# What color of Cyc white off-white natural ?



## Jacques Mersereau (Jun 21, 2017)

I wish we had a studio that the rear wall could accommodate a real projection screen,
but we don't. The rear wall is curved and so we have to go with a cloth cyc.

The discussion now is, do we go with a pure white or 'off white' cyc?

We had an off white and currently have a white. White make the projections brighter,
but it also shows ever little bit of light leak from our fresnels and also the bounce off our floor.

What do you all use and feel. There is no right answer, but we are about to go with yet another new cyc and what to get some other people's reads on this.

Bon Jour,

Jacques


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## ruinexplorer (Jun 21, 2017)

Do you have the ability to color correct on your projector? If not, go with white. If so, then it doesn't matter, go with your preference for lighting.


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## lwinters630 (Jun 21, 2017)

You may ask yourself; what do i do more projection or theater. White is bright however you cant project black.


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## BC Theatre Guy (Aug 28, 2017)

We are purchasing a new cyc and wondering what difference between white and natural would be. (besides price) We color our cyc with typical cyc lights but lately we use projections a lot as we have a new ultra short throw projector. Im guessing we want white muslin.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Aug 28, 2017)

I still call out Rosenthal blue, a kind of blue grey. Probably more important for incandescent than LED.


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## robmerow (Aug 29, 2017)

If you feel like the projector you have is either barely cutting it or slightly underpowered I would go with white.

If you feel like you could sacrifice a bit of projection brightness, I find a light gray or even medium gray to be indispensable if you ever need the cyc to "disappear" if any stage lights are on. Personally I prefer to sacrifice projection brightness.


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## MNicolai (Aug 29, 2017)

robmerow said:


> If you feel like the projector you have is either barely cutting it or slightly underpowered I would go with white.
> 
> If you feel like you could sacrifice a bit of projection brightness, I find a light gray or even medium gray to be indispensable if you ever need the cyc to "disappear" if any stage lights are on. Personally I prefer to sacrifice projection brightness.



I'm in the same school thought. A white cyc, unlit, looks wrong to me. It's like the Chekov's gun of stage curtains. Don't put a white cyc behind the set if you aren't going to light it.


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## kicknargel (Aug 29, 2017)

To answer part of the question, natural is a light-tan color (the natural color of the muslin). Intended for painting, not great on its own.


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## tdtastic (Aug 30, 2017)

We're lucky to have a shop space upstage of our cyc and many of our lighting designers love to take advantage of that and throw things on it from behind. We always go with a seamless white cyc. MNicolai is right, don't drop a cyc if you're not going to light it. If you need to go black for some scenes, put a black scrim in front of it - though that won't make it disappear completely.


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## Exclasius Dolvine (Aug 30, 2017)

BC Theatre Guy said:


> We are purchasing a new cyc and wondering what difference between white and natural would be. (besides price) We color our cyc with typical cyc lights but lately we use projections a lot as we have a new ultra short throw projector. Im guessing we want white muslin.


Most of the responses here, in my opinion, are very on point.
I personally will only use a white cyc if I am lighting it, which is a boon during certain performances. If I am doing a concert normally the cyc ends up being the border for promo art and band recognition banners. Nevertheless, I still light around that. 
White is most useful as it does not create a problem with color scheming, blue is blue etc.
Good luck.


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## karatron (Aug 30, 2017)

Jacques Mersereau said:


> I wish we had a studio that the rear wall could accommodate a real projection screen,
> but we don't. The rear wall is curved and so we have to go with a cloth cyc.
> 
> The discussion now is, do we go with a pure white or 'off white' cyc?
> ...


go with a light grey, it fits both situations great


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## RickR (Aug 30, 2017)

I'm in the dual drape club. White is best for LED/HMI sources, blue gives a default color correction for incandescent. A black velour or scrim in front covers the offending glow, when it offends.


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