Elliptical Editing

Elliptical Editing 

Elliptical editing is a technique used in film editing that allows an event's duration on the screen to be shorter than its duration in the story. Elliptical editing is also a type of editing which cuts unnecessary actions from a sequence. Editors use elliptical editing to control the pace of the story. A long event that may take hours in the story may be shortened so that audience only need to sit through a few minutes. However, the editing has to be continuous editing or the shots would look to much like jump cuts.

An example of elliptic editing would be from 'Batman Begins' (Dir. Christopher Nolan, 2005).