Nature of reflection
 

I'm going to be lighting/filming a staged dance production. The producer is in the process of obtaining a new backdrop for the stage. Last years was bright orange/red, with interleaved satin/almost matte layers inset in black frame. The reflection was very very hard to match between camera A (front) and camera B (offset).

For the new backdrop, the producer is looking at something in a greyish tone. We are telling her to get something matte or velvet. However, being a grayish/light charcoal, would the reflection really be all that bad or color-changing if the backdrop were satiny? How much would the light color change when reflecting off of a grey-ish/charcoal-ish shimmery backdrop? I wouldn't think the color would change that much, but thought I might check somewhere where people know more than I do....

Thanks,
Matt

The mat part is good. I don't know about the "velvet" part.

I've used a piece of velvet before as a product backdrop and I can say that I thought the color could change based on angle of my camera and lighting. To me, velvet seems to be a very "directional" fabric. Have you ever noticed how you can run your hand across it and it leaves a swatch of a lighter or darker color? I probably would have picked some kind of polyester based fabric. The color you picked is fine though. Neutral gray backdrops and cycs have been used in Television since the beginning.