1. 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' JiggyWith 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 ofMise-En-
Scene, props etc. This is evident in Williams’ videos for both Busta Rhymes’ – Gimmiesome
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.

2. 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, KanyeWest’s constant references to ‘Louis Vuitton’ clothing,
and his repetitive use of the Ray Ban sunglasses in his music videos.
Use of a Fish-eye Lense in ‘Busta
Rhyme’s video for ‘Gimmie Some
More ‘
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’