'Every Frame A Painting' Returns. Sort Of.

Tony Zhou’s hit Youtube channel, Every Frame a Painting, has taught more people about the finer points of film editing, in approximately 5 minute chunks, than entire film schools. (Maybe that’s exaggeration; who knows? I’m a fan.)

But his channel has been silent for years now. There was probably a reason given, an announcement made back in the day somewhere, but I just never saw it.

So I’d go back and watch old ones, just because they were so well-made and the insights were just effortless and often eye-opening for the viewer. Simply put: One of my favorite Youtube channels remained my favorite despite being dormant.

And then suddenly he wasn’t. I saw a brief video announcing new video essays alongside another bigger project.

Then on Monday, I just happened to scroll across Youtube just 2 hours after his newest video essay was posted. I was among the first viewers. (It now sits at at 280,000 views; many (if not most…if not ALL) of his other videos have been viewed many millions of times over, so there was something (admittedly nerdy) cool about getting to be such an earlier viewer.

It’s about The Sustained Two-Shot, and it was an instant classic.