Malik Hassan Sayeed

Malik Hassan Sayeed is an American cinematographer and video producer. Shooting for Spike Lee, Stanley Kubrick and Andrew Niccol, the young cinematographer garnered accolades and award nominations alike, including the highly regarded Best Cinematography nomination from the IFP.^[1]

Sayeed has directed videos for Lauryn Hill, Jay-Z, Prince, D'Angelo, and Youssou N’Dour with Wyclef Jean. “Ex-Factor”, for Lauryn Hill, was nominated for 3 MVPA Awards and won 2 Billboard Music Video Awards. Recognizing Sayeed’s originality, Hill commissioned him again on three more music videos, in addition to a documentary.

In the fall of 2001, superstar artists Gwen Stefani, Bono, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, Alicia Keys, Fred Durst, The Backstreet Boys, Ja Rule, Nelly, Britney Spears, Nelly Furtado, P. Diddy and others gathered in New York City to record a new version of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”. Sayeed and co-director Jake Scott not only crafted a call to the world for AIDS awareness, but also brought home the Best R&B video from the 2002 MVPA Awards for their efforts.

Awards

Sayeed’s accomplishments in the commercial field include:

• 1999 - nominated Independent Spirit Award: Best Cinematography for: Belly (1998)^[2]
• Best Director at the New York Film Festival, for his work on Polaroid with Goodby Silverstein & Partners.
• Commercial Film Producers of Europe list for the Young Directors Award, in Cannes, for his campaigns for Canon, (featuring Ryuichi Sakamoto), and Wild Turkey.
• In March 2002, he was awarded Best Spot for Cinema and Best Music for Fuji’s “Urban Lot“ at the Marketing Awards in Canada. “Urban Lot” was also a finalist at the Bessie Awards, in Canada, and won a Craft Award for Best Cinematography.
• MTV VMA’s Best Hip Hop Video of 2006 for “My Humps” music video for The Black Eyed Peas.

Commercials

Some of Sayeed’s commercial roster includes: Miller Light, Nike, Adidas, Canon, Dasani, Big Red, Nintendo, Tommy Hilfiger, Fuji Film, Sony, Pringles, Polaroid, Wild Turkey, Nikon, Nike and most recently Hewlett Packard, Samsung, EA Games, Hugo Boss, Reebok and GMC. He’s worked with agencies such as Wieden & Kennedy, Goodby Silverstein and Partners, Saatchi & Saatchi, Berlin Cameron & Partners, BBDO, Deutsch Advertising, TBWA/Chiat Day and others.

Feature films

Sayeed was a second unit director of photography on Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut and Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca and himself was the director of photography for Hype Williams’ Belly (for which he was nominated for the aforementioned IFP award) and Spike Lee’s The Original Kings of Comedy, Girl 6, He Got Game and Clockers.^[1]

References