Elliptical Editing
Elliptical editing is a term that refers to when you edit
down a sequence so that time is not running continuously. The runtime of the
video is reduced, but the time that passes in the actual film remains the same.
Essentially, it is done to cut out long walks or periods of times between
different set points in a story.
For example, a journey to a mountain temple, you start with
the protagonist(s) setting off from their starting location, they walk through
a field for an hour, up a mountain and then they enter a temple.
This can be cut down, for example, they set off from their
starting location, there is a cut to a few minutes into the future where they
are overlooking the field, cut to them walking through the field having
travelled a significant distance from where they had first seen the field, then
the next scene is them at the mountain and then it ends with them walking up
the door.
The journey along the field which took an hour for the
characters to traverse, was shown to us in only a few minutes.
Cutting to the same characters but in different locations
imply a big change in time, cutting to the same characters but in the same location only a small distance away from their original location implies a small change in time (a jump cut).
Jump Cuts and Elliptical Editing are very similar. One cannot function without the other. If you use jump cuts, you are 'Elliptical Editing-ing' the film, if you are 'Elliptical Editing-ing' the film you are jump cutting the film.
Although they are very similar, when someone mentions Elliptical Editing, they are not exactly referring to jump cuts but large changes in time.
In conclusion, the time that has passed in the story remains the same, we perceive that change in time as being shorter due to cuts.
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