Shoot (October 8, 1999) p.S71 & S74 HYPE WILLIAMS Director moves from music videos to spots. by Catherine Lowe Picture vast casinos. Rows of gorgeous, Amazonian women, glittering like the ice on Puff Daddy's wrist. Picture a liquid/metallic marching band emerging from towering speakers to back ringleader Busta Rhymes while Rhymes mutates into a cobra, then into raindrops falling onto the lapels of Janet Jackson's purple leather overcoat. This is Hype Williams' world, and MTV's target audience loves it. Over the past 10 years, Williams, through his own production company, Big Dog Films (formed in '94), has parlayed his videomaking into both art form and big business, and has become a celebrity in his own right. In January, Williams' company merged with HSI Productions to form bicoastal HSI/Big Dog, which gave birth to the spot "Khakis Soul," directed for The Gap via Gap Direct, San Francisco. "I can honestly say that I feel like an expert at marrying music to pictures," Williams says, and "Khakis Soul" may well prove his point. A multicultural blend of bodies busting moves against a bleach-white backdrop to Bill Withers' "Lovely Day," The Gap ad suggests that confidence, attitude and a good beat have the power to transform ordinary folk into superstars - and a pair of khakis wouldn't hurt, either. "Khakis Soul" was Williams' first stab at making a commercial. "I didn't know if I could ... just sell a pair of pants. But then I started looking at the work coming out of Europe and Japan, and thought maybe there was something in it for me." During the Gap shoot, Williams remembers that "there was a lot of energy and making sure [that] things were done right. Dealing with someone else's product can be very touchy. I didn't realize how different the process of making commercials was until I did it." Support from HSI president Stavros Merjos and executive producer Kerstin Emhoff, as well as from freelance art director Regan Jackson (whom Williams credits as being "responsible for what people think I am") made "Khakis Soul" a happy introduction to the spot world. Since directing that first ad, Williams believes that "making a commercial could be just as fulfilling as making videos." At age 30 and with 10 years of video work on his resume, Williams jokes that he feels "like an old-timer over there at MTV." He has been the recipient of several awards, including a directorial honor at the 1997 NAACP Image Awards as well as two best director awards from Billboard ('96 and '98), and a 1997 MTV breakthrough video award for "I'll Be Missing You," by Puff Daddy and The Family, featuring Faith Evans and 112. He's also been honored by Source magazine (best video and best movie of '99, for Busta Rhymes' "What's It Gonna Be?" and Belly, respectively) and Vibe (a '99 Black music achievement award). At the recent MTV Video Music Awards, a Williams-directed video (TLC's "No Scrubs") picked up the moon man trophy for best group video. ARTISTIC LICENSE Williams sees each music video assignment as an opportunity to express the artist's vision, which may not necessarily be his own. "My personal opinion doesn't matter. I want every [video to be] the visual equivalent to what that song means to the artist," he says. "I make sure that each video is tailor-made and brings out the individual." Another priority, he says, is to energize and connect with an audience that may be getting glassy-eyed from watching MTV and other music video channels 24 hours a day. "Videos are visual radio, only worse," he says, "because there's so much more information to take in, like 'Oh, look at those pants!"Oh, look how pretty that looks!' Or, 'Oh, that sucks!' It's actually kind of psychedelic." Williams, born and raised in Queens, N.Y., is the youngest of five children. As a kid, he was given the nickname "Hype" because, he says, "I was a hyperactive child." It's a nickname he hasn't outgrown: His alert face and posture, along with his always-bouncing knees, suggest he's about to jump up, run out and make a video. Or a commercial. NEW STYLE Changes are underway for Williams. The arrival of his daughter, Azza, now eight months old, has informed both his professional decisions and his creativity. "Do you have any kids?" he asks. "Well, let me be the first to tell you: You don't know real happiness until you've had a child. I am babied out and I've never been so happy. My work always meant so much to me; it was hard to care about anything else - until we [Williams and fiancee Kiki Turner] became a family. You watch yourself grow up all over again." It's also possible to spot some pre-millennial tension in Williams' eyes, as evidenced by his recent work. "She's a Bitch," his latest video for Missy Elliot, has a Mad Max feel, with the singer sporting a spiked mohawk and leading home-on-the-range-girls through a dance atop a black sea. In "Oh No" for Noreaga, Williams' usually saturated palette is darker, hazier and more suggestive. "[1999] is a weird year," he says. "Everybody's talking about the year two thousand and what to expect, every day. It's kind of obnoxious. In a few months, you'll be writing, like, 'January second, two-zero-zero-zero' and you'll look at it like, 'What?' I always had trouble going from ninety- eight to ninety nine, or ninety-seven to ninety-eight," he laughs. Williams is braving the countdown in style. Unable to discuss future spot possibilities, he does disclose that "I would be the guy to change the way [agencies] look at selling things, if that's what they're looking for. They may not be looking for that; I'm going to find out." As much as he's looking forward to diversifying his work by venturing further into spotmaking, some things he already knows. "You want to make a hot and sexy Coke commercial? You give me a call. I can make you a hot Coke commercial. Same thing with Volkswagen." Whatever happens, look for the commercial revolution to be Hyped.