Student music video- SXSW 2010 WINNER! Best Music Video

Three-point lighting

Three-point lighting is exactly what it sounds like. You light your subject from three different sources in order to control the shadows and balance the contrast.
Three Light Sources:

• Key: This is the main light source. It shines directly on the subject, usually from the front-right or front-left. It provides the overall look and feel of the shot.
• Fill: The fill provides balance to the key by filling in the rest of the subjects face with a softer light. It comes in from the front-side opposite the key light.
• Back: The back light creates a nice rim of light around the back the subject, separating them from the background. It can also be called a "hairlight" or "rim-light".

Rule of Thirds

It has been widely held among classical artists throughout history that painting objects on a rectangular canvas at certain predictable points causes the eye to flow more easily across the canvas, resulting in greater harmony among the painting's visual elements. As a result, artists devised mathematical ways of segmenting the canvas so that they would know exactly where to place their images for greatest effect. The result was called "The Golden Mean."

180 Degree Rule

a screen direction rule that camera operators must follow - an imaginary line on one side of the axis of action is made (e.g., between two principal actors in a scene), and the camera must not cross over that line - otherwise, there is a distressing visual discontinuity and disorientation; similar to the axis of action (an imaginary line that separates the camera from the action before it) that should not be crossed