some trademark techniques of famous directors

1. Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Memento):

• Dark and often Blue hued cinematography
• Non-linear timelines (Following (1998), Memento (2000), Batman Begins (2005), and The Prestige (2006))
• Crosscutting several scenes of parallel action to build to a climax (The Prestige (2006),The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010), The Dark Knight Rises (2012)).
• Frequently uses hard cuts when transitioning to the next scenes. This is most prominent in his films from 'Batman Begins' onward, especially in 'The Dark Knight', where, in some instances, the hard cuts he uses will go so far as to nearly cut off character's lines in order to quickly and efficiently get to the next scene.
• Typically ends his films with a character giving a philosophical monologue
• Displays the title before the end credits (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises)

2. Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill, Django Unchained):

• Long tracking shots
• Crane shots which track above characters.
• Also like Scorsese, Tarantino’s love of music often plays an essential role in his
• Hyper-stylized violence and strong female leads are also
• And don’t forget the patented “trunk shot,” in which the camera is placed at a low angle with the characters looking downwards, towering over the shot.

3. James Cameroon (Titanic, Avatar):

• Colors his films with a blue overlay
• Featuring a strong female character, while the men struggle (and often fight) with technology. a close-up of feet/wheels (typically executed when trampling occurs)

• Using a video monitor as the perspective of the camera (surveillance cameras in True Lies, video log in Avatar, beginning of Titanic).

4. David Fincher (Fight Club, The Social Network):

• Fluid tracking, which he has famously used to go through walls and objects.
• Unique opening title sequences
• A shot inside a fridge, and include single frame insertions, most recognized in Fight Club.
• Play with darkness, using silhouettes and shadows to hide identity,
• Have a color theme (black and blue for Fight Club, black and yellow for Zodiac).
• Prefers to avoid Hollywood happy endings, concluding most of his films on a downbeat.

5. Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom):

• Whimsical visual style
• Meticulous set of visual flourishes
• Keeps his camera mostly steady to give an impression of a painting rather than a three-dimensional, moving image.
• Symmetrical style
• Overhead shot
• Unorthodox families

6. Ingmar Bergman (Wild Strawberries, Persona):

• Close-ups of faces
• Close-ups of ticking clocks
• Dynamic use of shadows
• Religious themes
• Most of his films are around 90 minutes long
• Two characters having an intense and emotional - sometimes heated - conversation while barley looking at each other.

..

Alfonso Cuarón has a penchant for Long takes (i.e. continuous, uninterrupted shot of film that's typically larger than a minute or so) and uses it to tremendous effect in his movies.

The first 17 minutes or so of his movie Gravity (2013) is entirely one take and is spectacularly executed to really suck the audience in on the whole floating-in-space experience. (Although the scene in its entirety is not yet available online, you can read about it here: The 17-Minute Take In 'Gravity' Is An Absolute Masterpiece - Business insider)

In the words of the director himself:

"We wanted to slowly immerse audiences into first the environment and then to immerse them into the action, and the ultimate goal of this whole experiment was for the audiences to feel as if they are a third character who is floating with our other two characters in space."

He has also used this technique multiple times in his previous movie Children of Men (2006) and one particular scene involving an intricately choreographed war-zone with Theo (the protagonist) wading through it stands out as an outstanding example.

Another example from Children of Men where the technique is used is in a car scene that starts off as simple banter between the characters and unexpectedly goes South as they are attacked by a group of terrorists.

I personally am a big fan of long takes as they have a way of keeping you hooked on the action and don't break the tension of the scene. Watching the first scene of Gravity in IMAX 3D has been, and I believe will always be, some of my most breathtaking moments of movie-watching ever.

Sofia Coppola uses a shot where the character is looking out of the window whilst they're on some mode of transport (it's always moving when the shot is used):

Kirsten Dunst (as Lux Lisbon) in The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Scarlett Johansson (as Charlotte) in Lost in Translation (2003)
Kirsten Dunst as, and in Marie Antoinette (2006)
Elle Fanning (as Cleo) in Somewhere (2010)

Quentin Tarantino has a famous 'trunk shot' he uses, in which the camera pans up as if looking from a trunk:

Django Unchained (2012)

Michael Haneke kills/harms an animal in one scene in most of his films. Obviously this has been very controversial.

David Fincher has a shot that zooms in on the back of the character's head and also has a love affair with the colour yellow.