How to Make a Web Series

Developing a web series may be the way to start producing film and getting recognition. Here's an article that outlines some of the basics by the producers of  the award winning Perfect Girls series:

http://videoandfilmmaker.com/wp/index.php/tutorials/how-to-make-web-series-people-will-watch/

Also take a look at this article on how to create music for your web series:

http://bananamanafilms.com/how-to-write-music-for-your-web-series/

Types of Shots - A Visual Guide

Here's a good visual reference to various types of shots...

With Close Up (version 2) I like framing with the top of frame above the eyebrows so that the eyes sit at the one third line below the top of the frame and the bottom of the chin about a third from the bottom. When we are talking to someone, this is the area of the face we focus on - eyes to lips - and this should take the center stage in the frame (vertically, but not necessarily horizontally).

See LA Filmmaker for a nice blog post on framing closeups.

Alfred Hitchcock's film techniques...

I'm looking at producing a mystery and I turned to Hitchcock "the master of suspense" for some inspiration. Here are some themes that come out of looking at his body of work. [These notes are very brief.]

1. Visual storytelling: Uses words only when necessary. He started in silent films where they had to convey the story visually to minimize the number of dialogue slides. 
2. Emotion: He relies on actors faces to express emotion. You see a lot of close ups of actors faces rather than dialogue. 
3. Point of view: He has a repeating pattern: a) He shows characters face; b) then what they see from their perspective or POV and then c) their response to that. If the character is moving, then we see a moving POV. 
4. Montage editing: In action scenes, we never get a full linear visual of the action, but rather bits and pieces strung together, like a series of photographs. 
5. Simplistic linear stories: The stories are simple and designed to create an emotional response. He avoids "who dunnits" which he thought were a purely intellectual exercise. 
6. Character: They seem real and are put in situations that could happen to anyone. Criminals are always attractive wealthy upper class people who you'd never suspect. Police and politicians are the bumbling ones and the innocent are accused. 
7. Understatement: Something simple becomes the focus of the scene while the real action is taking place. In a moment of crisis the character usually does something inconsequential or trivial.
8. Suspense: Let the audience have information that the characters don't see. This is a very key element in his stories. He felt this is what created suspense. He's said that an explosion causes 10 seconds of shock, but if you see a bomb with a five minute timer and the characters talking the audience is in suspense (but the bomb can never go off or the audience gets angry).
9. Macguffin: Is the thing that the spies are after, but that the audience doesn't care about and that has no purpose in the plot. 
10. Humor: There's always a healthy dose of humor throughout. 

Here's an example how he zooms out of a scene to expose the reactions of three characters successively. As the camera zooms out a new character comes into prominence in the frame and we see the emotion on their faces. 

Here's an example of point of view where the character looks behind to reveal someone following...

Another example of using the actors to convey emotion. In particular, I like the camera movement in this scene: 

Lastly, here is some beautiful imagery. This scene starts with a high angle shot of each of the characters faces. A cut to his gun at his side. And then an overhead shot of the two of them. She slides slowly to the flow as her dress spreads out below like blood.