Sappy Silks

David W. Jones

David W. Jones

Veteran
Just finished up shooting a big outdoor project at a local park, and due to the heat we have been having, all of the trees have been weeping sap and dropping leaves. Needless to say, all of our silks were covered with sticky sap and leaves. What to do? A plastic trash barrel filled with water, a couple drops of Dawn, and a little hand agitating, and they are as good as new! Just thought I'd pass that along in case you run into the same situation.

Dave
 
We had a 12 x Polly silk that was rediculous looking after the shoot to the point where my grip stuck his gloves to it and they stayed. Same with the 6 x grids. My biggest concern was the 12 x single net. Having torn my fair share of single nets I thought I'd give this a try and it paid off.

Dave
 
David W. Jones said:
We had a 12 x Polly silk that was rediculous looking after the shoot to the point where my grip stuck his gloves to it and they stayed. Same with the 6 x grids. My biggest concern was the 12 x single net. Having torn my fair share of single nets I thought I'd give this a try and it paid off.

Dave
Click to expand...

You did this with a 12x Single? How did it turn out? I was going to say, it sounds like this would work well with grids and silks, but some flame retardants don't take kindly to water. Especially with nets and solids you end up with a white stain that looks like it's melting off and makes them pretty unshootable.
 
Washing rags basically ruins the flame retardant. Not usually a big deal with the huge ones that won't have a light right next to it but something to keep in mind.
 
Well it was either wash them by hand in cold water with Dawn or throw them away. And being the frugal kind of guy I am, I washed them. For what it's worth we have plenty of flame retardant on hand as we just finished installing sound panels in our studio green screen area. The saving grace was the first day we shot in an area where the trees were just a background element. We built a 20 x 20 speed rail overhead for that shoot, and it would have really sucked if it had gotten all sappy.

Which brings up another issue.... What would you do if you had to replace all these rags?

Would you charge the cost back to your client, or would you eat the $2000 cost?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top