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Author Topic: What color should I paint the booth? Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 09-26-2005 08:30 AM                        I've worked in two "fishbowl" booths and I am not fond of them. One of them is constructed similar to Randy's, only longer, about 60 ft. -- front window being probably a little higher. This expanse of glass offers very little sound abatement; people in the balcony can actually hear you talking on the telephone. Plus we have to had lots of "Little Lite" brand mini lights all over the place to illuminate the work areas. Nothing that can be done to the overheads to make it acceptable for them to be on during the show. The only things we can use are the little lites during the show. The theatre has a satin white ceiling that picks up any light in the booth. They painted the booth walls and ceiling all black, which is a bit depressing, but I can live with it....it's better than having light spill into the room. There is nothing more distracting for a patron than to have light hitting them on the back of the head. I guess deep navy blue would work as well -- lots of the very directional little lights still have to be shrowed in deep blue gel with only a little cut-out to put white light ONLY on the area that needs illumination. The room has a blue glow to it when we are running with all the rack equipment pilot lights, red, green, yellow all little pinpoints in a sea of dark blue. That I guess looks pretty cool for the audience, if that's what the idea behind this kind "curtain pulled back from the Wizard" approach to projection booths....to wow the audience. For me, that's not the function of a projection booth. There is a good reason why for decades upon decades projection booths were designed with a front wall that had only 4 holes in it. In another fishbowl booth I used to work, the "box" actually jutted out into the auditorium, with the back wall flush with the back wall of the seating area, so the booth was actually a structure hanging into the theatre. There were no supports under it, so it resembled the nose of a jet plane had rammed into the back wall of the theatre. The three sides were floor to ceiling glass, like thos big department store windows, wrapping around you on all three sides. The only real wall was the back wall. It was a very uncomfortable place to work....talk about a fish-bowl. I wish I had pictures to post.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-20-2006 03:22 PM                     We finally got the booth painted! The painters came over Christmas Break. We just finished putting everything back in order. Looks pretty good, I think! Here's the "After" pic: It's PPG #247-7 (Light Cerulean) It's a little bit shocking at first but once you get used to it, it's pretty nice. Here are some of Before & After shots looking up from the seating area. (Sorry about the crappy picture quality on the "Before". They were taken many years ago. I got a much better camera since then. ) The nice thing is that when you turn the lights out in the booth, the walls go almost completely black. But, when they are on it doesn't feel like you're in a black hole.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-22-2006 07:34 AM                        Wow, Randy....top rate job. At first guess I would have been a bit wary of the white ceiling; have you found any problem with lamphouse spill on the ceiling reflecting back out to the audience by way of the white ceiling? Yes, blue's wavelength has the least photonic energy and will not carry as far or as intensely as the rest of the spectrum, hence it is the choice to gel pilot lamps backstage in live theatre -- those lamps are called our "show blue" lamps. I've got four work lamps, 2 long flourescent tubes each, and all are geled in very deep blue (Rosco #82 I believe) for my booth show blues. They literally drench the booth in a very deep blue hue. The blue hue that you chose is quite cheerful as well as functional....more importantly, your trash pail is now color coordinated! PS, beautiful brass railings -- very tasty.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-22-2006 01:04 PM                     Thanks, Frank! We had the Mercyhurst painter's crew come in and do it. It saved money and they did a better job than me and my Work Study staff could do. Haven't had a chance to test the white ceiling under operating conditions yet. Our first movie in the new booth isn't until next Wednesday. If it's still too bright I'll have my kids pull out all the panels and we'll take them down to the workshop and spray them grey. The maintanence department can get us spray cans of this stuff for accoustic tile that won't clog the pores and ruin its properties. It comes in white and grey but I'll see if I can find some black. I don't want to make the room too dark or else it will be tough to work in. I might just put some black Cinefoil in strategic locations to block the light spilling out. Blue gels in the lights might be nice but I would have to leave part of the opening uncovered so that we can see when we're building up and breaking down. (And other non-show condition.) I've already lost the trash can several times. Unless you can see the white lettering on the side, the trash liner or some white paper inside the damn thing becomes virtually INVISIBLE against the walls! Oh! And those brass railings... They may LOOK nice but they are an absolute BYTCHE to keep clean! (They are not lacqured.) We hired a Work Study student just to clean the railings. I have tried and tried to convince people to use Reniassance Wax on them but nobody seems to want to spend the time or money to do it. Once a good coat of wax is put onto the brass all you have to do is wipe with a clean cloth and touch-up/reapply about once every month or so. Nobody seems to be able to reconcile the time spent applying the wax with the amount of time SAVED in not having to clean the brass later. The next step is to get some blinds for the windows and some task lighting over the workbench and projector. Once that's done I can redouble my efforts to get them to install Dolby Digital!  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-22-2006 03:04 PM                     quote: Frank Angel PS, beautiful brass railings -- very tasty Ahhhh, so you like Brass Railings too. Do you like them with Essencs or just Cajun Style? You know.... they should never be deep fried.... Mark  |  IP: Logged Phil Hill I love my cootie bug Posts: 7595 From: Hollywood, CA USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 01-24-2006 07:50 PM                  This is sooo exciting I can hardly contain myself.......  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-24-2006 08:53 PM                     Phil; I don't care WHAT the kids are calling it nowadays. When you're done "containing" yourself just make sure you clean up the mess. I don't want sticky stuff all over my nice clean booth!  |  IP: Logged

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