Cyclorama (cyc)

A cyclorama, almost always called a cyc, is a wide seamless cloth hung at the back of a stage and lit as a plain field of colour. It gives depth where a black drape gives none, and it carries silhouettes and colour washes that read from every seat.

It is lit by fixtures specifically designed for it, with asymmetric reflectors that throw more light to the far part of the cloth than the near part, so that a unit sitting a few feet from the bottom produces an even wash top to bottom. Lighting a cyc with ordinary wash fixtures produces a bright band and a dark one, which is the usual reason a cyc looks wrong.

Evenness is the whole discipline. The cloth has to be stretched and hung straight, because any crease catches light and becomes a visible vertical line across the brightest surface on the stage. A cyc that has come straight out of a hamper needs time to drop, and that is schedule, not fabric.

It also needs distance. A cyc works when there is space between it and whatever is in front of it — space for the lighting units, and enough separation that light on the performers does not land on the cloth and wash the colour out. A cyc pushed against the back of a shallow stage is a pale wall.

Event lighting — owned inventory, our own crew, and a site survey before anything is specified.

• Scrim An open-weave fabric that is a solid surface when lit from the front and transparent when lit from behind — the oldest reveal in the business, and the only one that needs nothing but light.
• Backdrop The surface behind the stage — fabric, printed, hard scenic or an LED wall — and the decision that sets what the lighting and the cameras can do.
• Stage wash The even, flattering light a person stands in to be seen — the least glamorous part of a lighting plot and the first thing a camera exposes as missing.