# A temporary paint for large swaths of road surface? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [June 23, 2025, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034 "2025-06-23T16:04:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/1 "2025-06-23T16:04:49Z")
Some friends are shooting a video that is set in the 1880s and involves a crowd marching down a city street. The city street is asphalt, which does not match the dirt road that it would have been at the time. Some sort of CGI trickery will be involved to replace the sections of road that nobody is standing on, but for scenes where the ground will be glimpsed in between marchers, they need a solution to hide the ‘asphaltness’. One group wants to throw down a bunch of finely ground mulch and clean it up again afterwards, but this would be over a lane of traffic and half a city block or more and cleanup would be hard, and hard work for August. Another group wants to paint the road surface with something that’s a better color match for dirt and is temporary, or removable with a pressure washer - like chalk paint or tempera. Make it brown and call it good enough. So, factual questions - -Does such a paint exist in large quantities that can cover hundreds of square feet? I’m familiar with spray chalk, but those are small cans. I’m thinking 5 gallon buckets hooked up to a paint sprayer. Some kind of stain? -What would an actual movie production do for this problem? This is not a studio-level-budget production. The road can only be closed for the day of shooting. ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/2 "2025-06-23T16:06:18Z")
Also- they’ve seen all the ways that people paint permanent murals on streets using catalyzed paints and the like, but that’s the opposite of the goal here. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/3 "2025-06-23T16:25:33Z")
Yeah. You don’t want mural paint. (mural painter here). Its VERY permanent. I haven’t used it for years but I still have jeans with that paint on it. Commercial chalk paint is just matte paint. It will eventually wear away but you can’t wash it off really quickly. I would spread sand(if the city will allow) cheap construction sand. After, it can be blown or swept away. Maybe it will stay in the curbs, hopefully not clog any drains. But the at least it will go away easily. And isn’t chemicals. Get permits(I’m sure you know this). Good luck. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/4 "2025-06-23T16:43:54Z")
Could you use green paint to facilitate CGI trickiness ? ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/5 "2025-06-23T18:10:15Z")
Green paint or brown paint, I still need a suggestion for the _kind_ of paint ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/6 "2025-06-23T20:15:03Z")
I don’t have an answer, but as a casual reader, I’d find it surprising if ANY of the permitting entities would allow them to do this without some guarantee 1) that it is going to be cleaned up, and 2) won’t cause some sort of environmental issue. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/7 "2025-06-23T20:52:55Z")
> [@brossa](#): > > One group wants to throw down a bunch of finely ground mulch and clean it up again afterwards, but this would be over a lane of traffic and half a city block or more and cleanup would be hard, and hard work for August. I think this may be the best solution. Though rather than sweeping up the street at the end to clean it up, could you get the town to send in a streetsweeper truck? ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/8 "2025-06-23T21:36:46Z")
Cities use green paint for St Patrick’s Day parades. It must be commercially available. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/9 "2025-06-23T23:47:01Z")
So wait until St Patrick’s Day and film after the parade is over? ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/10 "2025-06-24T02:00:43Z")
The way film production companies usually do this is with a layer of dirt or mulch which is then damped down slightly to reduce dust, and firm it up a bit and to make it look muddy (which it should, for authenticity). But it’s a big deal. You will need to clear it with the city; it doesn’t come as standard with the street-closing permit. Before you put down the mulch you’ll need to cover all the storm drains, etc; you don’t want it going into the sewer system and clogging it. And cleaning it up afterwards is quite a job. Paint is an option, but I’m not sure where you would source the paint required. You’ll also need to clean that up at the end of the shoot; presumably some kind of water-soluble paint would be best, so you could remove it with water and friction. Film companies don’t use paint for this purpose very often because it doesn’t look very realistic, but it’s what they do if they want to create the impression of, e.g., a cobbled street, which you can’t get with mulch or gravel. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/11 "2025-06-24T10:26:12Z")
> [@brossa](#): > > The city street […] the dirt road that it would have been at the time. The **brick** or **woodblock** road that **city** streets would have been at the time? ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/12 "2025-06-24T11:04:37Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > The **brick** or **woodblock** road that **city** streets would have been at the time? That depends on which city, and what part of the city. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/13 "2025-06-24T11:24:32Z")
Certainly. Not every city street had cobblestones. ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/14 "2025-06-24T12:04:34Z")
Yes, the dirt road, as evidenced by period photographs. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/15 "2025-06-24T13:33:27Z")
Large, khaki colored tarp? Throw some dirt here and there on the tarp (cover up grommets and overlay), dirt comes off with the tarp. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/16 "2025-06-24T15:23:15Z")
It appears that there is such a thing as temporary road paint (wash off with a power spray into drains - it’s biodegradable (and edible !)) - but it ain’t cheap.. > **[Temporary Paints](https://www.lakelandpaints.co.uk/specialist-paints/temporary-paints/temporary-paints-5-litre)** > > REMOVABLE TEMPORARY PAINT - MURALS, WALL MURALS, PUBLIC ART, SIDEWALK PAINT, ROAD PAINT, TARMAC PAINT, CAR PARKS, LINE MARKING, PAVEMENT PAINT, FOR EVENTS, ECO GRAFFITI, FESTIVALS, PROTESTS, ACTIVISTS, EXHIBITIONS, PROMOTIONS, FOR MURALS, FOR... ---
**Author:** ![Retzbu\_Tox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/retzbu_tox/32/11829_2.png) [@Retzbu\_Tox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Retzbu_Tox)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/17 "2025-06-24T16:05:24Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Large, khaki colored tarp? Throw some dirt here and there on the tarp (cover up grommets and overlay), dirt comes off with the tarp. If they had several large tarps or sections of canvas, they could paint them as desired off-site, then move them around wherever they need them for particular shots. Years ago, when I worked in theatre a bit, we had big backdrops that we would repaint for particular scenes. We used one on the ground once, repainted as the labyrinth floor from Chartres Cathedral. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/18 "2025-06-24T16:22:55Z")
Nice! You understand better than I do: they can paint wheel tracks, mud puddles, drop a faux “horse apple” or twenty — all that can be done at leisure off site. If they need multiple shots, rotate the tarp, at the end of the shoot, pull your tarps, road is cleared in 10 minutes. Yowzah! ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/19 "2025-06-24T16:32:39Z")
I think this is a good idea a long canvas runner tarp for painting would probably work. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034/20 "2025-06-24T16:37:48Z")
Sorry, looks like I repeated everything you said; it’s been one of those days. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-temporary-paint-for-large-swaths-of-road-surface/1020034.md?page=2)