How to Use Jump Cuts in Film: 3 Examples of Jump Cuts

A jump cut is an editing technique that cuts between two sequential shots. In these shots, the camera position doesn’t change (or only changes a small amount), but the subjects move, giving the appearance of jumping around frame. Jump cuts give the effect of moving forward through time.

French illusionist and film director Georges Méliès accidentally discovered jump cuts when his camera jammed during the shooting of his short film, The Vanishing Lady (1896). He noticed the buildings and setting stayed the same, but the people had moved, creating a ‘disappearing’ special effect. Méliès realized that this filming technique could be used purposely to convey other meanings and intent, and sought to use it as a narrative tactic.

Along with other filmmakers of the 1950s and 1960s French New Wave, Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960) brought notoriety to the jump cut. He used it to break up continuous shots of a character having a conversation in a moving car, which helped push the narrative forward in a visually interesting way. This cut style influenced the contemporary use of the jump cut for future filmmakers.

The use of jump cuts can be jarring for viewers as it inhibits continuity editing. However, when properly used, they can be a handy transitional device:

• To show the passing of time. Where a match cut is used to draw a relationship between two different objects or events, a jump cut is used to fix the camera angle and speed up time. This is particularly useful for montages when depicting the important moments of a sequence and showing how things have progressed over a period of time.
• To show a lack of time. Jarring jump cuts can add to the quick-paced anxiety of a frantic scene. Someone on the run or scrambling to find something are often depicted through jump cuts, to make time feel like it's squeezed together for the viewer, just like it is for the character.
• For comedy purposes. Jump cuts are often used for comedic effect, with certain comedy films aligning opposing or mismatched images and scenes together to enhance its humor.
• To add special effects. Both magic and horror benefit from the jump cut editing technique, as it allows characters or things to suddenly appear and disappear. This is useful for showing magic tricks, as well as enhancing jump scares to frighten on-screen characters and your audience.

Jump cuts are used in many films for different effects:

1. 1. City of God (2003): The opening sequence of this Brazilian film is fast-paced and jarring, much like the world of cartels and drug trade itself. The beginning explodes into a seemingly slapped-together cut of simultaneous action, rhythm, and violence, setting the tone and expectation for the rest of the movie.
2. 2. The Ring (2002): This horror film uses jump cuts as a scare tactic for both the character and audience. The antagonist, a young girl’s vengeful spirit, emerges from a television screen and makes her way to her target, the protagonist’s potential love interest. As he scrambles in fear, jump cuts are used to suddenly position her right in front of him, only to cut away right before his demise. This not only works to add horror to the film, but to create suspense.
3. 3. Juno (2007): Jason Reitman’s comedy-drama Juno uses jump cuts to mark the teen protagonist’s physical and emotional journey throughout her pregnancy, with each jump representing a new phase of the character’s progression through this life-changing event.

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