Elliptical Editing

Elliptical Editing.

Elliptical editing is a form of editing where you can allow for example a journey to be made shorter. The story line will still show the character getting from one place to another, however it will cut out the irrelevant parts. It is more useful in shorter films so you can cut out unnecessary parts and keep parts that add things to the story. Elliptical editing is used mainly to show time consuming journeys in less time. As long as you see the character get from one to another you can understand that they have travelled from one place to another. The simplest type of elliptical editing is a cut between two shots. It shows one scene and then jumps to another scene. Both of the shots maybe be relevant to each other. For example someone going in lift, they get in at the ground floor level, this can be shown by using a long shot to establish where they are in comparison to the next shot where a log shot can be used again as the person exits he lift on the third floor level. You still need to ensure that the story makes sense from one cut to another.

In Batman Begins, there is a very good example of elliptical editing. It shows a man walking down an empty road, a long shot is used to show where he is in comparison to his surroundings. The next shot he has moved to a different place on the road. We know where the man is walking, so showing the journey there is pointless. Instead it just jumps to where he was going.