Dirt and Decay

Although it is easy to produce scenes of untidiness and disorder it is far from easy to produce scenes which are meant to be dirty. This is because both TV and movie cameras tend to improve or beautify their subjects. To create dirty scenes it is necessary to substantially overdo the treatment.

Dust

Dust is easy. Talcum powder or cement sieved or blown over props will quickly make the point. For furniture use Fuller’s Earth.

When preparing scenes in which large amounts of dust will be blown about (ceiling falls, etc.) check if studio equipment such as air-cooled cameras, computer units or precision dollies might incur damage.

Filth

For sewers, dirty cellars and similar scenes, varnish-streaked walls give an impression of seeping water, whilst sawdust, cork chips and paper thrown into puddles enhance the nastiness. Growth on walls simulated by strips of ripped polythene or sphagnum moss will complete the illusion.

Decay

Rotting wood or mouldering props can be contrived by applying mixtures of dry peat, crushed corn flakes, dyed sawdust and so on. Lentils and lichen moss stuck to items before painting give a deformed surface indicative of dry-rot.

Rotten wood to be broken in action can be pre-cast from a two-part foaming plastic (polyurethane) which is light brown in colour.

Peat

Peat is a useful material for scattering around a set to imply dirty conditions. It can be piled against walls and thrown over furniture, and is good for earth falls in tunnelling sequences.

Soot

Used in chimneys, stoves and fireplaces, black rubber dust looks exactly like soot, ft can be thrown around with abandon, but not into people’s eyes (it contains small amounts of abrasive materials and metal particles). It can be acquired from tyre re-tread companies, where it is ground from old covers.

DIRT AND DECAY

In a TV drama squatters had taken over this ‘derelict house’ and were using the battered stove to keep themselves warm. At the end of the scene the house, an inhabited cottage, was quickly restored to normal.

Cement dust, sawdust, old bricks, stips of wood, a sheet of cardboard, brick paper and a few empty packets and bottles were used to create the effect. It is invariably necessary to over-dress these sort of scenes.