Visual Ellipses in ONE DAY and BEGIN AGAIN
editing which jumps through time (and the boring parts of arguments)
These scenes from One Day and Begin Again use similar techniques to get characters from one place to another; we definitely notice, but it’s smooth enough we feel the ‘missing’ time is completely unnecessary.
Let’s break down exactly how each of them do it.
One Day
The first twenty seconds is Emma (Anne Hathaway with an accent) reading Dexter (Jim Sturgess) the riot act. The argument is shot in fairly straightforward coverage, setting up for the big ‘jump’ three ways:
the first few seconds cuts from Dexter moving through darkness into a similarly-sized-and-framed shot of him catching up to Emma; the later ellipses jump echoes this.
the coverage stays in a two-shot, in approximately the same place, with no line jumps, significant angles, etc. It wouldn’t undermine the ellipses move to cover the argument in singles, but when we can see both faces and body language being melodramatic and reacting to melodrama, is there really a reason to?
when there is camera movement (including the cutaway to other patrons looking on) it moves L-R.
At 0:24 Emma leaves L-R, quick cut to a different medium-wide of her traveling L-R, closely followed by Dexter, who immediately reestablishes himself on Frame Left.
Because this matches the preceding shots and is moving the same way, it takes a split second to realise this isn’t just a new angle: they’ve moved outside, a spacial as well as time jump.
PHOTO
Besides frame size and direction, two other things help ease the transition:
similar blue lighting with a few yellow pops. (You could also go really, really hard the other direction, but an in-between would be weird.)
the actors maintain verbal pacing and emotional intensity (tough feat to match one let alone both, especially as they may have been shot in or out of order, hours or days apart).
Clearly director Lone Scherfig decided Dexter trailing Emma through the restaurant fumbling polite niceties to other diners isn’t interesting, but getting them out in open air where they can escalate is.
It’s also possible this was a post-production solutions, so there was more conversation inside, but it wasn’t working or wasn’t needed, so they used a visual shortcut to scrap it all.
Either way, it works.
Begin Again
This scene is much less dramatic of an argument, and separates the characters during the ellipses, but still has a similar end result.
The first half keeps Dan (Ruffalo) and Gretta (Knightly) separated by obstacles (a table, wall). It keeps the focus and lighting more on one than the other; first Dan, then Gretta lit inside as Dan paces in the shadows outside. But once they’re both outside, like Begin Again, Dan and Gretta share the frame, with no barriers to face-to-face conversation. The scene later splits out into two singles, but at a transition point and ‘ramp into’ the argument, holding a longer shot and showing all characters’ body language and faces together can be quite effective.
One difference is where the ellipses comes; not during the switch from inside to outside, but a beat later, ellipsing where Gretta makes the decision to run after him, and letting him walk a ways down the sideway. Switching to follow Dan at :20 raises the tension (will she? won’t she?) and then bang, with a small time jump but one which we certainly don’t need to see the details, Gretta catches up.
Similar to Begin Again, it’s clear that Gretta getting up, perhaps paying for her half of dinner, and leaving, isn’t interesting, so; skip it!
Begin Again starts every shot with Dan FrameLeft and Gretta FrameRight, except for the moment Dan leaves the restaurant, but he still starts the shot Left and crosses to the Right; then when the camera jumps outside, he’s re-established left and stays there. One Day also keeps its characters on their own side of frame until near the end, when you can see them change places in a medium 2-shot.
Takeaways
There’s a time and a place to let things happen in ‘real' time’ or even slower, but there’s also a time and a place to cut the mundane in-between, and ellipses bits such as getting up and walking out of a restaurant helps keep the pace and/or drive emotional tension.
Or maybe continuing a conversation which may be repetitive or unnecessary because the emotional truth of your actors does the word so extra dialogue isn’t needed.
It’s not necessary for a two-hander scene to keep to the rigid ‘side of frame’ rule, we know who these characters are and can easily follow; line crosses, unusual angles, etc are all fair game. But if you plan to incorporate an ellipses like this, keep in mind the audience has been reading your grammar and developing expectations. Know when scenes are better off sticking to clearer visual coverage, as details like this can help keep the audience oriented and allow your other stylistic choices to flourish.