‘The Path’: How The Editors and Cinematographers Achieved a Creepy and Haunting Allure (Emmy Watch)

To create a greater sense of intimacy, around 80% of the series was shot with steady hand-held moves to explore the space and to give the actors the ability to move around. For suspense, he used a lot of slow zooms. Besides, there was already a very small footprint with practical lighting and a couple of cameras.

In addition, the pilot introduces strange flashbacks during a Peru retreat in which Eddie is confronted by the ghost of his dead brother. These were shot in a more hyper-real fashion. “We’re not sure whether it’s an hallucination or supernatural and I used available firelight to give it a reddish quality,” Orbach added.

For Dennis, “The Path” has a plaintive quality, serving as a metaphor for faith and happiness offered by support groups that inevitably devolve into power and corruption. “I embraced [the observational quality] by letting the scenes play out naturally, with wide shots and just cutting in when we had to for tighter shots,” he said. “There’s so much going on in their faces, especially with group leader Cal. He’ll be saying one thing but there’s some other meaning beneath it that maybe he doesn’t even know. It really benefits from unconventionally long scenes.”

For instance, a campfire scene during the retreat reveals how Cal manipulates Eddie’s vulnerability. It’s the catalyst for his emotional descent. Or the uncomfortable moment when a young addict (Emma Greenwell) throws herself sexually at Cal, and the conflict it arouses in him between immediate and delayed gratification.