Dailies
The term dailies can have two meanings in media production:
- Newspapers that are published every day (or 5/6 days per week).
- Daily raw footage shot during the production of a motion picture (also known as rushes or daily rushes, referring to the speed with which they must be prepared).
Film Dailies
On the film set, dailies are prepared at the end of each day's shooting to be viewed by the director and other staff later that night or during the following day. This allows them to make sure the footage is acceptable and free of technical problems. If any scenes need to be reshot, it obviously makes sense to do it immediately while sets and actors are still available.
A selection of dailies are sometimes distributed to other interested parties such as producers and investors, so they can keep up to date with the production process.
In traditional film-based production the film would need to be developed before viewing. In digital video production the footage might need to be converted to a convenient viewing format. Sound may need to be synched with the vision.
Dailies are not generally made available for public viewing, owing largely to contractual agreements with actors etc. There are exceptions — some jurisdictions are more permissive, and occasionally dailies are leaked illegally.