Sentence:  Each scene is shot straight through , as had <WSD>been</WSD> the universal custom , from a camera fixed in a single position , but in the outdoor scenes , especially in the capture and destruction of the outlaws , Porter 's camera position breaks , necessarily , with the camera position standard until then , which had been , roughly , that of a spectator in a center orchestra seat at a play . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)