The Descent – Editing Analysis

Jordon Jones

Long shot

This scene is a long shot as it shows the car including the entire location of where the people in the car are driving to. This would have been done to show the audience the family are driving somewhere. The camera shot would’ve been a wide shot.

Over the shoulder shot

This shot is an over the shoulder shot. This shot has been done to show the mother conversing with her daughter, and showing the strong bond between them.

POV/Reverse shot

This shot is a reverse/POV (point of view) shot. This shot is done to show the relationship between the mother and daughter, and has the background purposely out of focus to draw attention to the mothers face.

Close up shot

This shot is a close up shot. The shot is done to show the dads face, giving the impression he doesn’t want to be there, making the audience think that not everything is okay like it was suggested earlier.

Mid shot

This shot is a mid shot. This shot was again used to show the relationship between the mom and her daughter, but shows the dad uninterested and quiet, giving the impression he doesn’t have a very good relationship with his wife or daughter.

Frame two shot

This shot is a frame two shot. This shot uses the seats as a frame to focus on the car in the middle of the shot. The shot shows the couple talking with the dad looking towards towards his wife instead of keeping his eyes on the road, as you can see the cars about to crash into each other.

The editing pace

• In the first half, the editing pace starts off slow, and leads towards a faster pace before the crash happens. It starts off slow because the editor wants to give the impression of things being dull with the dad, and hints towards him saying something or them about to break up. However it is also slow because the editor wants to create a normality, giving the impression that everything is okay, and shows the mom and daughter building towards the future even with the shots showing the dad being unhappy. The pace slowly starts to build up, as before the crash happens you can see the car coming, which is a scene that lasts for about 3-4 seconds compared to the others that last between 5-10 seconds. This was done to make the buildup to the crash more effective as the audience could see something bad was going to happen.

Close up shot

This shot is a close up shot. The shot shows the two cars crashing into each other. This is the first scene that shows the editing pace change from slow to fast, which happens because it surprises the audience as the film has been slow until now and the change of pace grabs the audience’s attention and makes them jump.

Close up shot

This shot is a close up shot of the rods. This shot is the only shot where the rods are real, as when they enter the window that was all done in C.G.I (computer generated images)

Close up shot

This shot is another close up shot. The shot shows the rods going through the window. The rods in this scene are made with C.G.I, and the pole going through the chair is fake because you would see the pole in front of the dads chest instead of just popping out of the back. It shows the dads reaction and shows how scared he is.

Close up shot

This shot is another close up shot. The shot shows the rod entering the dads skull and popping out through the other side, but it is fake as you can clearly see the large amounts of fake blood coming off the rod, and is made to show what happened to the dad so that they aren't questioning whether he was killed or not in the next scenes.

Crane shot

This shot is a crane shot. The shot shows the aftermath of the cars after the accident has happened. The editing pace slows down again to show how nobody is coming to help and has an effect to show how weirdly calm the scene is after the accident.