5IVE BIRDS CO. — Press Kit
MarkoSteez
Executive Director — Director — Cinematographer
Published work has amassed over a billion lifetime views.
Director Reel
Press playBiography
Marko Steez has been directing since 2014. Raised in Kansas City, Missouri by immigrant parents — the first in his family born in America — he had a camera in his hands from a young age, shooting music videos and short films through high school before moving to Atlanta to direct full time.
He has since shot for Future, Lil Durk, Gunna, Lil Baby, 21 Savage, Pierre Bourne and others, and has worked with artists at early developmental stages — contributing visual direction, identity and rollout strategy before mainstream recognition. That work built a deep understanding of artist positioning, audience behaviour, and the role visual media plays in cultural momentum.
Approach
Directing is the intersection of story, emotion, visual language and execution.
Not one of those. All four, held together.
Over a decade of real production built the eye. The value is being able to see the whole picture at once — concept, creative direction, cinematography, performance, production, the final image — and make those feel intentional and connected rather than assembled.
Work that only looks good is not interesting. The work needs a point of view.
That means developing the idea, communicating the vision, understanding what it technically takes to get there, and staying inside the visual execution rather than handing it off. The creative identity holds from concept through final delivery because the same eye is on it the whole way.
Music, commercial, narrative — different talent, personalities, environments and problems. The job is making people, brands, artists and ideas feel larger than they are without losing what makes them authentic.
Selected Productions
The Record
Druski, Yung Bleu × Young M.A
Coulda Been Love
Produced as the theme for Druski's Coulda Been Love series, opening each episode.
PlayFuture × Lil Durk
Last Name
Captured over a few days following Future day to day. The record had been made the night before the shoot began.
PlayKing Von
Don't Miss
Shot in multiple parts. The original footage was captured while Von was living, with the remaining shots completed for the video's release.
PlayYungeen Ace
Buy The Building
Shot in Houston, staged to hold the scenes that read truest to the artist.
PlayCEO Big 30
Backseat Of The Rolls Truck
A collaboration production with 2 Brothers Film Co.
PlayNeek Bucks × 2 Chainz
Mask Up
Shot in the heart of Atlanta in partnership with Krystal.
PlayOMB Peezy × Drum Dummie ft. Omeretta
Die Young
Built around the record's own subject — the beauty inside the struggle, drawn from the artist's upbringing in Mobile, Alabama.
PlayOn Set
It begins with an idea.
5IVE BIRDS takes an artist, a business or a product and builds the visual project that carries it into the world. Once a project comes in, the company develops a treatment and concept against the actual goal — a product to show, a business to put in front of its consumers, or an artist with a record that needs a world around it.
The Process
The read
Before a treatment, before a single frame is planned: what is this actually about? A record has a feeling before it has a video. A business has a reason it exists before it has a product to sell. That thing is what the work gets built around — and it is almost never the thing written at the top of the brief.
The world
A concept is not a look. It is a set of rules: where this lives, what hour it is there, what the light does, how close the camera is allowed to get, what it is forbidden to do. Once those rules exist, every decision on the day has something to answer to, and the work stops being a collection of good shots.
The build
Location, cast, crew, glass, lighting, movement. This is where a concept either survives contact with a schedule and a budget or quietly turns into something else. Holding it means knowing, before anyone is hired, what each department can actually deliver and what it costs in hours.
The day
Nothing on the call sheet survives the first hour. The light changes, the location falls through, somebody has a better idea in the parking lot. The skill is not refusing to move — it is knowing in the moment which changes serve the idea and which are only easier.
The performance
Most of what makes a frame land is not lighting or lens choice. It is whether the person in it trusts the room enough to give you something real. That trust is built long before the camera is up, and it is the difference between footage of someone and a portrait of them.
The finish
Edit, grade, sound, delivery. The same eye that developed the concept stays on it to the last frame, which is why the finished piece resembles the thing that was pitched. Work handed off at this stage is where most visions quietly disappear.
Anyone can make a video. A feeling is harder, and it is the only part anyone remembers.
Selected Credits
- Future
- Lil Durk
- 21 Savage
- Lil Uzi Vert
- King Von
- Gunna
- Lil Baby
- Wiz Khalifa
- 2 Chainz
- Jeezy
- Migos
- Quavo
- Offset
- Kevin Gates
- K Camp
- Benny The Butcher
- Don Toliver
- Southside
- Pi'erre Bourne
- Druski
- YFN Lucci
- Yung Bleu
- Young M.A
- DaBaby
- Yungeen Ace
- BlocBoy JB
- Tay Keith
- CEO Big 30
- Dess Dior
- Derez Deshon
- Hunxho
- Doe Boy
- Kali
- OMB Peezy
- Rylo Rodriguez
- Omeretta
- Co Cash
- Drum Dummie
- Neek Bucks
- LG Malique