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Every Frame a Painting

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

Every Frame a Painting is a series of video essays about film form, editing, and cinematography created by Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou between 2014 and 2016, published on YouTube and Vimeo. The series is considered a pioneer of film criticism on YouTube, and has been praised by several filmmakers. The series was revived in a limited series in 2024, alongside a short film by Ramos and Zhou.

History

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Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou created Every Frame a Painting after facing difficulties in their professional careers of "communicating visual ideas to non-visual people"; Ramos is an animator and Zhou a film editor.[1] Around March 2013, Zhou often found himself identifying film techniques, which he believed would make for effective video essays. About a year later, after Zhou complained about his work, Ramos told him to pour his creative energy into a new video series, which prompted him to start writing.[1][2] For each essay, Zhou wrote and researched, Ramos organized the thesis and made animations, and they both worked on the final editing process.[2] Zhou narrated each video, opening with his signature line, "Hi, my name is Tony and this is Every Frame a Painting ".[1]

The first video was published on April 16, 2014, about Bong Joon-ho's Mother and the use of side-on profile shots.[3] Ramos and Zhou forwent traditional commercial sponsorships and funded the series with viewer support on Patreon.[1] The final essay of the original run was published on September 12, 2016, about the use of orchestral sound in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.[4] Ramos and Zhou 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.[2] They felt the channel's increased audience and YouTube's copyright policies limited their creative freedom.[1] Following this, Ramos and Zhou produced video essays released as special features for the Criterion Collection and FilmStruck.[2][5] They also wrote the introduction to the artbook The Wes Anderson Collection: Isle of Dogs (2018),[6] and wrote, produced, directed, and narrated several episodes of Netflix's video essay series Voir (2021).[7][8]

Ramos and Zhou's short film—The Second, starring Paul Sun-Hyung Lee—premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival on July 20, 2024.[9] A limited series of new video essays is set to release on Every Frame a Painting in preparation for the film's release; the first was released on August 26.[10][11]

Format

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Each Every Frame a Painting essay explores one particular topic, often a single creator, with many organized around a scene that illustrates the idea.[2] 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.[2][12] Zhou lamented that the format imposed by Content ID prevented them from making videos about filmmakers such as Andrei Tarkovsky and Agnès Varda, as they would require longer clips.[2][13] He experimented with private uploads to test YouTube's Content ID system.[1]

Videos

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No. in
series		TitleSubject(s)Release dateViews (millions)[a]
1"Mother (2009) - The Telephoto Profile Shot"[3]MotherApril 15, 2014 (2014-04-15)0.86
2"The Imposter (2012) - Looking into the Lens"[15]The ImposterApril 25, 2014 (2014-04-25)0.73
3"The Spielberg Oner"[16]Steven SpielbergMay 6, 2014 (2014-05-06)2.75
4"Wolf Children (2012) - The Lateral Tracking Shot"[17]Wolf ChildrenMay 16, 2014 (2014-05-16)0.87
5"Edgar Wright - How to Do Visual Comedy"[18]Edgar WrightMay 26, 2014 (2014-05-26)11.02
6"Martin Scorsese - The Art of Silence"[19]Martin ScorseseJune 14, 2014 (2014-06-14)3.07
7"Michael Bay - What is Bayhem?"[20]Michael BayJuly 2, 2014 (2014-07-02)3.21
8"Satoshi Kon - Editing Space & Time"[21]Satoshi KonJuly 24, 2014 (2014-07-24)3.79
9"A Brief Look at Texting and the Internet in Film"[22]—August 15, 2014 (2014-08-15)1.75
10"Robin Williams - In Motion"[23]Robin WilliamsSeptember 9, 2014 (2014-09-09)1.65
11"David Fincher - And the Other Way is Wrong"[24]David FincherOctober 1, 2014 (2014-10-01)4.39
12"The Silence of the Lambs - Who Wins the Scene?"[25]The Silence of the LambsOctober 14, 2014 (2014-10-14)1.74
13"Snowpiercer - Left or Right"[26]SnowpiercerOctober 28, 2014 (2014-10-28)1.80
14"Jackie Chan - How to Do Action Comedy"[27]Jackie ChanDecember 2, 2014 (2014-12-02)24.88
15"The Bad Sleep Well (1960) - The Geometry of a Scene"[28]The Bad Sleep WellJanuary 28, 2015 (2015-01-28)0.92
16"Drive (2011) - The Quadrant System"[29]DriveJanuary 30, 2015 (2015-01-30)1.77
17"Akira Kurosawa - Composing Movement"[30]Akira KurosawaMarch 19, 2015 (2015-03-19)10.01
18"F for Fake (1973) - How to Structure a Video Essay"[31]F for FakeMarch 31, 2015 (2015-03-31)1.09
19"Lynne Ramsay - The Poetry of Details"[32]Lynne RamsayMay 7, 2015 (2015-05-07)1.14
20"In Praise of Chairs"[33]—May 29, 2015 (2015-05-29)1.25
21"Chuck Jones - The Evolution of an Artist"[34]Chuck JonesJuly 16, 2015 (2015-07-16)4.44
22"Vancouver Never Plays Itself"[35]—September 13, 2015 (2015-09-13)2.10
23"Buster Keaton - The Art of the Gag"[36]Buster KeatonNovember 21, 2015 (2015-11-21)7.87
24"Memories of Murder (2003) - Ensemble Staging"[37]Memories of MurderDecember 30, 2015 (2015-12-30)1.73
25"Joel & Ethan Coen - Shot | Reverse Shot"[38]Coen brothersFebruary 25, 2016 (2016-02-25)3.80
26"How Does an Editor Think and Feel?"[39]—May 12, 2016 (2016-05-12)2.62
27a"The Marvel Symphonic Universe"[4]Marvel Cinematic UniverseSeptember 12, 2016 (2016-09-12)7.84
27b"Hollywood Scores & Soundtracks: What Do They Sound Like? Do They Sound Like Things?? Let's Find Out!"[40]—September 12, 2016 (2016-09-12)1.73
Every Frame a Painting Presents: THE SECOND
28"The Sustained Two-Shot"[41]—August 26, 2024 (2024-08-26)0.47
29"What Would Billy Wilder Do?"[10]Billy WilderOctober 7, 2024 (2024-10-07)0.19

Reception and legacy

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Kevin B. Lee, a film critic and video essayist, called the series "the standout newcomer to the video essay scene" in 2014.[42] Many critics point to the essay on Jackie Chan and action comedy film as among the best.[43][44] Wired's Brian Raftery credited Every Frame a Painting for kicking off "a dramatic growth spurt" in YouTube-based movie criticism and stated the channel's "astute, patient, visually assured film essays...help[ed] push the medium past its ranting-rando-with-a-camera phase".[45] Allison de Fren called the series "a master class on film form" with consistent style and tone; she found Zhou's "chummy, upbeat performance" a stark contrast to previous essays such as Los Angeles Plays Itself (2004).[1] Every Frame a Painting's 2024 videos were named by three critics in Sight and Sound's list of the year's best video essays.[46]

Filmmakers such as Christopher McQuarrie, Seth Rogen, and Edgar Wright have given praise to Every Frame a Painting's essays.[47][48][49] Mark Mothersbaugh said Every Frame a Painting's video essay on "unmemorable" Marvel Cinematic Universe scores directly influenced his composition of Thor: Ragnarok's score to be different from previous Marvel films.[50][51]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ As of October 2024[14]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g De Fren, Allison (2021). "From the Essay Film to the Video Essay: Between the Critical and the Popular". In Milliken, Christie; Anderson, Steve F. (eds.). Reclaiming Popular Documentary. Indiana University Press. pp. 157–178. doi:10.2307/j.ctv21hrhxk.15. ISBN 978-0-253-05687-0. JSTOR j.ctv21hrhxk.15.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Zhou, Tony (December 3, 2017). "Postmortem: Every Frame a Painting". Medium. Archived from the original on December 3, 2017. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  3. ^ a b "From Every Frame a Painting to The Second: Q&A with Taylor Ramos & Tony Zhou". Hawaii International Film Festival. September 26, 2024. Archived from the original on September 27, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  4. ^ a b Martinelli, Marissa (September 12, 2016). "Try to Hum Any Music From a Marvel Movie Soundtrack. Not So Easy, Is It? Here's Why". Slate. The Slate Group. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  5. ^ Hudson, David (December 5, 2017). "Goodbye, EFaP; Hello, Zhou and Ramos". The Criterion Collection. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  6. ^ Augesse, Marc (September 23, 2018). "Artbook Preview: Isle of Dogs – Wes Anderson Collection". Catsuka. Archived from the original on October 10, 2024. Retrieved October 10, 2024.
  7. ^ McLevy, Alex (December 3, 2021). "Netflix explores the visual essay's potential with the David Fincher-produced Voir". The A.V. Club. G/O Media. Archived from the original on December 3, 2021. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  8. ^ Squires, John (November 11, 2021). "Netflix Documentary Series VOIR Celebrates Cinema With Visual Essays on Films Including Jaws [Trailer]". Bloody Disgusting. Archived from the original on November 11, 2021. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  9. ^ Sippell, Margeaux (July 3, 2024). "Fantasia Festival 2024 to Honor Mike Flanagan, André Forcier's Ababouiné to Close Fest". MovieMaker. Archived from the original on July 4, 2024. Retrieved July 3, 2024.
  10. ^ a b Chandler, Sam (October 7, 2024). "Evening Reading – October 7, 2024". Shacknews. Gamerhub. Archived from the original on October 8, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  11. ^ Pierce, David (August 26, 2024). "Every Frame a Painting is back!". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on August 26, 2024. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
  12. ^ Liptak, Andrew (December 3, 2017). "Video series Every Frame a Painting has come to an end". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on December 4, 2017. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  13. ^ Alexander, Julia (December 4, 2017). "Every Frame a Painting, one of YouTube's best channels, says goodbye". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on December 4, 2017. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  14. ^ "Every Frame a Painting". YouTube. Archived from the original on October 9, 2024. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  15. ^ Butler, Mark (October 18, 2016). "YouTube: a viewing guide for horror fans". i. Johnston Press. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  16. ^ Fischer, Russ (May 14, 2014). "Watch A Video Essay On The Invisible Style of Steven Spielberg's Long Takes". /Film. Static Media. Archived from the original on October 25, 2021. Retrieved October 10, 2024.
  17. ^ Fisher, Teresa (2024). "An Introduction to Film". Open Educational Resources (3rd ed.). City University of New York: 63. Archived from the original on October 9, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  18. ^ Weinstein, Max (January 31, 2023). "Laughing Academy: Learn the Principles of Funny Framing With This Breakdown of Edgar Wright's Visual Comedy (Video)". MovieMaker. Archived from the original on August 3, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  19. ^ Kottke, Jason (November 24, 2016). "Silence, a new film by Martin Scorsese". Kottke.org. Archived from the original on November 27, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  20. ^ Lovett, Jamie (July 3, 2014). "Michael Bay's Filming Style Examined In 'What Is Bayhem?'". ComicBook.com. Archived from the original on October 9, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  21. ^ Person, Chris (July 25, 2014). "See How An Anime Master Manipulated Space and Time". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on July 27, 2014. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  22. ^ Bui, Hoai-Tran (August 19, 2014). "Texting in movies: How to make it not boring". USA Today. Archived from the original on November 10, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  23. ^ Moon, Mariella (July 5, 2024). "YouTube film essay pioneers Every Frame a Painting are back". Engadget. Yahoo! Inc. Archived from the original on July 5, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  24. ^ Osberg, Molly (October 3, 2014). "Video shows how David Fincher keeps his audience omniscient". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on October 3, 2014. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  25. ^ Meyer, Joshua (February 12, 2021). "The Silence Of The Lambs At 30: How The Influential Thriller Forged Empathy Through Clarice Starling's Eyes". /Film. Static Media. Archived from the original on October 27, 2021. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  26. ^ Donlan, Christian (September 5, 2023). "The Making of Karateka is so much more than the making of Karateka". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on September 6, 2023. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  27. ^ Bishop, Rollin (December 3, 2014). "A Detailed Analysis of the Combination of Action and Comedy in Jackie Chan Films". Laughing Squid. Archived from the original on December 9, 2014. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  28. ^ Rodriguez, Cain (January 29, 2015). "Watch: Fascinating Video Essay 'The Geometry Of A Scene' Explores The Technique Of Akira Kurosawa". IndieWire. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on June 29, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  29. ^ Ricker, Thomas; Lim, Sojung (February 3, 2015). "This quadrant explains why Drive is such a stylish film". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on February 3, 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  30. ^ Hollwedel, Zach (March 24, 2015). "Watch: Video Essay 'Akira Kurosawa — Composing Movement'". IndieWire. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on August 17, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  31. ^ Laskin, Nicholas (April 2, 2015). "Watch: Video Essay Explores Orson Welles' F For Fake & Narrative Structure". IndieWire. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on October 9, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  32. ^ Guidry, Ken (May 8, 2015). "Watch: 8-Minute Video Essay Explores The Poetry Of Lynne Ramsay's Films". IndieWire. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on October 9, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  33. ^ Shetty, Sharan (May 31, 2015). "This Video Essay on Chairs in Cinema Is Way More Interesting Than It Should Be". Slate. The Slate Group. Archived from the original on October 9, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  34. ^ Thill, Scott (July 7, 2015). "Learn What Made Chuck Jones A Great Director In Under 9 Minutes". Cartoon Brew. Archived from the original on May 15, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  35. ^ Landsbaum, Claire (September 14, 2015). "So Many Movies Are Filmed in Vancouver. But it Always Has to Pretend To Be Someplace Else". Slate. The Slate Group. Archived from the original on October 9, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  36. ^ Shetty, Sharan (November 21, 2015). "How Buster Keaton Perfected the Art of the Gag". Slate. The Slate Group. Archived from the original on October 9, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  37. ^ Garrison, Gary (January 6, 2016). "Watch: 7-Minute Video Essay Explores Ensemble Staging In Bong Joon-Ho's Memories Of Murder". IndieWire. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on July 28, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  38. ^ Vacca, Samantha (February 26, 2016). "Watch: 7-Minute Video Essay Explores The Shooting Style Of The Coen Brothers". IndieWire. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on October 9, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  39. ^ Sharf, Zack (May 13, 2016). "Every Frame A Painting: Learn How Editors Think & Feel In Tony Zhou's New Video Essay". IndieWire. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on October 9, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  40. ^ Liptak, Andrew (September 13, 2016). "How Hollywood's temp scores are hurting your favorite action movies". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on September 12, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  41. ^ Shachat, Sarah (August 27, 2024). "Welcome Back, Every Frame a Painting". IndieWire. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on August 27, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  42. ^ O'Connell, Max (December 30, 2014). "Kevin B. Lee Picks the Year's Best Video Essays". IndieWire. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on November 14, 2016. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  43. ^ Parker, Jason (February 23, 2017). "This YouTube channel makes your favorite movies better". CNET. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  44. ^ Johnston, Rae (December 4, 2017). "A Tribute To Every Frame A Painting". Gizmodo Australia. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on December 4, 2017. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  45. ^ Raftery, Brian (March 8, 2019). "How YouTube Made a Star Out of This Super-Smart Film Critic". Wired. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on March 8, 2019. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
  46. ^ Meadows, Queline; Webb, Will; Harris, Cydnii Wilde (December 18, 2024). "The best video essays of 2024". Sight and Sound. British Film Institute. Archived from the original on December 18, 2024. Retrieved December 21, 2024.
  47. ^ McQuarrie, Christopher (July 29, 2020). "Christopher McQuarrie: The Audience is Always Right (and Other Lessons in Moviemaking)". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  48. ^ 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.
  49. ^ 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.
  50. ^ Couch, Aaron (November 3, 2017). "Thor Composer Knew Marvel Scores Sounded Similar, So He Decided to Change That". The Hollywood Reporter. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on August 3, 2021. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
  51. ^ Chitwood, Adam (December 12, 2017). "Marvel Movie Scores Video Essay Influenced Thor: Ragnarok Music". Collider. Valnet. Archived from the original on December 14, 2017. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
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