Auteur Theory

Francois Trauffaut

Auteur theory has influenced film criticism since 1954, when it was advocated by film directior and critic Francois Truffaut. The auteur theory is the theory that a director's film reflects the director's personal creative vision. In media, we have analyzed the signature styles of music video director's, Chris Cunningham and Hype Williams.


Other examples of the Auteur theory can be applied to film director, Alfred Hitchcock. The characteristics and recurring patterns of his films are:

• The femme fetale platinum blonde.
• The presence of a domineering mother in her child's life (this is seen in the film Psycho)
• An innocent man accused 
• Restricting the action to a single setting to increase tension
• Characters who switch sides or cannot be trusted
• Tension building through suspense to the point where the audience enjoys seeing the character in a life-threatening situation (eg; Vertigo)
• Mistaken identity

Alfred Hithcock

How can the Auteur Theory be applied to music videos?

Music video directors tend to have recurring themes in their products which creates a brand and a trademark.  Some auteur's have a signature style which they like to incorporate into their videos. There are plenty of things to look our for when searching for a directors style:

• Camera Angles/Shots
• Colours
• Mood/Atmosphere given off
• Genre of the songs the directors often gear towards to
• Mise-en-scene
• Editing

In class we have been looking at the signature styles of Chris Cunningham and Hype Williams. Both video directors show us the importance of signature style, and how it makes the audience recognise  who directed the video. I have chosen to analyse the signature style of Hype Williams, because I think that his video style slightly corresponds with the style I want my own video to emulate.

HYPE WILLIAMS 

Hype Williams is an American music video and film director born in Queens, New York. His body of work has many recurring themes that act as a trademark for his videos:

COLOUR: In his videos, Williams makes it clear that colour is a vital element in his videos. For example; Beyonce - Check On It

In this video, the recurring colour throughout is pink (light pinks and deeper pinks). All of her costume changes follow the colour scheme, which not only gives the video as a whole a feminine feel, but shows us that this is a creation of Hype Williams, as he has talked about his love for vibrant colours in his videos.

BORDERS: As we can see in these screen shots, a border in the form of a pink silk material is used. Borders are also a theme we see in Williams' videos.

Will Smith - Getting Jiggy With It

In these screenshots we can see that there are numerous contrasting colours which can be intriguing to the eye. It makes the video much more interesting, fun and enjoyable. Costumes are also very flamboyant which corresponds with the upbeat and vibrant atmosphere the song provides.

CAMERA TECHNIQUE: A camera method Williams often uses in his videos consist of the using a 'fisheye lens'. This is used to make everything appear larger and more 'in your face' in contrast to what it would look like without any camera technique. He does this plenty of times in the 'Getting Jiggy With It' video, mostly focusing on women's bums as they move their hips towards the camera, thus in order to make them appear larger (an example of Voyeurism)