Every Frame a Painting

Every Frame a Painting is a series of 28 video essays about film form, film editing, and cinematography created by Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou between 2014 and 2016. They were first published on YouTube but have also been released on Vimeo.

Every Frame a Painting's YouTube icon, based on Eadweard Muybridge's Animal Locomotion photograph series

Format

Each essay explores one particular topic, often a single creator, with many organized around a scene that illustrates the idea. For each essay, Zhou would do principal writing and research, Ramos would organize the thesis and make animations, and they both worked on the final editing process.[1] The editing style, use of film clips, and remixing of audio were developed in response to YouTube's Content ID system, with the goal of meeting the criteria for fair use and to avoid being flagged by the copyright violation algorithm.[1][2]

Zhou lamented that the format imposed by Content ID prevented them from making videos about creators like Andrei Tarkovsky and Agnès Varda, as they would require longer clips.[1][3]

History

The first video was published on April 16, 2014, about Bong Joon-ho's Mother and the use of side-on profile shots.[4] The final essay was published on September 12, 2016, about the use of orchestral sound in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.[5] In total, the creators made 28 essays between 2014 and 2016.[6][7] They published the script of the final, unproduced essay on Medium on December 2, 2017, as both a farewell and explanation for the series' end, as well as a postmortem with advice for future essayists.[1]

Post-Every Frame a Painting

Since then, Ramos and Zhou have produced video essays released as special features for The Criterion Collection and the now-defunct FilmStruck (which would be restored via Criterion's own streaming service, The Criterion Channel).[1][8] They have also recently contributed and directed video essays in Netflix's documentary series Voir, alongside the critics Sasha Stone, Walter Chaw, and Drew McWeeny. David Fincher and David Prior executive produced the series.[9][10]

Reception and legacy

Kevin B. Lee, a film critic and video essayist, called the series "the standout newcomer to the video essay scene" in 2014.[11] Many critics point to the essay on Jackie Chan and action comedy film as among the best.[12][13][14]

Brian Raftery of Wired would later credit Every Frame a Painting for kicking off "a dramatic growth spurt" in YouTube-based movie criticism, stating that the channel's "astute, patient, visually assured film essays...help[ed] push the medium past its ranting-rando-with-a-camera phase".[15]

Directors such as Edgar Wright, Seth Rogen, Christopher McQuarrie have given praise to Every Frame a Painting's essays.[16][17][18]

Mark Mothersbaugh has said that Every Frame a Painting's video essay on "unmemorable" Marvel Cinematic Universe film scores directly influenced how he composed the film score for Thor: Ragnarok to be different from previous Marvel films.[19][20]

See also

References
  1. Zhou, Tony (December 3, 2017). "Postmortem: Every Frame a Painting". Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  2. Liptak, Andrew (December 3, 2017). "Video series Every Frame a Painting has come to an end". The Verge. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  3. Alexander, Julia (December 4, 2017). "Every Frame a Painting, one of YouTube's best channels, says goodbye". Polygon. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  4. Every Frame a Painting (April 16, 2014). "Mother (2009) - The Telephoto Profile Shot". Retrieved June 3, 2019 – via YouTube.
  5. Every Frame a Painting (September 12, 2016). "The Marvel Symphonic Universe". Retrieved June 3, 2019 – via YouTube.
  6. Marshall, Colin (December 5, 2017). "A Salute to Every Frame a Painting: Watch All 28 Episodes of the Finely-Crafted (and Now Concluded) Video Essay Series on Cinema". Open Culture. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  7. Fusco, Jon (December 4, 2017). "RIP 'Every Frame a Painting': Farewell Advice from Video Essayists Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos". No Film School. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  8. Hudson, David (December 5, 2017). "Goodbye, EFaP; Hello, Zhou and Ramos". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  9. TV review: Voir is Netflix and David Fincher's ode to cinema|AV Club
  10. Netflix Documentary Series "VOIR" Celebrates Cinema With Visual Essays on Films Including 'Jaws' (Trailer) - Bloody Disgusting
  11. O'Connell, Max (December 30, 2014). "Kevin B. Lee Picks the Year's Best Video Essays". Indiewire. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  12. Parker, Jason (February 23, 2017). "This YouTube channel makes your favorite movies better". CNET. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  13. Marshall, Colin (December 23, 2014). "Every Frame a Painting Explains the Filmmaking Techniques of Martin Scorsese, Jackie Chan, and Even Michael Bay". Open Culture. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  14. Johnston, Rae (December 4, 2017). "A Tribute To 'Every Frame A Painting'". Gizmodo Australia. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  15. Raftery, Brian (March 8, 2019). "How YouTube Made a Star Out of This Super-Smart Film Critic". Wired. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
  16. "Christopher McQuarrie: The Audience Is Always Right (and Other Lessons in Moviemaking)". A.Frame. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. July 29, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2022.
  17. Wright, Edgar [@edgarwright] (December 3, 2017). "This series was / is great" (Tweet). Archived from the original on May 24, 2021. Retrieved September 1, 2022 – via Twitter.
  18. Rogen, Seth [@sethrogen] (January 27, 2020). "I've seen it thanks to being obsessed with "Every Frame a Painting."" (Tweet). Archived from the original on January 29, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2022 – via Twitter.
  19. Couch, Aaron (November 3, 2017). "'Thor' Composer Knew Marvel Scores Sounded Similar, So He Decided to Change That". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
  20. "Marvel Movie Scores Video Essay Influenced Thor: Ragnarok Music". Collider. December 12, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
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