Dailies Workflow Explained: From Camera Card to Editorial
What Are Dailies?
Dailies — also called rushes, particularly in the UK — are the day's footage prepared and delivered to editorial, the director, and key production stakeholders for review. The term comes from the era of film production, when exposed negative from the day's shooting would be developed overnight and printed as "daily" prints for the director to review each morning. The process has moved entirely into the digital domain, but the purpose is unchanged: get yesterday's footage in front of the people who need to see it, fast enough that they can make informed creative decisions about today's shooting.
Good dailies are not just raw camera files dropped onto a shared drive. They're a color-managed, transcoded, quality-controlled deliverable that lets an editor start assembling a cut, lets a director review performance, lets a producer see what they're getting for their money, and sometimes lets a studio or network check in on a production remotely. A bad dailies workflow is invisible when nothing goes wrong. It becomes very visible when an editor tries to sync audio to a file that won't play in their NLE, or when a director reviews footage that looks nothing like what the DP was designing on set.
The Full Dailies Pipeline
Step 1: Offload. Every card from every camera is offloaded at the DIT cart using a verified copy workflow. In Silverstack Lab, the card is ingested, checksummed, and copied to the primary RAID and a secondary backup before anything else happens. The card is only formatted and returned to camera after both copies pass checksum verification. This is the foundation. A dailies workflow built on unverified copies is a liability.
Step 2: Transcode. The original camera files — whether ARRI RAW, Sony X-OCN, RED RAWL, ProRes 4444, or Blackmagic RAW — are transcoded into a dailies format. The transcode format depends on the production's editorial setup and delivery requirements. Common options:
- H.264 proxy (typically 1080p or UHD): Small file size, universally compatible, fast to upload and download. Used for remote review and "offline" editorial on long-form productions where the editor cuts from proxies and conforms the online from the originals. Not suitable for same-system editorial where the editor needs to work from the full-resolution files.
- ProRes Proxy or ProRes LT: Higher quality than H.264, still manageable in file size, plays back smoothly in Premiere, Avid, and Final Cut. The industry standard for dailies on most feature and episodic productions.
- ProRes 4444 or ProRes HQ: Full-resolution, high-fidelity files. Used on productions where editorial is working from high-quality files from day one, or where the dailies file doubles as the online conform source.
Step 3: LUT Bake. The production's show LUT — the creative look developed by the DP and baked into the on-set grade — is applied during transcode. This is critical. Dailies without the show LUT applied look flat, desaturated, and technically unintelligible to anyone who isn't a colorist. The editor needs to see the intended look when they're making cut decisions. The director needs to see it when they're reviewing performance. The LUT bake transforms the raw log image into the intended viewing experience without altering the underlying data (since the LUT is applied to the transcode output, not to the original files).
Step 4: QC. Before dailies are delivered, the DIT performs a quality control pass. This includes checking that all files play without codec errors, that audio is properly synced (if the production is using dual-system sound and the dailies need to be synced at the DIT stage), that the LUT is correctly applied across all files, that metadata is complete and accurate, and that the file naming convention matches the production's editorial requirements. QC is the step most productions want to skip when they're running behind schedule. It's also the step that catches the problems that would otherwise become editorial headaches.
Step 5: Delivery. Dailies go to multiple destinations depending on the production structure. The editor gets the files — either copied directly onto editorial drives, uploaded to a shared server, or uploaded to a cloud platform. Key stakeholders — director, producer, sometimes a studio or network executive — get access via a review platform. The original camera files stay on the production RAID, maintained by the DIT or data department.
Delivery Platforms
Frame.io has become the dominant cloud platform for dailies delivery and remote review on professional productions. Files are uploaded from the DIT cart, and reviewers access them via browser or app with timecode-accurate commenting, approval tools, and version tracking. The integration with Premiere Pro and other NLEs makes Frame.io particularly useful for distributed editorial workflows. Adobe's acquisition of Frame.io has deepened that integration.
Aspera (now IBM Aspera) is the standard for high-bandwidth, high-reliability file transfer when you're moving large volumes of raw or high-bitrate dailies files over the internet. Where Frame.io is a collaboration platform first, Aspera is a transfer protocol optimized for moving large files fast. It's common on studio productions where the production delivers nightly to a post facility that ingests and distributes the dailies from there.
Physical hard drives remain the most reliable delivery mechanism for productions working in locations with limited internet connectivity or where file sizes make cloud upload impractical within the production's overnight window. Shuttle drives going from the location unit to the post facility, or being delivered to editorial via messenger, are not a thing of the past on certain types of productions.
Same-Day vs. Overnight Dailies
The timeline for dailies delivery depends on the production's editorial model and how the schedule is structured. On a studio feature or streaming series, the standard is overnight delivery — the DIT completes the offload, transcode, and QC after the day wraps, and the dailies are available for editorial by the time the editor arrives the next morning. On tighter productions, same-day delivery is increasingly expected — editors working in the same city as the production can receive dailies during the shooting day, assembly-cutting scenes while the production is still capturing them.
For music video productions, the timeline is compressed even further. Labels and directors often want to review footage the same evening, which means the DIT has to be delivering usable preview files as the day progresses, not waiting until wrap.
The DIT's Role in Dailies
The DIT is responsible for the complete dailies pipeline on most productions — from the offload through the transcode, LUT bake, QC, and initial delivery. On very large productions, a dedicated dailies operator or post facility handles the transcode and delivery while the DIT focuses on the on-set color management and data offload. Either way, the DIT's on-set decisions — the LUT selections, the CDL values, the exposure management — are what the dailies are built from. A well-managed on-set pipeline makes dailies production straightforward. A poorly managed one means the dailies operator or post colorist is trying to make sense of footage that wasn't properly handled at the source.
Why Cutting Corners on Dailies Costs You Later
Dailies problems compound. An editor who cuts from dailies without the show LUT applied makes color-based cut decisions that may not hold when the grade goes on. Dailies without proper audio sync create editorial problems that are tedious and time-consuming to fix across hundreds of clips. Dailies with wrong metadata — wrong reel names, wrong scene designations — create conform issues at the end of post that can delay finishing. The cost of these problems at the end of post is almost always higher than the cost of doing the dailies correctly in the first place.
If you're looking for a DIT who runs a rigorous dailies workflow from card to editorial, see our DIT services or contact Rayvn Films directly to discuss your production's needs.