“The Mist” was shot on the now defunct Fuji Eterna film stocks with speeds of 400T and 500T. In terms of motion picture film, a 400 or 500 ASA is about as sensitive to light as you can get, meaning you wouldn’t need as much light for your image compared to a 100 ASA. The first scene they shot saw Thomas Jane‘s character walking through the dark back storage room of the grocery store most of the film takes place in. Rohn Schmidt and Frank Darabont liked the idea of the scene just being lit by his cell phone light. In /Film’s oral history of “The Mist,” Schmidt said of the scene:

“We worked with the props department to rig out a slightly brighter LED on the cell phone to make that all work and it looked beautiful. It was right on the edge in terms of exposure or not, but it was very cool looking.”

Well, it was a cool idea — until they saw it. After being sent off to be developed and processed, the team took a look at the dailies the following day, and they couldn’t see a thing. He continued:

“It turns on and all you can see is just the white square of the cell phone. Absolute black except for this tiny little white square of a flip phone and it never gets brighter.

And we’re becoming aware that slowly everyone in the room has snuck out one by one … I said, ‘Well, Frank, I guess you need to replace me because that’s not acceptable.'”

Schmidt was ready to get out, thinking he couldn’t cut it. He even suggested a cinematographer to replace him. Luckily, someone realized a big mistake that night.