Day for Night
Definition
"Day for Night" is a filmmaking technique in which scenes intended to appear as if they were filmed at night are actually filmed during the day, using camera filters, underexposure, and post-production color grading to simulate the appearance of nighttime. The technique was widely used in the era of film when shooting at night was technically difficult and expensive. While modern cameras are capable of shooting in very low light, Day for Night is still occasionally used for practical or creative reasons. The French New Wave director François Truffaut made a film called "Day for Night" (La Nuit Américaine, 1973) that celebrated this technique.
Contextual Usage
The director of photography proposes a solution to a scheduling problem: "We don't have the budget to shoot the exterior night scenes at night — the overtime and additional lighting costs are too high. I think we can shoot them Day for Night during the afternoon when the sun is lower in the sky. We'll underexpose by two stops, use a polarizing filter to darken the sky, and finish the look in the color grade."
About this section
Production — or "principal photography" — is the phase in which the film or video is actually shot. It is the most visible and, typically, the most expensive phase of the entire process. Every day on ...
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