The long takes used in Third Cinema are also credited with the repetition of images. These repetitions are the framework within which the characters negotiate relationships to others, but above all to the landscape. Emphasis on the social, and social space, niched into the landscape helps to place the individual characters in a larger context. Ester C.M. Yau notes that Chinese cinema locates individuals within the social order. The integrity of space in Third Cinema is maintained through the use of panning shots.
Nature is treated with panning shots, as well as long shots in Yellow Earth.
Thus, with long shots, the pan maintains the integrity of relations within space. Associated with long takes in Yellow Earth, the use of silence as invitation for the audience to fill in the gaps and negotiate the silence with the image to derive meaning. The camera of the Third Cinema is not bound to Western cinematic grammar which restricts space. Rather, in the Third Cinema, Centrifugal spatial configurations open up to a consciousness that is not moved by desire but rather the lack of it- the 'telling' moments are often represented in extreme long shots with little depth when sky and horizon are proportioned to an extreme, leaving a lot of 'empty spaces' within the frame. With the abandonment of the 180 degree rule, the Third camera is able to better negotiate the expansive space of the Third World.