Auteur is the French word for author, which suggests that a director’s film/advert/music video etc. is a reflection of his or her style. French directors first introduced the Auteur theory in the 1950’s. A key person was Francois Truffaut who pushed a focus on to the contribution that directors have on the style and form of a piece of work. He quoted “A true film auteur is someone who brings something genuinely personal to his subject instead of producing a tasteful, accurate but lifeless rendering of the original material” An auteur is a director whose signature style and distinct qualities are represented through their creative media pieces.
Alfred Hitchcock, born 13th August 1899, is very much regarded as an auteur theorist. His most famous films are Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds and Rear Window. Hitchcock’s technique was known widely for its intelligent plots, funny dialogue and the mysterious murders that occurred. One of his most renowned pieces of work was the shower scene in Psycho, this featured 70 distinct shots in less than one minute. His genre was very much based on Thriller and used the power of suspense to capture the audience, he would allow the audience to know more about what is happening than the characters do themselves which leaves the audience trying to figure out what will happen when the audience learn as much as we know. Hitchcock also featured in his films quite a lot although most of these were mostly minor roles.
Harold
Williams, better known as Hype Williams is an American music video and film
director. Williams has created and directed many music videos for various
artists including 2Pac, Jayz, Kanye West, Ne-yo, Nicki Minaj, Missy Elliot,
Busta Rhymes etc.
Up until
2003 his signature style was the fisheye lens which distorts the camera view
around the central focus. Another particular signature style of his was putting
shots in regular widescreen ratio with another shot split and placed above and
below, this style shows up in music videos such as My Hood by Young Jeezy
and Beyoncé’s Check On It.
Since 2003
Hype Williams has adopted a new signature style including a centre camera focus
on the artist or actor’s body from the torso up combined with a solid colour
background with a soft different coloured lighting being shown in the centre of
the background. This can be seen in music videos such as Gold Digger by Kanye
West and Digital Girl by Jamie Foxx.
Some example's of William's work inluce:
Busta Rhymes : Gimme Some More
Busta Rhymes music video 'Gimme Some More' portrays Williams use of the fisheye lens perfectly and shows us the creativeness he was able to bring to life through this in the video.
Ne-yo : So Sick
This is a perfect example of Hype Williams second signature style of the splitscreen above and below the widescreen shot.
Beyoncé : Video Phone
This music video for Beyoncé's 'Video Phone' shows Hype Williams newest signature style through softer lighting in the centre of the background compared to the darker colour around the edge. For example At 2 minutes 8 seconds we can see a a very dark, dim red background with a bright circle of red in the middle behind her.
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