Tony Zhou Is My Hero

You only wish you taught film form and grammar like Tony Zhou.

First, a disclaimer:  I get nothing, no money, not one thin dime for this endorsement.  I don't even know Tony Zhou.  But he rocks as an educator.  Videos from his "Every Frame a Painting" series offer would-be filmmakers 3-8 minute lessons  in film form and grammar.  Whet your appetite with his 3-minute essay on screen direction in Snowpiercer.

Zhou's pithy, practical deconstruction of movie scenes feature the marriage of footage and concurrent lecture most media profs can seldom achieve.  But he's no ordinary fan boy.  His knowledge is encyclopedic and synthetic.  He connects classics of the canon with each other and with contemporary popular movies.  He isn't merely "holding forth," as many who talk at passionate length about films their students have generally never seen.  Zhou's a talented editor.  He overlays scenes with helpful graphics, as in this quick essay on the use of the Quadrant System as a compositional aid:

I'm not recommending Zhou because your students will enjoy his accessible work (though, of course, they will).  Like any card-carrying classroom curmudgeon, I resist "edutainment."  I recommend Zhou because he's one of us.  He gets that theory, history, and production are each components of the other. 

Previously:  The Best Edited Movies. Ever.