Hype Williams is one of the biggest music video directors in the hip-hop scene. Having collaborated with such a wide range of artists (Kanye West, Beyonce, Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J, Notorious BIG, Jay Z, Coldplay, Christina Aguilera) he is now widely recognised amongst people in the industry, and has won several awards for his work, his biggest awards being: 'BET Award for Best Director for Kanye West- Gold Digger' and the 'MTV Video Vanguard Award'. He has lots of plaudits for his work, however he also has recieved some heavy criticism.
The video for Gold Digger contains one of Hype's signature styles. This style involves a centralised camera, focusing on the artist's upper body and a solid colour backing, with a softer, differentiating colour light in the background, creating a sense of illumination. This style can be seen in some of Hype's other videos, such as Video Phone by Beyonce, and Digital Girl by Jamie Foxx.
Another of Hype's signature styles is the use of a shot, within a shot. So the main shot is centre screen, but in the upper and lower bars of the frame is a split shot. This can be seen in Ne-Yo's video for So Sick:
Hype Williams has a big following in the hip-hop industry, and is loved by many, however, he does also have his critiques. The Complex Media blog slates the video for Lil' Wayne's '6 foot 7 foot' video, and also believes he didn't do 'All Of The Lights' by Kanye West any justice either.
"Recently, we voiced how disappointing Kanye West‘s “All of the Lights” video is. “6 foot, 7 foot,”which happens to also be directed by Hype Williams, seems to follow a trend of his… videos full of unrelated concepts and total disconnection throughout. Apparently, Lil’ Wayne and Hype decided to do the lamest job possible in using the movie Inception as their inspiration for this video."
This quote from The Complex Media blog shows just how dissapointed they (the fans) are with some of Hype's videos, and say his concepts are unrelated, and often disconnected. I can agree with this statement, however I think personally that the unrelated concepts help add to the videos, and makes them slightly more visually appealing, and therefore more interesting.
This huge range of visual style, and different imagery used by Hype Williams can draw as a huge inspiration for my music video. He is very artistic, and tends to be quite articulate in his work, something I think is hugely important to make a music video successful. Also in such videos as All Of The Lights by Kanye West, a huge majority of people know the song because of the video, something which I think is a monumental feat to achieve!
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