Every shot in the archive, 36,538 of them, measured for the things his pictures are made of, and the films that hold the most.
Nothing in it is added. Every shot was kept by a strict judge; every title card is the archive's own, in its own lettering: an invitation, a voyage, a door that will not open without evening clothes, the film stopping itself, that night, and the King. The music is the archive's too.
Four judges, one rubric: square to the plane, dead centre, a curated palette, deadpan, and sharp. Most frames fail.
A recut of one film, Chicken of Tomorrow (1948): a national contest to breed the perfect chicken, followed step by step to where the steps lead. Every word is the film's own narrator; the step cards are added.
Each shot is scored for mirror symmetry (with the letterbox removed), frontal level-and-plumb staging, a centred subject, a pastel palette, and for what it shows (a title card, an overhead insert, uniforms in a row, a miniature, a face to camera, a compartment). Blank frames, rockets and hearings, which only look the part, are set aside. Hover a shot to see its centre line; click to play it.
Ranked by their five most Andersonian shots.