Film Locations Glossary
Day-for-night
What is day-for-night?
Also called DFN.
Day-for-night is shooting in daylight and treating the result as night, through underexposure, filtration, grading, and careful framing that keeps the sky out.
On location it is a scheduling instrument as much as a photographic one: it removes curfews, noise variances, night premiums, and lighting packages from the day. The trade is a look that has to be committed to at the camera rather than fixed later.
Example
Three night pages in a car are shot day-for-night with heavy neutral density and the sky kept out of frame. It saves a noise variance, a night premium across 90 crew, and a lighting package, and it commits the look at the camera.
Figures are illustrative, chosen to show the mechanics rather than to quote market rates.
Where you'll see it
Agreed between the director and DP at tech scout, since it drives shot design not just grading.
Common mistake
Deciding to go day-for-night in the grade rather than at the camera. It has to be shot for, with the sky kept out and exposure and filtration committed on the day.
Related questions
- How is day-for-night achieved?
- Underexposure, filtration, framing that excludes the sky, and grading, with lighting and shot design planned for it from the tech scout onward.
- Why shoot day-for-night instead of at night?
- It removes the curfew, the noise variance, the night premium across the unit, and much of the lighting package, which on a long schedule is a substantial saving.