Match Cut

MATCH CUT is a screenwriting device that uses an inanimate object as a bridge between two scenes.

For example:


EXT. STREET CORNER – DAY

Doyle approaches a mailbox.

THE SEALED LETTER
 
--is slipped into the slot.

                                                                                                                        MATCH CUT: THE SEALED LETTER

--is in the hands of Sasha.

INT. HOTEL LOBBY – NIGHT

 
Sasha begins to open the letter.


MATCH CUTS can also be used to indicate the passage of time:

 

EXT. HOUSE - DAY

Drake closes and securely locks the front door. He walks away, not looking back.

 
The house, now empty, looks new: freshly painted with clean windows.

                                                                                                                    MATCH CUT:

EXT. HOUSE – DAY- MANY YEARS LATER

 
The house is now rundown: paint-peeled with broken windows.

By the way, MATCH CUTS can be used in fiction, too:

 

 . . . Nick leaned back as he gazed out over the window-lit neighborhood from his balcony. Traffic droned below, when suddenly he heard a distant crack, crack. A sound he knew only too well.

***

 

Amber heard the crack, crack and the bullets whizzing by her as she dove behind a dumpster and out of the line of fire . . . 

 

Add the MATCH CUT to your writing toolbox. While it shouldn’t be overused, keep it in mind for those times when you need an especially intense transition.