Heathen Camerawork: Crossing the Liminal Border with “The Third Day” Cinematography

Abstract

This article focuses on cinematography and digital enhancement of the image, exploring the role of visualization strategies in augmenting the fictionalized filmic space in lieu of an immersive (liminal) experience and the ideas behind the technical conflation of HD photographic indexicality and magical realism (through portrayal of radical subjectivity, estrangement of familiar settings, and supernatural occurrences) in the surreal environment of a Samhain-like ritual portrayed in Sky TV’s The Third Day: Autumn (2020). Whereas slow cinema’s use of long takes traditionally intended to create a contemplative mood in the viewer in order to draw attention to fleeting aspects of the image, while providing involvement with a supposedly factual place, the episode’s extreme “take” on the theme induces a trance-like state through disfiguration – firstly, by numbing attention through apparent boredom; secondly, by catching the watcher (who is most likely already well accustomed to the conventions of the livestream “genre”) off-guard – as the festival transgresses from ritualistic procedures to cinematographic staging of a delirious consciousness.