Time Compression / Ellipsis

Time compression / Ellipsis

Watch as an animation →

In plain words

Cut out the unnecessary middle to shrink a long stretch of time into a few seconds.

When to use it

Departure to arrival, morning to evening, skipping across many years.

Example videos

Up (2009) - "Married Life" Opening Scene — Real: Decades of marriage shrink to a few minutes, boldly skipping the middle.
Elliptical Editing in Vagabond - Film Art video essay — Explainer: Explains how elliptical editing skips time and still keeps the story connected.
Washed Out - The Hardest Part (Official Video) — AI: Joins AI-made scenes to compress a person's decades into 4 minutes.

In AI video, like this

Handle changes in time and weather between cuts. Change one of the light, the clothes or the props so it reads as "time has passed", and join with a dissolve or a cut on the beat.

One-click prompt

Three-shot sequence with a locked camera on the same cafe window table, hard cuts, 1.5 seconds each: Shot 1, morning, an empty table with a steaming coffee cup; Shot 2, afternoon light, the cup half empty and a notebook open; Shot 3, night, a lamp on and a stack of finished pages. Only light and props change.

See it in real films and ads

Up (2009) — "Married Life" opening

AI-made examples

Washed Out — The Hardest Part (Paul Trillo, decades compressed into 4 minutes with Sora)

Recommended for scenes like these

Techniques that pair well

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