Elliptical editing

Elliptical Editing

Elliptical editing is a technique used in film to show a passage in time by cutting two scenes together by missing out the journey from one place to another.

 

An example of this would be when a person is walking from their house to shop you could record them getting ready and walking out the door then cut to a point further down the pavement and then cut to him entering the shop to skip out the journey.

Example used in Batman Begins:

 

 

Here the elliptical editing is used to show Bruce Wayne travel across the land. Normally, this journey would take days to view, however by using elliptical editing this extremely long journey can show the progression of time and his journey in just under a minute and a half.

 

When creating our own journey through elliptical editing we will focus on the transitions from one scene to another to make the cuts un-noticeable to the audience and ensure our continuity doesn't break. Some key techniques used in elliptical editing is to cut scenes when the character is taking a footstep which conveys to the audience he is walking into the next transition making the cut barely noticeable.