School is in Session

🔗 10 Things We’re Paying Paying Attention To

1. Back to School: As teased a couple of months ago in the runup to Fantasia, Every Frame a Painting is back. Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos were, alongside figures like kogonada, early pioneers of the cinematic essay, both teaching and inspiring aspiring filmmakers via supercut videos that distilled key cinematic themes and techniques. Retiring in 2017, the duo is back for a limited series of videos inspired by the creation of their narrative short film, The Second.

2. Rediscovering the Classics: A couple of weeks ago I suggested that restoring classic shorts would be a great trend. This week new remasters of classic Don Hertzfeldt and and Bill Plympton shorts hit YouTube. 🤔 For Don, 2005’s The Meaning of Life and 2010’s Wisdom Teeth are newly “restored” and on Plympton’s YouTube you can see his 1987 classic Your Face in beautiful HD.

3. Works from the Masters: Hertzfeldt is also currently on a theatrical tour, re-releasing his feature, It’s Such a Beautiful Day, alongside his newest short film, Me. I’ve got tickets to tomorrow’s screening in NYC which will see Ari Aster moderate. Drop me a line if you’re going to be there.

4. Advanced Studies in VFX: Wes Ball is getting raves from fans for the inclusion of a very interesting feature on the Blu-Ray of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Called “The Raw Cut”, it’s a split-screen version of the film that contrasts the unfinished mo-cap performances of its actors with the film’s final look (image in tweet below). Ball talked about it to EW saying "…for those fascinated by the filmmaking process — especially with VFX films like Kingdom — they’re going to freakin' love it," he adds. "It's a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the cutting edge of modern cinema."

5. Survey of Emerging Technologies: I enjoyed this smart conversation with Tim Moore of Vū on trends in Virtual Production. The company just released a whitepaper on what it sees happening in the space, projecting a proliferation of smaller studio spaces opening up and even prosumer access to many of the core technologies. We’re starting to see more and more virtual production in shorts ourselves and just added it as a selectable “technique” for your film page on Shortverse.

6. Peer Review: With August ending that means BEST OF THE MONTH on Shortverse is here! Check out 13 films that our team has highlighted, including a gorgeous 3D animation and this stellar sports profile doc arriving just in time for the Paralympics. Be sure to comment and let the filmmakers know what you think!

7. Study Abroad: We also have a new collection on the homepage introducing viewers to several of the Top French Animation schools. Browse the work that has come out of perennial top institutions like Gobelins, but also new schools are quickly creating a reputation— École des Nouvelles Images just produced an Oscar nominee this year with Boom, and Piktura is responsible for our reigning Short of the Year.

8. Contemporary Art: In a final new Shortverse collection for the week, we highlight the 13 shorts in the Orizzonti Short Film Competition at the Venice Biennale. The festival, ongoing now, runs through Sept 7.

9. Work/Study: For those out of school and looking to break into the industry, this nested thread of threads on X is worth checking out. Eleanor Mance-Moran is a 2nd Assistant Editor for TV and Film in London and has compiled a lot of helpful advice she has discovered and received as she establishes her young career.

10. Networking: And, just to wrap things up for this edition, we couldn’t help but share this profile in Shots of our Sr. Programmer Chelsea Lupkin. Thanks for the big Short of the Week shout out Chels! Follow Chelsea on SV and IG.

📅 This Week on Short of the Week

👩🏽‍💻 Product Updates

On Shortverse we love showing off the Short of the Week laurels on official selections. But, Shortverse is about the whole ecosystem of short film, not just our curation. We allow filmmakers to add over 13,000 festivals to their film page’s “honors” section, what if we opened up the badge too? 🤔

🌿 Top Festivals - You can now show other top festival laurels on your film thumbnails! Standout from the pack by showcasing a prestigious event you participated in. We’ve hand-picked a small selection of festivals for now but will be growing the list in the coming weeks. If your film has been in multiple ‘top festivals’ decide which badge to show by adjusting the the sort order in your page settings.