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Hype Williams

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Background• Williams was born in Queens, New York

and is of African American and Honduran descent.

• Williams major break happened when he first worked at the Classic Concepts Video Productions.

• Lionel Martin & VJ Ralph McDaniel's created Williams first opportunity with the Filmmakers With Attitude project which became Williams first video company.

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Production Career• In 1991, he directed his first music video with BWP’s ‘We Want

Money’ and shortly afterward, Main Source’s ‘Just Hangin’ Out’.• He is best known for the 2011 video of Kanye West’s ‘All Of The

Lights’.• In 1998, he directed the feature film ‘Belly’ which starred rappers Nas

and DMX, the film was released by Artisan Entertainment in 1999.• In 2003, Walt Disney Pictures purchased a zombie horror film ‘Thrilla’

which was written by Williams. The project was never completed.• In 2010, Williams was the writer for the short film ‘Runaway’ directed

by Kanye West.• Since 1991 Williams has produced over 300 music videos for artists

such as Busta Rhymes, Robin Thicke and Coldplay.

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Signature Styles• In most of Williams early works with the aid of cinematographer John Perez.

The fisheye lens was used to distort the camera around the central focus. This was most evident in the videos of Missy Elliot’s ‘The Rain’ & R Kelly’s ‘I Believe I Can Fly’.

• In addition, Williams often uses the style of focusing on the artists torso or head and often uses a plain coloured background to illuminate the artist.

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Signature Styles• Another style used by Williams in

most of his early works is the use of widescreen ratio shots and split shots used in the bars.

• Example of this are in videos such as ‘Snap Your Fingers’ by Lil Jon, ‘Freeze’ by LL Cool J & ‘So Sick’ by Ne-Yo.

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Signature Styles• Williams frequently uses aerial shots and tracking

shots in music videos as another style. This is shown in videos like ‘Only U’ by Ashanti and ‘She’s A B*tch’ by Aaliyah.

• Using this style, he aimed to make his videos more dynamic and to not always be static. In addition to this he uses cinematic qualities in order to create a narrative in the videos he directs and to contain the humour and innovation in his videos.