In filmmaking, dailies are the raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. The term comes from when movies were all shot on film because usually at the end of each day, the footage was developed, synced to sound, and printed on film in a batch (and later telecined onto videotape or disk) for viewing the next day by the director, selected actors, and film crew members. After the advent of digital filmmaking, "dailies" were available instantly after the take and the review process was no longer tied to the overnight processing of film and became more asynchronous. Now some reviewing may be done at the shoot, even on location, and raw footage may be immediately sent electronically to anyone in the world who needs to review the takes. For example, a director can review takes from a second unit while the crew is still on location or producers can get timely updates while travelling. Dailies serve as an indication of how the filming and the actors' performances are progressing. The term was also used to describe film dailies as "the first positive prints made by the laboratory from the negative photographed on the previous day".
In some regions such as the UK, India and Canada, dailies are usually referred to as rushes or daily rushes, referring to the speed at which the film prints were developed. In animation, dailies are also called rushes or sweat box sessions.
Film dailies may also refer to the process of viewing dailies in a theater, usually by a group.
Viewing
Dailies may be viewed by members of the film crew on a regular basis either early in the morning before filming starts, during the lunch break, or in the evening after filming ends. It is common for several members of the film crew including the director, cinematographer, editor, and others to view and discuss the dailies as a group, but some productions opt to distribute multiple copies of the dailies for individual viewing. They may be distributed via a network to individuals on set or remotely. Some filmmakers may choose to distribute dailies via a storage medium such as DVDs or USB sticks for security reasons. Individual copies may be uniquely coded or serialized to help discourage and prosecute unauthorized leaks of the material.
Viewing dailies allows the film crew to see exactly what images and audio were captured with the takes, to detect technical problems such as a dirty lens, focus issues, exposure, etc. It also presents an opportunity for the director to evaluate the actor's performances and to confirm having captured a scene from an adequate assortment of camera angles. Timely review of takes allows the director to order a reshoot if necessary while venues and talent are still available. The ability to implement timely reshoots also helps mitigate continuity issues such as weather changes in exterior shots.
Dailies are also often viewed independently of the production crew by producers, and studio executives, not engaged, day-by-day, in production but who must have assurances that the project is meeting their respective expectations as investors. Commonly, asynchronous daily sequences are repetitious, often including multiple takes of the same shot.
When production was done using film, directors and producers preferred to view dailies on film, rather than on DVD dailies. However, because of the costs involved and depending on the target quality of the film, some productions viewed dailies on DVD. With digital production, directors and others who need a high-quality viewing will simply use the highest quality viewing device available given the resolution. A high-quality viewing device makes it much easier to check for correct focus and smaller details.
In the production of low-budget films with few crew and a short and uninterrupted shooting period, review of the takes may be very quick and a formal, regular group viewing of dailies may be forgone.
Contents
Many films have one main film unit which does all primary filming and one or more smaller film units shooting additional "pickup" shots, stunts, or shots involving special effects. These shots are included with the main unit footage on the dailies reels. A typical pickup shot might be a simple shot of the exterior of a building that does not involve any actors and is filmed with a smaller crew to save time and money.
If a unit shoots with more than one camera usually all the shots from one "A" camera will be followed by all "B" camera shots because of the way the dailies are processed.