Film Vocabulary: Day-For-Night

Day-For-Night

A shoot done during the day that simulates night time, using filters, underexposure, and other techniques to create a feeling of darkness.

A technique in cinematography in which a crew films in a high contrast situation, typically at early morning or late afternoon, with a blue filter, causing the film to appear to have been shot in moonlight.

Sometimes it is painfully obvious that the filmmakers have done this, for example, in Strangers From A Train our protagonist sneakes up to a house after midnight, but you can clearly see very sharp shadows on the ground.