You can't just walk in and start filming a Scene, You have to make it...

Notes on Preparing The Scene....
Clearly it is not always possible to just arrive on site and start recording film footage, much planning is required, along with permissions to be sought and communication to be established.

Thinking About Scenes;
No scene will usually last very long, possibly 20 or 30 seconds, maybe 1 or 2 minutes at the most.
Whilst some machinima makers have experimented with a longer single scene, it is more usual to use much shorter segments of film to create a scene and vary the camera angles and views etc etc to maintain a visual flow, each section lasting maybe 3-10 seconds length....
But this short time can take from 10 or 30 minutes to arrange and set up because you will have to consider and prepare the 'wind-light' settings for sky and sea,
as well as the camera angles and camera views you will use at each location,
plus which animations to use and whether you have got them or need to set them on the ground or wear them.

Also remember to film a few 'takes' in case of error and to provide backup,
to cover each section of the scene.

And this is just for ONE Scene and must be done for EACH scene/location :D
The times I have filmed group scenes involving actors I have come on previous days or times and done all of the above setting up before they even arrive on the sets.


Re landmarks;
To set up landmarks,
In the first case you will need to locate your preferred land locations and views/sights,and bookmark them, lest you forget the name or location...
then Instant Message, Notecard or email the land owner and ask for their permission to film some scenes there, you cannot proceed until they have given permission.

If The Location is all on your own land, then you can skip that part of set up,
BUT will still need to consider the following;
You will need to fine tune your location settings for EACH SCENE
this will include deciding exactly which camera angles you want and which views.

Then pre-arranging and 'saving' wind-light settings' per scene ie you may want one at dawn, another at sunset or midnight etc, and these are best set up and then saved for ease of use later....
The subject of wind light settings can be as vast as the possible range of sky color and day/night light/dark varieties, for which reason I will not go into depth here.
The Imprudence viewer has a wealth of such wind-light settings and via use of my free software Gadwin Print-screen, I have captured some of these and then imported into my favorite filming viewer, in my case this is Snowglobe.
You can save these settings from an alternate viewer by opening up World, Environment, Environment Editor, Advanced Sky/Sea and entering all the preferred settings values;



Don't forget to capture and transfer each of 3 sets of settings, ie Atmosphere, Lighting, Clouds, and once configured, to save it with a new name that you will recognize.


Setting up any 'pose balls' or props that may be needed each scene....
Naturally you will want your characters to do something or other in each scene, which may include sitting at some spot to talk, or an other more active animation.
Whilst some animations are operable from within the individual users Inventory, in certain cases it may be preferable to locate, make, beg, borrow or steal (ok not to steal) a set of 'pose balls' which you will then need to set in the correct location for the scene.

To do this you will also need 'Rez rights' that allow you to 'Rez' or 'Raise' an object at the desired location.
To Rez means to create or to make an object appear. 'Rezzing' an object or prim can be done by dragging it from a resident's inventory or by creating a new one via the edit window.
The term was inspired by the classic science-fiction movie Tron.



To get Rez rights, you must either own or rent the location yourself, or be a member of a group that operates there and which confers Rez rights on its members , or have been granted these specifically, by the owner.
You could also Rez items etc in a Sandbox, which is a publicly available space that allows anyone to come and Rez and build objects there, also to open shopping items if you do not have a land plot or group membership to do so elsewhere.
The only rule here being that you are required to clean up after use and not leave many objects (including invisible ones) cluttering up the communal space.

Re the actual Pose Balls and animations themselves;
this is an endless challenge for the machinima maker, both how to use the tried and tested, if rather samey animations that everyone has, to create a scene that has some life in it, and where to find more exciting, longer or MoCap (Motion Capture) animations that have more realistic motion and perhaps have not yet been seen in countless machinima films.
The Great advantage of MoCap over more traditional forms of animated movements for 3D environmnts, is that whilst the latter are configured on a computer by programming each movement point, through ''motion capture systems'' (hence the name Mo-Cap) the former use real world mapping of actual movements to make the 3D animated human form more lifelike. The end result of MoCap animations are virtual movements that move and act as their real-world counterparts....
There are a number of stores selling such MoCap animations in SL, just type mocap in search and go shopping.

As a final reminder,remember that you can't just walk in and start shooting film footage, but that you will have to create and/or arrange all that you will show.
Preparation preparation preparation, if you do enough of it, it will become like second nature in filming Second Life.
Happy Scene-scaping :D