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. The series is set to revive in a limited series in 2024, alongside a short film by Ramos and Zhou.
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]
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]
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]
Ramos and Zhou's short film—The Second, starring Paul Sun-Hyung Lee—is scheduled to premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on July 20, 2024. [11] A limited series of video essays are set to release on Every Frame a Painting in preparation for the film's release. [12]
Kevin B. Lee, a film critic and video essayist, called the series "the standout newcomer to the video essay scene" in 2014. [13] Many critics point to the essay on Jackie Chan and action comedy film as among the best. [14] [15] [16] 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". [17]
Directors such as Edgar Wright, Seth Rogen, Christopher McQuarrie have given praise to Every Frame a Painting's essays. [18] [19] [20] 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. [21] [22]
The Criterion Collection, Inc. is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A de facto subsidiary of arthouse film distributor Janus Films, Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinephiles and public and academic libraries. Criterion has helped to standardize certain aspects of home-video releases such as film restoration, the letterboxing format for widescreen films and the inclusion of bonus features such as scholarly essays and documentary content about the films and filmmakers. Criterion most notably pioneered the use of commentary tracks. Criterion has produced and distributed more than 1,000 special editions of its films in VHS, Betamax, LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray formats and box sets. These films and their special features are also available via The Criterion Channel, an online streaming service that the company operates.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appear in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The franchise also includes television series, short films, digital series, and literature. The shared universe, much like the original Marvel Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters.
Lindsay Ellis is an American science fiction author and video essayist. Her debut novel, Axiom's End, published in July 2020, became a New York Times Best Seller.
Screen Junkies is an online movie magazine and YouTube channel, owned and operated by Fandom, that focuses primarily on movies and television. Screen Junkies produce numerous shows now spread across two YouTube channels, including The Screen Junkies Show, Movie Fights!, Honest Trailers, Honest Trailer Commentary, Screen Junkies Universe (SJU), Movie Reviews, CRAM IT, and others.
Thor: Ragnarok is the film score to the Marvel Studios film Thor: Ragnarok composed by Mark Mothersbaugh. Hollywood Records released the album digitally on October 20, 2017, with a physical release on November 10, 2017.
A video essay is an essay presented in the format of a video recording or short film rather than a conventional piece of writing; The form often overlaps with other forms of video entertainment on online platforms such as YouTube. A video essay allows an author to directly quote from film, video games, music, or other digital mediums, which is impossible with traditional writing. While many video essays are intended for entertainment, they can also have an academic or political purpose. This type of content is often described as educational entertainment.
Kogonada is a South Korean-born American filmmaker. He is known for his video essays that analyze the content, form and structure of various films and television series. The essays frequently use narration and editing as lenses, and often highlight a director's aesthetic. Kogonada is a regular contributor to Sight & Sound, and is frequently commissioned by The Criterion Collection to create supplemental videos for its home-video releases. He has also written, directed and edited the feature films Columbus (2017) and After Yang (2021). Additionally, he directed two episodes of the Star Wars Disney+ series, The Acolyte (2024).
The following outline serves as an overview of and topical guide to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), an American media franchise and shared universe created by Marvel Studios and owned by the Walt Disney Company. The franchise began in 2008 with the release of the film Iron Man and has since expanded to include various superhero films and television series produced by Marvel Studios, television series from Marvel Television, short films, digital series, literature, and other media. These are based on characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige produces every film and series from that studio for the MCU. The shared universe, much like the original Marvel Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters.
Harry Brewis, better known as Hbomberguy, is a British YouTuber and Twitch streamer. Brewis produces video essays on a variety of topics such as film, television, and video games, often combining them with arguments from left-wing political and economic positions. He also creates videos aimed at debunking conspiracy theories and responding to right-wing and antifeminist arguments.
Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a group of American superhero films produced by Marvel Studios based on characters that appear in publications by Marvel Comics. The phase began in 2016 with the release of Captain America: Civil War and concluded in 2019 with the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home. It includes the crossover films Avengers: Infinity War, released in 2018, and its sequel Avengers: Endgame, released in 2019. Kevin Feige produced every film in the phase, alongside Amy Pascal for Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Stephen Broussard for Ant-Man and the Wasp. The eleven films of the phase grossed over US$13.5 billion at the global box office and received generally positive critical and public response. Upon release, Avengers: Endgame became the highest-grossing film of all time.
Team Thor is a series of American direct-to-video mockumentary short films produced by Marvel Studios, featuring characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Initially released from 2016 to 2018, they were included as special features in the MCU films' Blu-ray and digital distribution releases and are the sixth through eighth Marvel One-Shot short films. The series consists of Team Thor, Team Thor: Part 2, and Team Darryl, all written and directed by Taika Waititi.
Evan Puschak is an American video essayist, journalist and creator of the YouTube channel The NerdWriter. Previously he was a multimedia editor at MSNBC and hosted the Discovery Channel show Seeker Daily. In 2017, Forbes named him one of their "30 Under 30 in Media".
Marvel Studios: Legends is an American television docuseries created for the streaming service Disney+, based on the Marvel Comics characters and objects that appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Produced by Marvel Studios, each episode showcases an individual character or object with footage from past MCU films and Disney+ series, highlighting their prominent moments from the MCU.
Deadpool and Korg React is a 2021 American superhero promotional short film featuring the Marvel Comics characters Deadpool and Korg. The film was written and directed by Ryan Reynolds, with him and Taika Waititi respectively starring as Deadpool and Korg. In Deadpool and Korg React, Wade Wilson and Korg react to the trailer of Free Guy (2021) before discussing the possibility of joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Reynolds reprises his role from the X-Men film series, while Waititi reprises his role from the MCU films Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
Voir is an American television series featuring video essays about cinema. It was produced by Academy Award-nominated director David Fincher and released on Netflix.