Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: What color should I paint the booth?

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 09-20-2005, 08:19 PM:

I just got word that my boss has budgeted for a complete paint job of my theater, including the booth. I get to decide what color to paint it.

The booth is visible to customers who sit in the balcony. There is a large glass window. People can see right in.

Right now the walls in the booth are that standard beige color they paint just about everything that doesn't have a specific color request. Not only does the light spill out of the booth but it looks like crap when the walls get scuffed up.

The "correct" color to paint would be flat black. However, customer aesthetics is an issue. I was considering midnight blue instead. It would still be a dark color but it wouldn't produce that "black hole" effect that flat black would produce.

What do you all think?

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 09-20-2005, 08:23 PM:

Most of our booths are either a dark gray or chocolate brown color. Shows off the gear nicely without all the light spillage.

Is that a T-bar ceiling in there? Get that painted flat black ASAFP or else you will be lighting the whole auditorium up.

-Aaron

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-20-2005, 08:24 PM:

I've worked in many midnight blue painted booths. It's my favourite booth colour.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-20-2005, 08:40 PM:

Don't paint the ceiling tiles. REPLACE them with black ones. Otherwise they won't be able to absorb the noise properly and you will make your booth LOUDER.

Also consider dropping $20 on a light grid to replace the diffuser on your flourescent lights. It will force the light straight down, rather than out into the auditorium. Do note many of them can be flipped upside down for more or less directionality.

Do stay away from pure black, as lighting in there will be a pain. Midnight blue is about as dark as I would go, no lighter than a medium grey in my opinion.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 09-20-2005, 09:39 PM:

Yes, that is a suspended ceiling. And, yes, it does shine light out into the house. It sucks! I'm going to try to get that replaced too. They do make special spray paint for drop ceilings that is more dye than paint. We use it for spraying ceiling tiles that have water stains on them. I don't know if it comes in black, though.

One of our venues has flat black walls backstage. You're right. The light does suck in there. It's like being in a black hole. The cool-white fluorescents don't make it any better. My Production Manager wants it black. I told him that it would create that "Black Hole" effect that we have in the other venue. It would also look icky for customers.

Personally, I'm partial to blue but brown and grey might be nice.
I'll have to run it by the boss.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 09-20-2005, 10:33 PM:

Here's a midnight blue booth with dyed black tiles and stock black grid.

Posted by Dan Lyons (Member # 1454) on 09-21-2005, 02:49 AM:

Get some curtains in that thing! unless you're into being watched... [Cool]

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 09-21-2005, 05:08 AM:

I also don't like black (too depressing and no reflected light, even the part that you need to work)

Also, when you darken that room, you will need A LOT of additional lighting in order to work.

Consider masonite sheets used like giant aperture plates on the equipment side of your large porthole glass. These do not necessarily need to be permanently attached. This preserves the original intent of "other uses" while reducing the need for changes internal to your booth, I have done this in many theatres and it seems to work well; especially 20 years later when equipment changes. Louis

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 09-21-2005, 07:58 AM:

If you don't like black, dark gray will do. Fine to use lighter colors/pastels on surfaces that don't reflect into the auditorium.

For those large windows, movable heavy dark drapes on rods would allow covering the parts of the windows that are not being used for viewing or projection, cutting down on sound and light transmission, and making watching the projectionist less of a "spectator sport"

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 09-21-2005, 08:22 AM:

I like institutional green which most of the old booths used to be painted

Posted by Jeff Taylor (Member # 443) on 09-21-2005, 08:49 AM:

Ditto Brad's point on that acrylic diffuser. Get what most lumber yards would calla "mini-wedge" parabolic.

Posted by Marin Zorica (Member # 1716) on 09-21-2005, 09:20 AM:

Randy, i think you got biggest both window!!!!!!!!

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 09-21-2005, 11:38 AM:

I painted the ceiling of my home theater Sherwin Williams Portabello (SW 6102) in a flat finish.

Color Guide (that site doesn't allow bookmarking the exact page, so you have to click on the color samples to view them)

In your situation, I would make the ceiling black and the walls Portabello.

My walls are Practical Beige (SW 6100), but I wouldn't recommend using that for anything but an accent color in your application.

All that said, if the walls of the auditorium are blue-grey as they appear in your photo, going with midnight blue might be a more color-coordinated way to go.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 09-21-2005, 11:53 AM:

Our old Parkway Theatre had a 70mm changeover booth with "picture window" glass like Randy's. They installed small aperture masks in front of each machine to cut down on stray light leaks. I liked working with those big windows--you'd always be at least peripherally aware of the screen from anywhere in that booth. Reminded me of working at a drive-in. But they didn't have audience sitting just below. The booth at the Carpenter PAC at CSULB is even more extreme with floor to ceiling horizontally beveled glass with the last row of audience seats right there at booth floor level.

IIRC the Parkway booth had the standard black drop ceiling with battleship grey walls and floor and black carpet runners next to each machine.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 09-21-2005, 01:44 PM:

I like having the picture window. Like Paul said, you can see the screen at all times. We've been talking about getting blinds on the windows. That way we can raise or lower them in sections as needed.

The windows are regular old tempered glass. I don't like them very much. Most other people don't seem to notice but I can tell the difference in the picture when they are closed. I usually slide the center section open about six inches. It lets some of the projector noise out but it's not very noticible in the lower section of the house. We don't normally use the balcony for movies anyway. If the movie sells well enough that we have to open the balcony I'll close the window and live with it.

Usually, the balcony is where my projectionists sit. Every public showing has at least one person sitting in the last row of the balcony, just a few feet from the booth door. If there is a problem somebody is only a second's dash away. It's been several years since that part of the building was painted. I'll be glad to see a color that doesn't reflect out into the house so much.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 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.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 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. [Wink]

)

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.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 01-22-2006, 07:34 AM:

Wow, Randy....top rate job. [thumbsup]

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! [Big Grin]

PS, beautiful brass railings -- very tasty.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 01-22-2006, 01:04 PM:

Thanks, Frank! [Smile]

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! [Wink]

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 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

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 01-24-2006, 07:50 PM:

This is sooo exciting I can hardly contain myself....... [sleep]

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 01-24-2006, 08:53 PM:

Phil;

I don't care WHAT the kids are calling it nowadays. [sex]

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! [Wink]