Great list of cinema techniques

Make your films better. Wikipedia has a great list of camera, lighting, and film techniques.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_techniques

A great and full guide to several techniques. What is also required is the 'eye' for a shot. This is demonstrated with still life pictures. Millions of pictures are taken everyday, the vast majority are 'snaps'. Someone with the 'eye' can take a picture of the same scene as 100 others, yet somehow it just stands out.

The basics are the 'thirds'. That is to say, dont always make the subject matter center of the picture/view. splitting the screen/viewfinder into 3rds both horizontally and verticaly gives you 4 points at which points of interest can be placed. This can include elements that steer your view to another point of interest. It is very rare that a horizon is placed in a picture at exactly halfway, unless there are elements of interest that point both above and below, drawing the viewers eye around the scene.

Most snap shooters will focus on the head and use that as the center of the scene, quite often cutting out parts of the body, which if left in can offer a balance and create the '3rd' points of the picture drawing the eye.

There are always alternatives, or 'perfect' scenes that break those rules, such as the Mona Lisa portrait. However, although the horizon of the picture is at the halfway point, look where the eyes and hands are placed. The arms are bowed into an arc, within the '3rds' points, and the eyes are balanced within the face shape around the upper '3rds'.

I watched the Shakespear movie produced in SL. The whole thing was very professional and for the vast majority of the scenes, no character was placed squarely in the shot but did use the '3rds' perspective, even the use of blur masks to create depth persception over overlays was very creative to switch the viewers focus onto each character as they spoke.

The blending of CrazyTalk over several overlays and SL as a backdrop worked very well.

For those looking to make profesional looking movies, try looking 'differently' at each professional picture/painting and movies, look for the '3rds' and if you have never seen it before, it will become apparent. Next time you point your camera, look twice and search for the '3rds'.

In photography and in movies, we have the 'Ken Burns' technique that allows us to pan and crop the scenes, use those the adjust the perspectives of the view. In movies we can 'animate' the pan/crop frame and move the viewing window through a timeline, that allows us to switch perspectives in the movie scene.