Katharine Petkovski liminal

542films presents the official music video for liminal by composer Katharine Petkovski.

Set to a three-minute instrumental piece written for strings, the music video for liminal unfolds as a single, unbroken shot of a solitary tree in a wide-open field. The scene invites the viewer into a meditative space balanced between stillness and motion.

As the chord progression repeats, the image quality begins to break down, momentarily slipping out of meditation into an analog echo of itself. This slow unraveling mirrors the music’s expressive restraint, suggesting a mood both introspective and slightly shadowed.

Crew

Cinematographer, Director, Editor / Karl Frederick Mattson

Music / liminal by Katharine Petkovski

Composed, recorded, and produced by Katharine Petkovski. Additional violin recorded and performed by Adrian Irvine.

Tech Specs

Released / 2024

Runtime / 3 min 21 sec

Aspect Ratio / 1.33:1

Format / Digital, Sony DVC tape, Sony VHS tape

Camera / Sony FX6

Deck / Panasonic AG-1980 S-VHS VCR, Sony DVCAM DSR-25 DVR

Lens / Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS

Post-Production Notes /

This video is technically one-take with two parts.

The first part is a clean digital image in a single take. The video file was then rotated 90 degrees and transferred to tape on a MiniDV deck. More on the 90-degree rotation later. From the MiniDV deck, the video feed was recorded to a VHS tape on a VCR. While capturing the VHS footage back to digital, the music track was played back in real time while adjusting the VCR tracking settings beyond normal settings, subtly timing the image-bending visuals to the music progression. The VHS tape was then captured back to digital format, rotated back to normal, composited over the original video, and faded in/out at both ends.

The video was rotated 90 degrees at the beginning of the process, so when the video was played back and distorted in the VCR, the distortion would be vertical and in the direction of the tree and its branches.