Auteur Theory

Auteur Theory

Auteur theory arrived in the 1950s by French film critics. It is the theory of filmmaking where the director is labelled as the creator in a motion picture. The auteur theory is described as the director who oversees all audio and visual aspects of the motion picture is considered as the ‘author’ of the film rather than the writer.

Alfred Hitchcock became known for his significant style of films. He addressed certain elements that he focussed on in his films such as:

Shot size

Framing

Composition

Camera Angles

Camera movement

Focus

His films noticed him as he was given the name ‘the master of suspense’ and often played with the audience’s feelings. He also has many cameo appearances in his films.

Hype Williams

Hype Williams is known as an American music video and film director. He first displayed his work by tagging local billboards, storefronts and playgrounds using HYPE as his graffiti tag.

Williams has created and produced a number of music videos for a number of artists such as:

California Love – 2Pac

The Rain, Supa Dupa Fly – Missy Elliot

Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See – Busta Rhymes

Big Pimpin – Jay-Z

Gold Digger, Heartless, All Of The Lights – Kanye West

Not Myself Tonight - Christina Aguilera

Viva La Vida – Coldplay

So Sick – Ne-Yo

…And many more.

Hype Williams has a signature styles used throughout many of his music videos that he has produced. 

Another ‘signature style’ involves placing shots in regular widescreen ratio while a second shot is split and placed in the upper and lower bars. Also known as banners. Videos that William has incorperated this style are:

Diamonds on My Neck – Smitty
So Sick – Ne-Yo
My Hood – Young Jeezy
Check on It – Beyonce
…And many others.





Furthur more, he often uses aerial and tracking shots which move backwards or forwards. He also involves quick flash cuts that often match the beat of a specific point in the song, these techniques can be seen numerous times in videos such as: 
Stupid Hoe - Nicki Minaj
Not Myself Tonight – Christina Aguilera
Only U – Ashanti

It is a method that is often used by Hype which allows his videos to be a mixture between dynamic, multi-dimensional and atmospheric as opposed to having static, mundane camera angles.




From 2003, Williams has adapted to a signature style where a shot from just the artist's torso and upwards is showing and a solid colour background with a different, soft, colour light being projected in the center of the background. This gives a sense of illumination of the background by the dominance of the artist. This has been displayed in videos such as:
Gold Digger – Kanye West
Digital Grl Remix – Jamie Foxx
Video Phone – Beyone