Elliptical Editing

Elliptical Editing

Elliptical Editing is a technique which is used in film editing, it allows the duration of an event on screen to be shorter than it's duration in the story. The simplest type of elliptical edit is a cut between two shots both of which are part of the same event. The cut allows filmmakers to remove part of the event which therefore reduces the time the event is shown onscreen. For example a hero of a story might be wandering in a desert for days, therefore elliptical editing will shorten this time so the audience only have to sit through a few minutes. 

 

Here is an example of elliptical editing, it shows how the man has to get from one place to another and the filmmakers have cut out the parts which are not important they have filmed the beginning of his journey and then the end as the audience doesn't want to watch the man walk from one place to another and therefore it is condensed into around 15 seconds.

This is our example of elliptical editing: