Raw film footage is collected after a day of filming and shown to the crew and, in some cases, the cast of a film or television show. They serve a variety of important functions, and seeing them can be a joyous occasion, especially after filming a particularly tense or difficult scene. They’re usually not accessible to the general public for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the sheer amount of footage involved.
Dailies are also known as rush films or rushes, owing to the rapidity with which they are produced. Film is developed, synced with sound, and then quickly printed to film so that it can be viewed to create them. Although many modern film and television sets prefer digitized dailies, film versions are still used on big-budget films.
The dailies give the crew a chance to double-check the filming’s basic technical details, ensuring that scenes look right and that the film isn’t damaged or distorted. The director and members of the artistic team may examine them to see if they like how scenes are playing out and to see how things appear on film versus in real life. Because the set was just used, it should still be fully assembled if footage needs to be shot again, saving dailies money by avoiding costly returns to previous sets and locations.
Some actors like to look at the rushes to see how they look, especially if they are experimenting with new techniques and looks. Because it’s difficult to know how something will look on film until the scene is shot and printed, actors often go on set blind, so checking the dailies on a regular basis is crucial.
Because this footage is unedited and raw, it can appear choppy and shaky. Special effects, for example, have not yet been added, so a scene may appear incomplete or strange, and chunks of footage may be missing if shot by a different film unit. They may also jump around in time, which can be perplexing to those who are used to looking at completed pieces.
Because making dailies is costly and watching them takes time, a director usually decides whether or not to keep a scene after it has been shot. After yelling “cut” to indicate that the cameras should stop rolling, the director will add “print” to indicate that the footage should be seen in the dailies.