User:Difference engine/Day for night

This page is about the movie technique. For other meanings, see Day for night (disambiguation).

Though shot during the day, a scene can be made to appear as if it takes place at night.

Day for night, also known as nuit américaine ("American night"), is a cinematic technique used to simulate a night scene while filming in daylight. It is often used when there is too difficult or expensive to actually shoot during nighttime. Because both analog film stocks and digital image sensors lack the sensitivity of the human eye in low light conditions, night scenes recorded in natural moonlight may be underexposed to the point of being nearly entirely black. Using day for night avoids this issue by using daylight to substitute for moonlight. As film stocks have improved in sensitivity, shooting day for night has become less common in recent years.

Technique

Series of images demonstrating the day for night technique. Left: a scene photographed at a normal exposure level. Middle: an underexposed version of the same shot. Right: the final product, a darkened image with blue tint applied.

Some techniques use tungsten-balanced rather than daylight-balanced film stock or special blue filters; under-exposing the shot (usually in post-production) can create the illusion of darkness or moonlight.

Historically, infrared movie film was used to achieve an equivalent look with black-and-white film.

With digital post-production techniques it is also common to add or intensify glare and light shattering from light sources that would otherwise be less pronounced in daylight, such as windows of indoor lighting, outdoor artificial lights, headlights on cars and more.

The title of François Truffaut's film, Day for Night, (1973) is a reference to this technique.

References

• Anderson, Scott (1 July 2001). "Hollywood's Dark Secret: Shooting Day for Night". Videomaker. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
• Kroon, Richard W. (2014). A/V A to Z: An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Media, Entertainment and Other Audiovisual Terms. McFarland & Company. ISBN 9780786457403.
• Malkiewicz, Kris; Mullen, M. David (2009). Cinematography: Third Edition. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781439105627.
• Rabinger, Michael (2014). Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics. CRC Press. ISBN 9781136066863.
• Stinson, Jim (1 December 2004). "Shooting Day for Night". Videomaker. Retrieved 13 March 2015.