Iconic Directors and Cinematographers – Plus 2025’s Biggest TV Hits!
Hello, ShotDeck community!
Get your cameras ready – the ShotDeck recreations contest is officially opening on September 1st! Submissions will be open through the entirety of September, with a prize pool of over $125,000 on offer and some of the world’s leading filmmakers judging your entries. And if you’re a student, we now have education-only prize categories and digital certificates just for you. Keep an eye on our website and Instagram page for more details.
To find the perfect image for your recreation submission, and to get full access to the world’s leading library of cinematic reference images, sign up today for a free 2 week trial, or download our app from the App Store.
And remember that you can also access ShotDeck via Canva! Our official integration gives you access to the entire ShotDeck library directly within Canva’s interface. You can also directly access any decks you’ve built in ShotDeck in Canva.
This month, we dropped over 68,000 new shots from hundreds of films, television series, music videos and commercials. Let’s take a closer look!
FILM COLLECTION
New Releases
This month, we dropped thousands of shots from some of 2025’s hottest new releases into our library. Check out stills from: Friendship, The Phoenician Scheme, Blue Sun Palace, The Gorge, Mountainhead, My Dead Friend Zoe, The Amateur, The Legend of Ochi, Thunderbolts*, A Working Man, and Ballerina.
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
David Lean: Early Works
You’ve heard of The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Ryan’s Daughter and A Passage to India. But did you know that those were actually the final films of David Lean’s career? This month, we curated 8 of the British icon’s early works, showcasing his mastery of more intimate, character-driven stories before he went on to redefine the cinematic epic.
After being gifted a Kodak Brownie Box camera as a teenager, Lean became obsessed with filmmaking, and started his career doing on-set work at Gaumont Studios in London. Lean progressed from teaboy to clapperboy and then third assistant director, before he started working as an editor on films such as 49th Parallel, directed by Michael Powell. After editing over a dozen feature films, Lean directed his first film, In Which We Serve, in collaboration with Noël Coward in 1942. Lean went on to direct his next three films based on Coward plays – This Happy Breed (1944), Blithe Spirit (1945), and Brief Encounter (1945) – establishing him as one of the most prominent British directors of his generation.
Check out the rest of this month’s curation of early David Lean works – from his beloved adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist (1948) to the true crime noir Madeleine (1950); rom-coms Hobson’s Choice (1954) and Summertime (1955) to his more dramatic The Passionate Friends (1949). Enjoy!
TELEVISION SERIES
The Studio: Season 1
In July, we dropped thousands of shots from Season 1 of the hit comedy series The Studio. Starring Seth Rogen (who co-created the series with Evan Goldberg), the series follows the volatile fortunes of Continental Studios, which must balance its artistic aspirations against modern-day corporate demands. The series also stars Ike Barinholtz, Kathryn Hahn, Chase Sui Wonders, Catherine O’Hara and Bryan Cranston, as well as a host of Tinseltown celebrities. The Studio has been nominated for 23 Primetime Emmy Awards, the most ever for the first season of a comedy series.
The Studio has been particularly celebrated for its visual approach, which Rogen and Goldberg developed with cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra partly inspired by the eight-minute opening shot of the classic Hollywood insider film, The Player. Every shot in The Studio is an extended oner, designed to put the audience’s head on a swivel and capture the tension and freneticism of life at a Hollywood studio. This approach led to the filmmakers deciding to shoot the entire show on just one camera (the ARRI Alexa 35) and just one lens (a 21mm Zeiss Master Prime), often editing scripts between set-ups as they determined exactly what was needed for each extended shot to flow seamlessly into the next. Check them out today!
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
Maryse Alberti
In July, we curated six films from French cinematographer Maryse Alberti, whose raw, naturalistic style that blends intimacy with realism across genres, time periods and continents has made her one of the most celebrated cinematographers working today.
Alberti started her career as a stills photographer, before becoming a camera assistant on the 1982 punk noir Vortex. Alberti’s career got moving in earnest once she met the now legendary producer Christine Vachon, who encouraged Todd Haynes to hire her as the cinematographer of Poison in 1991. Since then, Alberti has shot a huge variety of films, from intimate documentaries like Crumb to studio blockbusters like Creed.
This month, we added The Kitchen (2019), We Don’t Live Here Anymore (2004), Chappaquiddick (2017), Collateral Beauty (2016), Stone (2010) and The Visit (2015) to our library. Add shots from those films to your decks today!
TELEVISION SERIES
The Bear: Season 4
This month, we dropped thousands of shots from Season 4 of The Bear on ShotDeck. Created by Christopher Storer, the series stars Jeremy Allen White as Carmy Berzatto, an award-winning chef who returns home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop after a death in his family. The series also stars Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edibiri, Lionel Boyce, Abby Elliot, Liza Colóz-Zayas, Matty Matheson and Edwin Lee Gibson. To date, the series has won 21 Primetime Emmy Awards, making it one of the most awarded series of recent years.
Series cinematographer Andrew Wehde and Storer created a list of references that defined the visual language of Season 4. In an interview with AnOther Magazine, Wehde listed the following films as series as touchstones: from Tony Scott – Man on Fire, Deja Vu and Unstoppable; from Michael Mann – Heat, Thief and Collateral; from Martin Scorsese – Goodfellas, Casino and Mean Streets; and finally, the television series Chef’s Table. Check out all those references, as well as stills from Season 4 of The Bear, on ShotDeck today!
FILM COLLECTION
Ip Man
This month, we dropped all four films from the legendary Ip Man film series into our library. Inspired by the real-life Wing Chun master who trained Bruce Lee, the Ip Man films, which were all directed by Wilson Yip and star Donnie Yen, follow Ip through different phases of his life – his life in Foshan during the Sino-Japanese War, his mentorship of Bruce Lee after moving to Hong Kong, his stand against a local property developer, and his travels to the United States.
The Ip Man series is a masterclass in martial arts cinema – blending blistering action, emotional depth, and historical drama into each film. Add shots from these films to your decks today!
TELEVISION SERIES
Squid Game: Season 2
Strap in – in July, we dropped Season 2 of Squid Game to ShotDeck. Created by Hwang Dong-hyuk, the dystopian survival thriller follows the fortunes of hundreds of cash-strapped contestants who accept an invitation to compete in children’s games for a tempting prize – without realizing how deadly the stakes are. The series stars Lee Jung-jae, Lee Byung-hun, Yim Si-wan and Wi Ha-jun. Just four days after its premiere, Season 2 of Squid Game crossed 68 million streaming views, making it Netflix’s most watched season of television ever to that point.
For series production designer Chae Kyoung-sun, it was important to create contrast between the vivid colors of the game zone and Gi-hun’s blurry, murky reality. Dead plants, gatherings of dust and water stains were contrasted against the pastel, children’s crayon-drawing aesthetic of sets such as the Pentathlon, which was designed to evoke nostalgia for elementary school Sports Day games, before being splattered with blood.
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
Wim Wenders
This month, we curated six films from a modern master, and one of the New German Cinema movement’s most prominent filmmakers, Wim Wenders.
Born in Düsseldorf to a Catholic family, Wenders set out to be an artist early in life, but had his application to attend IDHEC in France (now La Fémis) rejected. Wenders instead worked as an engraver at artist Johnny Friedlaender’s studio, and eventually got into film school at the University of Television and Film Munich. In 1970, he made his feature directorial debut with Summer in the City, shot in black-and-white on 16mm film.
Wenders went on to be a leader of the New German Cinema movement and remains one of the most respected European filmmakers working today. Our July curation celebrates his “road movie” trilogy, Alice in the Cities (1974), Wrong Move (1975) and Kings of the Road (1976), as three of his 21st century films – The Million Dollar Hotel (2000), Pina (2011) and Anselm (2023). Dive in!
FILM COLLECTION
Music Videos & Commercials
This month, we dropped over 12,000 shots from a collection of 100 new music videos and commercials each! Here are some of our favorite music videos from this month’s curation:
COMMERCIALCasa Battló – “This is Not a House”
COMMERCIALKohler – “Anthem+”
COMMERCIALVogue – “Carey Mulligan” 
