Hype Williams

Hype Williams
Born	Harold Williams 1970 (age 41–42) Queens, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Film, music video director, screenwriter
Years active	1991–present

Harold "Hype" Williams (born 1970; Queens, New York), previously known as HYPE, is an American music video and film director of African American and Honduran descent.

Williams first displayed his work by tagging local billboards, storefronts, and playgrounds using HYPE as his graffiti tag. "That's probably what stimulated my interests in color," he says. "I wanted to be Basquiat or Keith Haring of the streets."

Early years

Williams' nickname "Hype" comes from his hyperactive nature as a child. He graduated from Andrew Jackson High School of Art and Music in 1987. He later attended Adelphi University. Williams' big break came when he began working with Classic Concepts Video Productions. Lionel "Vid Kid" Martin & VJ Ralph McDaniels created Williams' first opportunity with the "Filmmakers With Attitude" moniker (FWA), which was Williams' first video company.

Career

Williams has created a number of music videos for artists such as 2Pac ("California Love"), The Notorious B.I.G. ("Warning") & ("One More Chance"), Craig Mack ("Flava in Ya Ear" (Remix)), LL Cool J ("Doin It"), Nas ("If I Ruled The World (Imagine That)", "Street Dreams", "Hate Me Now"), Missy Elliott ("The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly))", "She's a Bitch"), Busta Rhymes ("Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See"), TLC ("No Scrubs"), Kelis ("Caught Out There"), Jay-Z ("Big Pimpin'"), Kanye West ("Gold Digger", "All of the Lights", "Diamonds are forever"), Aaliyah ("Rock the Boat"), Christina Aguilera ("Not Myself Tonight"), Coldplay ("Viva La Vida"), Hoobastank ("If I Were You"), Left Eye (The Block Party), t.A.T.u. ("Gomenasai") and Nicki Minaj ("Stupid Hoe").

In 1998, he directed his first feature film, Belly, released by Artisan Entertainment. In 1999, Williams signed a two year overall deal with New Line Cinema to produce and direct feature films. His first picture Mothership died in development. Later that year Willimas was in serious negotiations with MTV to develop an animated series which was described as a behind-the-scenes look at the world of music and celebrities.

In 2000, Williams was hired to direct the Warner Bros. film Speed Racer. He left the project the following year, with the film being released in 2008 under the direction of the Wachowski brothers.

In 2003, Disney purchased a zombie horror film Thrilla which was written by Williams. The project floundered in development with Gavin Palone attached to produce.

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 Wit 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 honored by MTV with its Video Vanguard Award, presented in honor of his achievements as a filmmaker.

In the December 2007 issue of Playboy magazine, Williams shot the photographs for cover subject Kim Kardashian.

In 2010, Williams was the writer for Kanye West's film Runaway. He later directed the music video for West's single "All of the Lights", which premiered on February 19, 2011.

He is being nominated for Video Director of the Year at the BET Awards of 2011.

Styles

A signature style used by Williams throughout the vast majority of his videos (shot mostly with cinematographer John Perez) was the Fisheye lens which distorted the camera view around the central focus. This was used by the tandem Williams/Perez in "Gimme Some More" by Busta Rhymes and "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" by Missy Elliott; however, it was dropped by 2003, when he experienced his lowest level of production activity since the beginning of his career as a music video director.

Another "signature style" involves placing shots in regular widescreen ratio, while a second shot is split and placed in the upper and lower bars. Videos that use this style include "Diamonds on my Neck" by Smitty, "I Ain't Heard of That" by Slim Thug, "So Sick" by Ne-Yo, "In My Hood" by Young Jeezy, "Gomenasai" by t.A.T.u.,"Check On It" by Beyoncé, "Freeze" by LL Cool J, "Snap Yo Fingers" by Lil Jon and many others. In addition to this, he frequently utilizes aerial and tracking shots which often move backwards or forwards, some techniques which can often be seen in "Rock the Boat" by Aaliyah, "She's a Bitch" by Missy Elliott, "Not Myself Tonight" by Christina Aguilera and "Only U" by Ashanti. It is a method often used by Hype which allows his videos to be dynamic, multi-dimensional and atmospheric as opposed to having static camera angles.

Since 2003, Williams has adopted a signature style combining a center camera focus on the artist or actor's body from the torso upward and a solid color background with a soft different-color light being shown in the center of the background, so as to give a sense of illumination of the background by the foreground subject. This has been displayed in "Gold Digger" by Kanye West, "Digital Girl" (Remix) by Jamie Foxx and Beyoncé's "Video Phone".

Films

• Belly (1998)
• Lust (2012)

Videography

Main article: Hype Williams videography

External links

• Hype Williams at the Internet Movie Database
• Hype Williams at MVDBase.com
• Hype Williams on Twitter