Editing Analysis

Death Race

The pace of the editing at the beginning is fairly slow paced. The use of continuity editing makes it seem appear more realistic as it doesn't highlight the editing or draw any attention to the transitions, overall making it seem very normal. The conversation between husband and wife is seen as very natural and the editing coincides with this perfectly. There is a juxtaposition of the baby monitor and the male and female character and also an eyeline match between the two characters and the baby monitor indicating that there is a child in the house and also foreshadowing the fact that one of the characters will have to leave to tend to the child. 

Within the room, there is an initial straight cut to the photo and then to the door when the protagonist enters, showing the change in setting. There is then a cut to the baby monitor downstairs, which immediately creates the impression that the mother can hear what the father is saying. There is then a straight cut focusing on the woman and what she is doing.The straight cut from the woman cooking to the exterior window makes it appear as though someone is looking into the house and watching the woman. The editing also speeds up as soon as the protagonist leaves the room as the scenes interchange from one area of the house to another, creating tension. The rapid transitions from the kitchen to the bedroom show that something is wrong and it almost indicates to the audience that something is going to happen as there is such fast paced editing and transitions. As soon as we see the intruder there is a straight cut of the protagonist washing his face, unaware of what is going on downstairs. It is interesting to notice the lack of editing here as this is the longest shot, creating the most tension as the audience are aware that something is going on downstairs but the protagonist is casually upstairs washing his face. Because of the lack of editing, it makes the scene much more captivating as we want there to be a transition to the kitchen, in order for us to know what is happening to the woman. Then there is a straight cut of the protagonist walking down the stairs and again there is a lack of editing as we follow the protagonist walk down the stairs and the tension is building up. 

When the intruder comes and the protagonist and him first meet, the intruder sprays something into the protagonist's face and the editing highlights and emphasises the protagonist's view here by the use of a dissolve. There is also a jump cut used to showing that a bit of time has passed as the onions have burnt. The pace of the editing is very frenetic now to perhaps indicate how fast this is all happening for the protagonist. There are lots of dissolves used whilst the intruder is walking away, and the pace of these are much quicker as well, creating a sense of the protagonist's view and an eyeline match from him and the supposed antagonist. The use of half dissolves create a sense of the protagonist's eyes closing and opening again, showing the audience exactly what he is seeing through the use of editing. The scene has also been sped up as the antagonist walks away, making him seem almost ghost-like as the audience only see the intruder a few times, which creates a lot of mystery for the audience. 

There is then a fade to black, indicating that the intruder has gone and the time has changed. The fade out is very long, which also makes the audience think and believe that either the protagonist has died or been seriously injured. The initial slow fade into the shot contrasts the forthcoming pace of editing as it becomes rapid again as he looks up and there is a dissolve to the next shot of the onions. The use of the dissolve here could represent him regaining consciousness and slowly becoming aware of his surroundings. There are several straight cuts from the protagonist, to his wife, to the police and to the knife. There are also dissolves used as he tries to throw the knife and I think there is also a jump shot as the police officer is on top of the protagonist. There are many dissolves used again at the end of this scene as we see the protagonist's face and then this cuts to his wife and dissolves to the gun. The speed of this scene is also sped up, which again makes it seem like the editing is reflecting the protagonist as there are many eyeline matches between him and his wife, him and the police officers and also him and the gun. The fast pace and the juxtaposition between the characters in this scene makes this scene compelling and makes the audience feel frantic as they try to follow what's happening. When we see the protagonist again, there are more dissolve cuts used, perhaps this is to indicate how everything has become blurry and fast paced to him so the editing complements the emotions of the protagonist. The speed of his movements are increased in order to maintain that fast paced scene and to highlight to the audience how he is feeling.