scenes that never cut away, dance scenes that never blink; they're so hard, but they work so, so well,” said Drex. His reverence has a dreamy, faraway feel, as if those sequences run on repeat through his mind.

“That's what I was going for anyway, but the camera I started with couldn't really pull it off,” he continued. “It could only shoot 8 seconds at a time, so I was constantly cutting and stitching clips together. Even back then, I was all about finding the right rhythm.”

This early limitation stoked Drex's creativity. He produced entire videos from these eight-second clips, trimming and smoothing the timelines into a cohesive whole. But those early experiments with video and editing taught him an important lesson, too: artistic ambitions will run up against technical limitations.

“Even as I got into high-end production tools at the end of high school and college, I was aware of where the limits were,” Drex said. His career, appropriately, became a quest to push past those limitations.

Finding the right outlet

After college, Drex shot music videos and directed ad shoots. It was an important step in his growth—professional, paid work is a boon for any young artist—but Drex ran into numerous stifling limitations.

“I started doing client work and started to understand that everyone had a system. This is how we pick out trends. This is how we shoot the ads. This is how we get things done,” Drex said, nonplussed. His ideas were ambitious, dynamic, and nonstarters for his buttoned-up clients. Novel ideas for an ad spot, twisting, elliptical shots for a music video: exciting and invariably shot down.

“If I pitched something I was really excited about to a client, they'd usually say 'No, thank you.' Honestly, I understand why now. It was new. It was foreign, and they had their systems,” he said. Never deterred, Drex learned what he could and used the rejections as fuel.

“It started a crusade of sorts. I wanted to prove I could do it, that my vision could work,” said Drex. He kept working, learning, growing, but fostered that rebellious streak, let it grow roots. When the pandemic swept across the world, Drex finally had the chance to explore his vision.

“Covid pushed me into the world of content. I wasn't going out. I wasn't shooting, but I still wanted to create. So, I just started making what I wanted to, trying out stuff and testing new ideas,” he said. The norms and habits of a creative career in service of others melted away, affording space for Drex's blossoming style.

That's how Drex's “Epic 1 Shot” came to life. The videos are fast-paced, gaudy, and fizzing with the filmmaker's crackling energy. It didn't happen overnight, but Drex worked tirelessly to prove that the style could work.

“If you look at the first comment on those early videos, they're pretty negative. But that didn't stop me. I grinded away, and the videos got better, but they found their audience, too,” he said.

The work paid off. Drex's work was featured on late-night television, won recognition at film festivals, and caught the attention of celebrities. The style he'd refined since he was a kid finally broke through.

Mobile first, data second

Among the other myriad changes to his work and life during the pandemic, Drex also became a mobile-first creator.

“It depends on the shoot, what we're trying to capture, but a lot of the time I just take out the phone and hit record. Whether I have fancy tech or not, I'm still fighting the sun, worried about the focus, the zooms, the audio. The phone just lets me be where I need to be,” said Drex. While shooting on a smartphone has clear advantages, there are also incumbent challenges, including data management.

“Honestly, data transfer speeds are a huge bottleneck for me right now. I want to move fast, but I'm often stuck moving files instead of editing,” Drex said. On balance, though, the phone is the way to go. There will be trade-offs with the tech, but Drex believes it can capture his flashy, high-flying visions.

“No matter what or where you shoot, there's a new challenge or something to learn, whether that's the tech or the location or whatever. But I know what I want to see. It's just a matter of capturing it,” he said.

A singular drive

Despite the notoriety and the ever-changing digital filmmaking landscape, Drex's focus is singular.

“Every time I make a video, my goal is to inspire. Every time I post something crazy, I want it to be an invitation: 'Hey, this is possible. Don't you want to do that, too?'” he said. Creating space for possibility, for excitement, for wonder; that's why Drex makes content, and it's the advice he offers to young creators, too.

“There are billions of people out there. What's most important is making something you're proud of, how happy you are with the end product, and that it connects with someone out there in the world,” he said.

“Make what you want. Don't cater to your work, your art, to what other people say. Don't let anything hold you back.”