Directors Essay

A signature style used by Williams throughout the vast majority of his videos was the Fisheye lens which distorted the camera view around the central focus. 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. Since 2003, Williams 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.

 n Gold Digger by Kanye west, Kanye Is the antagonist to relaying the story of ‘somebody payin’ child support for one of his kids. The gradual generalization of the experience of dating a gold digger is thus enacted over the course of the song, from the speaker’s story to a third party to the audience collectively. Kanye takes a break at the end of each chorus to address the girl: “get down girl go head get down (I gotta leave)” At the beginning of the third verse, West proceeds to advise women to see that their boyfriend is going to “make it to a Benz out of that Datsun, he got that ambition, baby, look in his eyes This week he’s mopping floors, next week it’s the fries, So, stick by his side, I know his dude’s ballin’ but yeah, that’s nice And they keep callin’ and tryin’, But you stay right, girl But when you get on he leave your ass for a white girl.”

 The implication of this directive to women not to assess their partners’ potential to provide for them – the social capital that men are taught is valuable in making them attractive to partners- is coupled with a cruel reminder of the white standard of beauty which dictates the social capital possessed by each woman. This final surprise ‘turn’ effectively rejects all black women so that even those women who might previously have been able to join in the speaker’s condemnation of women who abuse their partners for money are excluded. The lack of hip-hop directed at women is interesting, considering the amount of women who listen to it.

 Throughout the video, the artists are being represented as rich in the way they express in their lyrics that women are out to get their money. The video does not relate to previous videos and does not carry on any previous motifs. Although, most of Hype William’s music videos are Big Budget ‘black’ music videos, where the artists and actors are mainly of black origin. The video consists mostly of close ups of the two artists to show that they are important in the music video. The video is constantly changing from close-ups of the artists to full body shots of the half-naked women being represented in the video.

Women are on sexual display throughout the whole of this music video. Firstly, the costumes they are wearing show a lot of their body as they are dressed in mostly bikinis and underwear. The male gaze is also used throughout the video as a representation of how men see women. Through this gaze, women are represented as sexual objects which is demonstrated through the costumes as well the sexual innuendo of a pearl necklace. As part of the male gaze, there are various close-ups of women’s breasts and buttocks, to enhance their sexual fantasy. The women in the video are all set out on the front of magazine covers which represents them as being objects to look at for men. But also, from a woman’s point of view, that every woman should look like the women on magazine covers, stereotypically having enlarged breasts, thin, toned waists and long, slender legs. Also, the names of the magazines shown such as ‘Fantasy’, ‘fresh hot’ and hot fun’ represents a males imagination to run wild.  The cost of each magazine shown is 50 cents, which represents that it does not cost Kanye a lot to look and idolise the women on the magazine covers. It’s almost as if, if he did not have the fantasy and had the real thing, it would cost him a lot more. Finally, the constant flash from male to women represents what the artists are imagining in their heads. They are imagining how women on covers should look and to look like that, it must cost money, therefore, her being, in their eyes, a gold digger.  The fantasy is cheaper than the real thing.

 The music video is based on the original song, blues of Ray Charles’ “I Got A Woman” in the way that they sing the lyrics. Although the lyrics have changed, the overall style remains the same. The only way this video relates to Hype William’s other videos is the fact that the majority of artists are black artists and the majority represent women in a sexual way. For example, Jay-Z- Big Pimpin’ where he is on a boat full of half-naked women. He is also living in a fantasy.

 Gold Digger is mostly performance-based, with a slight narrative. No conceptual elements are used throughout the video. As a director, Hype Williams has portrayed the lyrics of the song into a visual representation of how women will use their bodies to attract rich men.