Uncut raw footage from the day's shoot, reviewed each evening by the director and editor to assess the day's work.
Technical Details
On 35mm film, rushes are created by developing the exposed negatives in the film laboratory, typically with a processing time of 2-4 hours after delivery. Digital rushes are transferred directly from storage media such as CFast cards (512GB-2TB) or SSD drives, with 4K ProRes material generating approximately 880GB per shooting day. The files are usually in LOG color spaces (S-Log3, V-Log, C-Log2) with 10-14 bit color depth. Modern workflows utilize cloud-based daily systems like PIX or Frame.io, enabling upload speeds of up to 1Gbps.
History & Development
The rush system was established in the 1920s in Hollywood as studio production developed standardized workflows. MGM introduced the "Daily Rush Screening" in 1926, where producers and directors evaluated the results daily. With the introduction of video assist in the 1970s, an initial instant preview emerged, but it did not replace chemically developed rushes. The transition to digital dailies began in 2005 with pioneering productions like "Star Wars Episode III," and the purely digital rush workflow became fully established by 2012.
Practical Application in Film
For "Eyes Wide Shut," Stanley Kubrick reviewed up to 40 takes per scene daily in the rushes, resulting in a total of over 1.4 million feet of film. Christopher Nolan still insists on 65mm film rushes today, which must be available within 6 hours of shooting. For "The Revenant," Alejandro G. Iñárritu used HDR dailies on 1000-nit monitors to correctly evaluate the extreme lighting conditions of the natural light shots. Streaming series like "The Crown" use automated rush workflows with AI-powered scene recognition and automatic sync creation.
Comparison & Alternatives
Rushes differ from Dailies in their level of processing – while rushes are completely unedited, dailies may already include color corrections or sound mixes. Selects represent a further refinement stage, where only the best takes from the rushes are compiled. Modern live streaming systems like Teradek CUBE allow for real-time viewing on set but do not replace high-resolution rushes for final evaluations. Proxy files offer compressed versions of the rushes (typically 1/4 resolution) for quick editing in Avid Media Composer or DaVinci Resolve.