Short Form: 40 Years of Music Videos, Ads, and the Art of Moving Images

Short Form is a thrilling new publication that seeks to reframe how we see the practice of filmmaking. Focusing on some of the most memorable short-form works across music videos and advertising, this book considers the significance and development of these genres, as explored through forty years of work by one of the UK’s most iconic and influential production companies: Academy Films. 

Told through a rich combination of behind-the-scenes images, storyboards, stills, ephemera, script notes, and more, this book dives into those cult short-form films that have informed and galvanised the cultural landscape of cinema and beyond: films like Jamiroquai’s ‘Virtual Insanity’, Lauryn Hill’s ’Doo Wop (That Thing)’, Radiohead’s ‘Karma Police’, The Verve’s ‘Bittersweet Symphony’, FKA Twigs’ ‘M3LL155X’, and televised commercials for the likes of Guinness, Channel 4, and Levi’s. 

With a foreword by Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest, Under the Skin), the book includes multiple essays by key voices in screen culture investigating the history of these projects, as well as their contemporary role in our current moment of online short film.