The director can't predict the future. They can show a number of cars but can only guess who will crash out. Lappi's situation was shown as a replay.
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They cut away from Lappi to show the following two cars just cruising the stage.
Sometimes they cut just before an interesting passage from incar, only showing 5 secs of car revving on the startline.
I really don't get why they have to show every car taking off from the start line. It's only interesting if the car has an issue - even then, just show a replay if something noteworthy happens.
Same with in-car shots of the driver / crew's faces. That isn't where the action is, it's just one person turning a steering wheel, and another reading a book. Again - show a replay if something actually interesting or amusing happens, no problem. But live? When has anything worth looking at happened on the face cam?
I agree with you. But I also try to understand why they do this stuff.
Start line shots are only shown on TV stages. They are likely for sponsors, so the decals an be seen clearly on a stopped car. It also creates a "story" for a person who doesn't watch rallying so much, showing the order in which things happen ie. a car starts, drives on stage, another car starts, first car finishes etc.
Face cam is just a gimmick to me. It's a nice touch if used sparsely, but it's not informative at all. But maybe it makes the footage less monotonous.
cameras are live all the time, you can switch (more than cut) instantly. you can apply a fixed time transition (wrc+ don't). that's the technical part.
the other side is narration/storytelling grammar. you have a semi-fixed script to balance the airing time between cars and also some fixed need. i.e = p.s starting of any car/end of ps/interview.