Day Blue Muslin

[Matt W.]

Does anyone have a scrap of day blue muslin they don't need and could send me? This might be a terrible idea, but I'm thinking of painting the white side of some bead board the same color as day blue muslin (getting it color matched at home depot) because I like the look of blue fill for day exteriors.

Also, how do you use this stuff? As fill to simulate skylight it makes sense, but I've also heard that some people bounce big HMIs into it to shape cloudy day exteriors. Is that the case or do I misunderstand?

[Jeff Zueger]

I'm assuming you will be bouncing tungsten into it?
Rosco makes (or used to) a daylight balanced foil which may work the same.

[Matt W.]

No, HMIs and daylight. Am I using it wrong? I've never worked with the stuff, I just want a bluer fill for day exteriors than beadboard provides.

[Jeff Zueger]

Well a white bead board should not change your color temp too much, especially if it is fairly new and white. Ex. if you are bouncing daylight it should keep it somewhat close to the kelvin that is being reflected. If you are going for an extreme blue cast look or effect maybe it would work, but would think it may look somewhat strange because your shadows would be noticeably more blue than your key (which I'm assuming is daylight). If that is the look you are going for, than it may work fine. I personally try to keep flesh tones "fleshy" ?? :P as long as possible and do any flesh tone effects in Color.
Thats just me. I could see how the blue bounce card would work if you were just trying to boost a tungsten light you may be using to fill in a daylight set. You may want to go to your local Hobby Lobby and buy a 2x2 sky blue foam card and do some tests. Good luck.

[Matt W.]

My mistake; I hadn't worked with sky blue muslin previously and I guess I had the wrong idea re: its use. I'm still very new to grip gear.

I was initially looking to tint my fill light bluer to match fill from skylight, but I suppose there's a reason this isn't done very often.

[Florian Stadler]

Creative people have painted beadboards all kinds of colors to achieve the looks they were after so don't be discouraged. Take a photograph of the sky and have that matched at Home Depot and call it MattSkyBlue (tm)...

[Matt W.]

The color of the sky changes pretty wildly from one side to the other, but it's a cute gimmick. I think I'm giving up on this one; I misunderstood what day blue muslin was used for and it's simple as that.

[Patrick Kaplin]

I wouldn't discount your idea so quickly. Day blue muslin is often used when one wishes to have cooler fill in a scene.

Roger Deakins ASC, BSC mentions his technique of dyeing muslin to whichever colour fill he wants to achieve in the shadows in this post here:

http://www.deakinsonline.com/forum2/...lue+muslin#p38

David Mullen ASC mentions his use of cooler fill in this post here:

http://www.cinematography.com/index....1&#entry257508

And consider the work of Emmanuel Lubezki ASC, AMC with his use of extensive natural light in Tree of Life. His philosophy is that natural daylight is near impossible to recreate in all its complexities. The complexities being how light bounces off of grass, through trees, with added blue skylight mixing all these complex colour temperatures to create unique natural light. You could make an entire range of dyed fabrics for giving whatever colour in the shadows you wish. Whatever serves the story best and helps you create the vision.