As director of more than 150 music videos since the early 1990s, Queens native and hip-hop specialist Hype Williams is known for his bold visuals, having popularized the use of extreme-wide-angle lenses, including so-called fisheyes, in music videos.  His videos are also known for their big-budget-feature-style special effects (e.g., Busta Rhymes’ Fire, R. Kelly’s Bad Man) and bold, dramatic lighting.

   In the Macy Gray performance clip Why Didn’t You Call Me, the artist and other performers are lit with a hard-edged source that plays across their faces in time to the music.  This approach places them in inky, deep shadows one moment, and in spot-on key light the next, with the nearly impenetrable shadows seeming to predominate.  Williams credits cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth with suggesting the idea, but he adds that as a director, he is “heavy into the camera and 100-percent involved with the lighting.”

   Indeed, he attributes the evolution of his visual style to his professional and personal relationships with cinematographers such as Cronenweth, Malik Hassan Sayeed and Jon Perez.  “Those brilliant, talented people have taught me so much about the camera and lighting,” Williams notes.  “They came up [through the ranks] with me from when I was a gofer, and we’re good friends.  So much of what I do comes from Jeff, Malik and Jon; they taught me, with their own eyes, how to see.”

   Williams progressed from gofer to art-department production assistant and then to art director, eventually working his way up to directing.  He says his eclectic training explains why he tends to get involved in every aspect of filmmaking.  “I’m involved with the art direction, hair, makeup, and especially the lighting.”  He now runs New York-based Instinct Productions, which produces commercials and music videos.

   Sayeed, who shot Clockers and He Got Game for Spike Lee and served as second-unit cinematographer for Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, collaborates with Williams frequently.  “Hype has one of the strongest understandings of lenses and lighting of any director I’ve ever worked with,” he attests.  “A good part of his interest in filmmaking is from the photographic end.  He selects the lenses and knows exactly what he wants.  When he was an art director, he asked cinematographers a lot of questions.  We formed a bond back then and began feeding each other books, magazines and movies.”

   In fact, Williams functioned as his own cinematographer/operator in the early days of his music-video work.  “Working with a cinematographer is like having two directors, like having a second brain,” Williams says.  “When you are your own cinematographer, you lose that, as well as your sense of the big picture.”

   Sayeed observes, “Hype is not like a Kubrick or a Polanski.  He is sometimes very specific about the style of lighting he envisions for a video; at other times, I’ll rough in something on set and he’ll simply approve it or suggest adjustments.  Hype can see the lighting and understand what we’re doing on set, and a lot of people can’t do that.  And he didn’t go to film school – he learned how to understand light on his own.”

   Williams is a big fan of comic books.  Sayeed adds, suggesting that comics have had a great influence on the filmmaker’s visual style.  “He loves the graphic nature of wide-angle lenses [and the way they produce] images filled with strong contrast.  As a former art director, he tends to set up our primary contrast through use of color [in sets and wardrobe].  We look at those elements and say, ’We have this, so we’ll light and shoot in this way.’  Of course, in music videos, the look is also strongly influenced by the style and feel of the music!”

   Williams’ most recent work including music videos and high-profile commercials, has been shot with Panavision gear.  “I’m very big on the Panavision products, especially the Primo and Frazier lenses,” Williams notes.  Although he has used a variety of camera and lens brands throughout his career, he has come to feel that the people at Panavision are “truly craftsmen.”  The majority of his work has been shot in widescreen and presented with letterboxing, so he does not need to frame for both a square and a rectangle.

   Williams says his reliance on wide lenses came about early and was a result of his own desire to see the then-nascent world of hip hop visually magnified to reflect the way he felt about music.  “I always saw superstardom in my friends,” he told GQ magazine recently. “They had to be the same size in their music and performance ability as Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Idol, and all of those music-video icons.”

   However, switching to the anamorphic format has necessitated the use of slightly longer lenses than the 8mm and 10mm ultra-wides he favored in the early days.  “I use the Panavision 24mm, 30mm and 35mm lenses the most often, with the 24mm predominating.  Panavision tells me they have only two 24mm anamorphics, and I’ve often had them both out at once!”  He calls the Panavision Superspeed 24mm lenses his “one-two punches.”

   This spring, Williams began shooting with the Sony 24p high-definition (HD) video cameras fitted with Panavision lenses, and he says he has become a convert.  “I’m all into HD!  We’ve shot film for so many years, so the process is known.  HD is new and the sensitivity is different, so you feel different using it.  I’m not used to it yet, but I’m hoping it will show me a new way.”  His hi-def music videos have included clips for Babyface and Roni Size.