The Auteur Theory

1. What is the Auteur Theory?

The auteur theory, which is French for author, holds that a director's film follows the director's personal creative vision and that they will have a signature style.


2. How can Hitchcock be regarded as an auteur? (What was his style?)

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was an English film director and producer. He was born on the 13th August 1899 and he died on the 29th April 1980 of kidney failure.

Hitchcock pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. You can tell a Hitchcock film in a variety of ways. For example he made cameo appearances in all of his films. He liked to use Grace Kelly, he was considered the master of suspense, as he elongated suspense as much as possible, to play with the audience's nerves. Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of violence, murder and crime. This basically means that anyone could tell that a film was an Alfred Hitchcock film.

3. Who is Hype Williams and what videos has he directed? (Give 3 videos with YouTube clips)

Harold "Hype" Williams, previously known as "HYPE," is an American music video and film director.  He was born in Queens, New York and is of African and Honduran descent. Williams first displayed his work by tagging local billboards, storefronts and playgrounds using "HYPE" as his graffiti tag. Williams' big break came when he began working with Classic Concepts Video Productions. Lionel "Vid Kid" Martin and VJ Ralph McDaniels created Williams' first opportunity with the "Filmmakers With Attitude," which was Williams' first video company.

Hype Williams has directed many music videos by artists such as Beyonce, Ne-Yo, Busta Rhymes, Kanye West and many more. Here are three examples of music videos Williams has directed:


Check On It by Beyonce Ft. Slim Thugh:

All Of The Lights by Kanye West Ft. Rihanna and Kid Cudi:

Empire State Of Mind By Jay Z Ft. Alicia Keys:

3. If Hype Williams can be consider an auteur, what is his signature style?

A signature style used by Hype Williams throughout the vast majority of his videos was the Fisheye lens which distorted the camera view around the central focus, giving it a sort of circular look. This was used 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. These are two examples of "The Fisheye Lens" that Williams used in two of the music videos that he directed.

Another signature style used by Williams 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, "Check On It" by Beyonce and many other music videos. These are two examples of this type of shot that Hype Williams has used in two of the music videos that he has directed.

Additionally another signature he frequently utilises aerial and tracking shots which often move backwards and forwards, some techniques which can often be seen in "Rock The Boat" by Aaliyah, "Not Myself Tonight" by Christina Aguilera and "Only U" by Ashanti. This method  is often used by Hype which allows his videos to be dynamic, multi-dimensional and atmospheric.

Since 2003, he has adopted a signature style combining a centre camera focus on the artist or actor's body from the torso upward and a solid colour background with a soft different colour light being shown in the centre 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 Ft. Jamie Foxx and "Video Phone" by Beyonce Ft. Lady GaGa.