studio color

[Dave Plake]

If you have a small studio 13 feet high 30 feet wide 40 feet long... what do you think is the best color to paint it in order to shoot motion picture commercials and music videos? When doing green screen work it can be painted chroma green, but otherwise do you think white or black is a better color for the walls and floor?

 

Thanks!

[David Mullen ASC]

If you have a small studio 13 feet high 30 feet wide 40 feet long... what do you think is the best color to paint it in order to shoot motion picture commercials and music videos? When doing green screen work it can be painted chroma green, but otherwise do you think white or black is a better color for the walls and floor?

 

Thanks!

 

No matter what color you paint it -- green, white, or black -- someone will need to paint it the other color at some point...

[Frank Barrera]

Every cyc in NY is painted white. If there is no cyc then the walls are painted black. But as David said, people can come in and for a price paint the walls what ever they want.

[Mark Sasahara]

You may want to paint the ceiling black and keep it that way. Above a certain height, that will probably never change and will help keep reflections down. And as other folks said, the studio will get painted every color over time.

[David Mullen ASC]

It's confusing when you say "paint the studio" if you were talking about a cyc wall or the soundstage walls. Cycs are usually white, sometimes green, maybe blue, but the stage itself is either black or covered in grey-ish padded soundproofing material. Or just unpainted.

[Chris Cooke]

In the studio that I work in as the lighting director, we have a green room (three green walls and a green floor) painted with Rosco DigiComp, a white cyc and an infinity black set. In the last 4 months, I've lit the white cyc four different times, the infinity black set six times and the green room not once. For daily tv shows and commercials chroma keying doesn't seem to get used as much as white cycs because of the ease of use and also the "anti cheese" factor. Chroma keying is not as easy as finding the right software to do the keying for you. You also have to light it the same as the background that's getting keyed in and find/shoot a good background that will suite your specific need. White backgrounds seem to be apealing to producers and directors these days because of the clean and professional look that you can achieve by using them without spending much money. And infinity black is always a safe way to go for interviews.