The art of the match cut: how filmmakers make impossible transitions feel effortless

There is a moment early in David Lean’s 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia, where T.E.

Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) looks into the burning flame of a lit match just prior to his transfer from London to Cairo.

The camera lingers over the orange and yellow flame, before the scene cuts suddenly from a domestic English setting to a sunrise over a vast desert.

The colours here are of a similar hue, and through these visual connections we realise we have instantly traversed both time and place.

This strategy of connecting edit points based on visual (and in some cases aural) similarities is known as the “match cut”.

The Lawrence of Arabia example is famed for its use of a literal match; the film won the 1963 Academy Award for best editing .

Today, the match cut remains an indispensable tool for editors and filmmakers – one that can shock us, move us, and help draw us into reality-defying fictional worlds.

How it works The match cut is simply a process in which two images are cut together in the edit, where the transition from one shot to the next is matched across similarity in shape, colour or movement.

Sometimes, this technique is designed to appear seamless, or “invisible”, to suggest continuity between two visual states.

One example would be someone running towards a door, and in the next shot running through the other side.

This match cut, on action, uses the form of the person in motion to connect both shots.

A tool for continuity Like many editing processes, the match cut evolved over time as the language of cinema developed.

Early, crude versions can be traced back to the work of French filmmaker George Méliès, who employed the “ stop-trick ” process.

This involved stopping and restarting the camera to display a sudden change or visual trick.