Rebecca Shoptaw

Ghost Light
June 2025

A minimalist thriller.

Girl, Sweetvoiced
June 2019

A short film in fragments, starring Georgie Henley (Narnia, The Spanish Princess) and Antoinette Belle.

Margot
January 2024

A dreamy short film shot on Super 8mm film, adapted from a 1910 short story by Stefan Zweig.

How to make a short film by yourself
May 7, 2025

“I think it’s not only an excellent way to learn how to make films — or to try out filmmaking risk-free if you’re curious about it but don’t know where to start — but also a fantastic way to make fun, affordable films that can take you far.”

Notes from the making of a seventy-episode web series
March 15, 2025

“This, for low-budget filmmakers, was basically revolutionary. Suddenly, young filmmakers, college students and even high schoolers who would have had a hard time getting together the funds, crew, and filmmaking know-how to make one “professional” short film were turning out whole 30- 40-, 70-episode web series, which were not only often quite good — but which lots of people actually watched and loved.”

The New Yorker - "'Middlemarch' Gets Winningly Adapted as a Web Series"
July 14, 2017

"It’s a lovely moment, conveying a spirit of youth and uncertainty—the same spirit that George Eliot sought to bring to the page almost a hundred and fifty years ago. In it, Shoptaw captures what remains constant about the restless inquiries of young people who want their lives to be meaningful, no matter what has changed about the world they may find themselves in the middle of."

i-D Magazine - “'middlemarch' is now a queer coming-of-age web series"
November 22, 2017 - Interview

 "I think something that really struck me when I read Middlemarch for the first time was the way that the novel’s narrator weaves together all the different storylines to make broader points about human nature. One of those points that was especially powerful for me personally was the novel’s appreciation of the ordinary, the beautiful way with which it insists on telling unimportant stories. I feel like this especially resonates in college, where the pressure to change the world, or to be important, or just to be in some way extraordinary is so strong."

The Film Club
Newsletter

A private newsletter where I send out each film a week before it goes live, along with some longer commentary on how the film came to be.

YouTube
Portfolio

The home of my full back-catalog of films and series, plus the new work I have coming out now.

Substack
Blog / newsletter

A fun little monthly newsletter where I’m collecting some thoughts about the zero-budget filmmaking process.