Hype Williams

The ‘Music Video Director’, in which I have chosen to research, is that of Hip-Hop’s most sought after director, Hype Williams.

Williams has been active within the music industry since 1993, and is created videos for extremely high profile mainstream artists such as, 2Pac, Kanye West, Jamie Foxx, Nas, Busta Rhymes, The Notorious B.I.G, and Missy Elliot. Despite being renowned for his lensing clips with Hip-Hop and R’n’B artists, Williams recently collaborated with Coldplay, on the video for their 2009 hit Viva la Vida, and is set to work with the band for the second time, on their latest single ‘Paradise’ .

Furthermore, Williams has received a grand array of awards during his time within the music industry, including Awards Williams has received for his video work include the Billboard Music Video Award for Best Director of the Year (1996), the Jackson Limo Award for Best Rap Video of the Year (1996) for Busta Rhymes' "Woo Hah," the NAACP Image Award (1997), the 8th annual MVPA Award for Black Music Achievement (1997), MTV Video Music Award in the Best Rap Video (1998) category for Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy With It," MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video (1999) for TLC's "No Scrubs", and the BET Award for Best Director (2006) for Kanye West's “Gold Digger”. In 2006, Williams was honoured by MTV with its Video Vanguard Award, presented in honour of his achievements as a filmmaker. He is being nominated for Video Director of the Year at the ‘BET Awards of 2011’ for his work with regular collaborator Kanye West, on his single ‘All of the Lights’

Also, during the late 90’s early 2000’s Williams was known to stick to a rather signature style, when creating the vast majority of his music videos. A technique which he tended to use on a regular basis is that of the Fish-eye Lens, which distorts the camera view, Williams used this technique to create a magnification of the Artist, and other types of Mise-En-Scene, props etc. This is evident in Williams’ videos for both Busta Rhymes’ – Gimmie some more ‘and Missy Elliot’s’ - ‘The Rain’. The majority of videos involving the use of this lens take place within a corridor, in which to add depth to the video, and link with the rather extravagant clothing that the artist tends to wear.

Another signature style developed by Williams consists of placing a shot in that of a widescreen ratio, while the second shot is split, and placed in both the upper and lower bars; this is displayed in Ne-Yo’s ‘So Sick’ Music video.

Use of a Fish-eye Lense in ‘Busta Rhyme’s video for ‘Gimmie Some More ‘

Finally, Williams has adopted yet another signature style, as of the late 2000’s, which combines that of a centre focus /mid-point shot, on the artist’s body, and a solid background with a light colour change in the centre of the background. This effect is used to display a slight sense of illumination by that of the foreground subject; this is displayed in both Kanye West’s ‘Gold Digger’ and Jamie Foxx’s ‘Digital Girl’. Also, William’s use of this particular filming technique abides by Andrew Goodwin’s ‘Forms and Conventions’ as it displays a grand amount of close-ups of the Artist (possibly at the demand of the record company).Furthermore, this type of shot also establishes the artist’s star iconography, which develops both in and out of their video’s, and eventually becomes a recognised part of their image, for example, Kanye West’s constant references to ‘Louis Vuitton’ clothing, and his repetitive use of the Ray Ban sunglasses in his music videos.

Use of the ‘Split Screen’ technique, in Ne-Yo’s ‘So Sick’

Mid-point shot, combined with a slight ‘colour change’, displayed in Kanye west’s ‘Gold Digger’