Dailies

Dailies

noun | Post-Production

The raw, unedited footage shot during a single day of production, transferred and prepared for review by the director, producer, cinematographer, and other key department heads. Typically viewed the following morning before that day's shoot begins. The word "dailies" reflects the daily rhythm of this review process. Viewing dailies allows the creative team to assess the technical and creative quality of what has been captured, identify problems while the production can still correct them, and confirm that the required coverage has been obtained. In digital workflows, dailies are delivered as proxy files via secure streaming platforms.

Quick Reference

The Explanation: How & Why

Dailies serve as the production's quality control loop. A day's footage is shot, offloaded by the DIT (Digital Imaging Technician), color-managed to a viewing LUT (Look-Up Table), and delivered to the dailies viewing session. The creative team watches each take from each setup of the previous day.

The dailies review serves multiple functions:

Technical verification: The DP confirms that the footage has the intended exposure, focus, and optical quality. Any technical problem, a focus miss, an unexpected camera shake, a lens aberration, is identified before production moves on and the opportunity to reshoot is lost. It is far better to identify a focus problem in dailies on day two than to discover it in the edit on week six.

Performance evaluation: The director reviews performances across all takes, confirming that the required range of options exists in the coverage. A take that felt strong on set may read differently on screen. A take that seemed ordinary may reveal unexpected depth. Dailies give the director a second look at each performance with the emotional pressure of the set removed.

Coverage assessment: The editor (if present) or the director confirms that all required coverage has been captured. If a particular angle or reaction is missing, it can be scheduled for the following day while the location and cast are still available.

Creative alignment: Dailies keep all key department heads aligned on the film's evolving visual language. The costume designer, production designer, and DP can all watch the same footage and ensure their departments are reading consistently on screen.

In the digital era, dailies are typically delivered as H.264 or ProRes proxy files distributed via secure streaming platforms. PIX, Frame.io, and Sohonet are the dominant platforms for dailies delivery in 2026. Frame.io integrated camera-to-cloud workflows with ARRI, RED, and Sony cameras allow footage to begin uploading from the set in near-real-time, reducing the overnight processing window. Remote stakeholders, including producers, financiers, and studio executives who may not be on location, access dailies through these platforms with password-protected streaming.

Historical Context & Origin

The term "dailies" derives from the daily print. In the photochemical era, the exposed negative from each day's shoot was sent overnight to the laboratory, where it was processed and printed onto a positive print (the "daily print" or "rush print") for the next morning's screening. The screening was held in a darkened projection room, often before the day's first setup began. Actors and crew were sometimes permitted to attend but were often excluded at the director's discretion. Many directors feel that performers watching themselves on screen too frequently creates self-consciousness that undermines subsequent performances. The term "rushes" (British usage) reflects the overnight rush of the laboratory work. Both terms remain in use, with "rushes" more common in the UK and "dailies" more common in the US, though the underlying process is now entirely digital. The transition from photochemical to digital dailies began in the early 2000s with the adoption of digital cinema cameras and was largely complete by 2015. The Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) specification, established in 2005, provided the technical foundation for digital dailies delivery by standardizing digital cinema distribution formats.

How It's Used in Practice

Scenario 1 - Technical Problem Identified (DP): In dailies, the DP notices that three close-ups from yesterday's interior scene have soft focus in the left eye. The takes were otherwise excellent performances. The DP flags the issue to the director: the shots are technically compromised but may still be usable depending on the cutting. The director decides two of the three need to be reshot. One is marginal but usable. The 1st AD adds a 20-minute reshoot block to today's schedule before the company moves to the next location.

Scenario 2 - Remote Dailies (Producer): The executive producer is based in Los Angeles while production is in Budapest. The dailies are delivered each evening as password-protected H.264 proxy files via PIX. The DIT in Budapest uploads approximately 45 minutes of footage per shooting day. The executive producer reviews them overnight (9-hour time difference) and sends notes to the director via the PIX comment system before the Budapest shoot day begins at 7am local time. The director reviews the notes before the first setup.

Scenario 3 - Performance Discovery (Director): In dailies, the director watches a take they dismissed on set because the actor went off-script. Viewed on screen, the spontaneous deviation is better than the written line. The director flags it to the editor with a note in Frame.io: "Use the off-script take at 14:32. Circle it." The editor receives the comment notification and incorporates the note into the edit. The Frame.io comment is timestamped to the exact frame, allowing the editor to jump directly to the flagged moment.

Usage Examples in Sentences

"Dailies at 7am before the first setup. I want the DP to see the focus issues from yesterday before we roll again."

"The rushes look beautiful. The new lens package is working exactly as planned."

"Never skip dailies. The set is still available, the location is still standing. If there is a problem in the footage, dailies is when you fix it."

"The producer watched the dailies remotely and sent three pages of notes by 6am. We will address them in the production meeting."

Common Confusions & Misuse

Dailies vs. Footage: Footage is the complete body of all recorded material from the production. Dailies are the footage from a specific day, prepared and presented for review in a specific workflow context. All dailies become part of the total footage. Not all footage is reviewed as dailies (archival or library footage used in the film, for example, was never part of a dailies review process).

Dailies vs. Assembly: Dailies are unedited raw material, viewed in chronological shooting order as a quality control exercise. The assembly is the first edited version of the film, in which all selected footage is cut together in script order. Dailies are a production tool. The assembly is the first post-production artifact. The editor builds the assembly from the dailies.

Dailies vs. Video Village: Video village is the live monitoring feed on set, viewed during shooting in real time. Dailies are the processed, color-managed footage viewed after shooting, typically the next morning. Video village shows what the camera sees as it records. Dailies show what the recorded footage actually looks like after processing. A performance that looks correct on the video village monitor may reveal problems in dailies that the on-set monitor did not show.

Variations by Context

Key People & Films

Steven Spielberg is known for reviewing dailies every morning without fail, a practice he has maintained across his entire career from Jaws (1975) to The Fabelmans (2022). David Fincher reviews dailies meticulously, often requesting specific technical checks on focus and exposure that go beyond standard review. Roger Deakins has discussed the importance of dailies for confirming that the digital image captured on set matches the intended look, particularly on Blade Runner 2049 (2017) where the LUT-based dailies workflow was critical for maintaining visual consistency across months of shooting. Thelma Schoonmaker, editor of The Irishman (2019), has described the dailies review process as the first opportunity to assess whether the film's rhythm is emerging from the captured material.

Equipment / Tools Reference

• PIX System: The dominant dailies delivery platform for major studio productions. Provides secure streaming, timestamped comments, and version control for dailies, cuts, and VFX reviews.
• Frame.io: Adobe's cloud review platform, widely used on independent and mid-budget productions. Camera-to-cloud integration with ARRI, RED, and Sony cameras enables near-real-time dailies upload from set.
• Sohonet: A dedicated media network providing high-speed file transfer between production locations and post-production facilities. Used for large-file dailies delivery where streaming is insufficient.
• DaVinci Resolve: Blackmagic Design's color grading and editing software, used by DITs to generate dailies proxies with applied LUTs. The free version supports full dailies processing.

Standards & Specifications

Digital dailies are typically delivered as H.264 or Apple ProRes 422 proxy files at 1080p resolution, regardless of the capture format (which may be 4K, 6K, or 8K). The Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) specification, established in 2005 by the major studios, standardized digital cinema distribution formats and indirectly influenced dailies delivery standards. Dailies proxies are color-managed using the production's chosen LUT, typically derived from the ACES color pipeline or a custom show LUT created by the DP and colorist. The SMPTE timecode standard ensures that dailies timecode matches the original camera timecode, allowing the editor to locate specific takes and frames. A typical shooting day generates 30 to 60 minutes of footage, resulting in dailies sessions of 45 to 90 minutes including discussion.

Common Questions / FAQ

Q: Who attends the dailies screening?

A: The director and DP attend every dailies session. The producer, 1st AD, and editor typically attend. Department heads (costume, production design, hair and makeup) may attend when their departments' work is particularly visible in the footage. Actors are often excluded at the director's discretion, as many directors believe watching themselves daily creates self-consciousness. On remote productions, stakeholders access dailies via secure streaming platforms.

Q: How long does a dailies session take?

A: A typical dailies session runs 45 to 90 minutes, depending on the amount of footage from the previous day. A production shooting 12 pages per day on multiple cameras may generate 60 or more minutes of footage. The session includes watching all takes from all setups, with discussion of technical and creative issues. Dailies are typically scheduled before the first setup of the new shoot day.

Q: What is the difference between dailies and rushes?

A: There is no technical difference. "Dailies" is the American term. "Rushes" is the British term, derived from the overnight rush processing of photochemical film prints. Both terms refer to the same process: reviewing the previous day's footage the next morning. "Rushes" is more common in the UK, Australia, and parts of Europe. "Dailies" is more common in the US and Canada.

Q: Can dailies be skipped to save time?

A: Skipping dailies is strongly discouraged. The purpose of dailies is to identify problems while the production can still correct them. If a focus problem, a continuity error, or a missing coverage angle is discovered in dailies, the production can reshoot that day. If the same problem is discovered in the edit weeks later, reshooting may be impossible because the location, cast, and crew are no longer available. The time cost of a 60-minute dailies session is minimal compared to the cost of a reshoot day.

Related Terms

• Footage - The complete body of recorded material. Dailies are the daily subset of this material prepared for review.
• Assembly - The first edited version of the film. Built from the material reviewed in dailies.
• Rough Cut - The first shaped edit. Produced from the assembly after the dailies review phase.
• Director's Cut - A later edit phase. Preceded by the assembly and rough cut built from dailies material.
• Continuity - Continuity problems are identified in dailies before they become fixed in the edit.

See Also / Tools

The Production Schedule Calculator includes the post-production timeline within which dailies review is a daily production workflow element. Factoring dailies review time into the overall production day ensures the creative team stays current with the footage. For understanding the full post-production pipeline from dailies to final delivery, see the Post Production Timeline blog post.