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…