Quick Tip: Don’t Let Them Clean The Windows

OK, in reality, sometimes you have to clean the windows. On a car, in a house, in an office setting–you name it. My point is simply, before you clean a window, make sure it needs to be cleaned. Quite often, you’ll show up to a location and there will be a years’ worth of dust on a window – rain spatter, mud, finger grease – whatever time has collected. This kind of real world set aging can’t be replicated and there are people who will default to running in and cleaning them before you can blink.

DON’T LET THEM.

See if the look works for the scene, and then–and only then–decide if they need to be cleaned. And, maybe, they only need to be slightly cleaned. 

My point is simply this: it's a hell of a lot easier to clean a window than it is to make it look like it’s got the mark of time on it. Clean it if you need to, but just make damn sure that is what you, the DP, the director, the production designer, and anyone else wanted first.