Since the Every Frame a Painting channel was last updated in September 2016, it feels like we’ve lived through different eras of YouTube, not to mention different eras of the world. Video essayists Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou have spent nearly three years studying specific aspects of filmmaking, from director preferences and fascinations to action, comedy modes, and stylistic tendencies. Frankly, if you’ve read one or more IndieWire articles, you need to watch one or more Every Frame a Painting videos. Probably all of them.
The channel was on a long hiatus due to the quirks of copyright law and the difficulties of what’s legal to put on YouTube videos about film and TV show clips, but it’s possible to complete the set. Ramos and Zhou brought their curious and thoughtful film analysis to a much larger canvas with their 2021 Netflix series “Voir,” but they still dealt with the same issues that plagued their work in “Every Frame A Painting.” “Some of the things we had to do years ago to solve the problems are still with us today,” they say. [‘Voir’]” Chou told IndieWire.
But the video essayists are back, in limited release, and for very exciting reasons. The video itself, at just under six minutes, is a running two-shot charting the technical and industrial trends that have more or less become favored by filmmakers, and their usefulness in modern filmmaking as a showcase for two actors’ chemistry. This is standard. Chou, who narrates the series, is an unseen character in the essays, and can’t help but feel like the film school TA we all wish we had.
But he and Ramos are more fully invested in the story in this limited edition, “Every Frame is a Painting.” “Persistent Two-Shot” begins with behind-the-scenes footage from Chow and Ramos’ short film, “The Second,” shot by Julie Ng. The video essay explores the two-shot as a response to a real-life filmmaking challenge: the need to change the shoot plan for an exterior scene where the light is fading.
“Every Frame a Painting” has always offered a way for audiences to understand the creative and technical choices filmmakers make and why, and now the new series offers a cinematic representation of those decision moments as well. In speaking about “Voir,” Chou told IndieWire that video essays are hybrids with elements of both narrative and documentary, allowing them to combine them in interesting ways. With the return of “Every Frame a Painting,” Chou and Ramos are deepening the series’ connection to audiences, inviting us to think like filmmakers more than ever before — because Chou and Ramos do too.
“I love the feeling of learning,” Ramos told IndieWire. “I really love the process. I love storytelling in all its forms.”
After watching “Every Frame a Painting,” you’ll probably agree.