Room color for home studio

Hello,

I'm in the midst of setting up a room as a post-prod studio for video/audio.
I'm getting the room painted and wanted to know if a room needs to be a certain color or what not to provide the best environment for doing post and/or audio??

always go neutral. you can always hang a colorful piece of art or buy a whacky orange chair to suit your mood. but if you paint your walls a color, its a pain to change.

really the biggest thing to consider is how colors WILL skew your perception of neighboring colors. so again, neutral wins. as its not going to have a large effect from neither a reflective nor psychological perspective on what youre doing on screen

plus, different people react differently to colors. all this BS you'll read about colors making you hungry or happy or more creative is to a degree hogwash. there is some fundamental cultural logic to it - but it really comes down to personal experience.

for example - 90% of people will tell you blue is soothing. but my great grandmothers house was haunted as hell, and she had a lot of blue in the house (walls, drapes, glassware) so to this day, blue rooms and blue glasses just freak me the heck out!

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for example - 90% of people will tell you blue is soothing. but my great grandmothers house was haunted as hell, and she had a lot of blue in the house (walls, drapes, glassware) so to this day, blue rooms and blue glasses just freak me the heck out!

My family home have a room we call the "blue room"... I always feel/felt like someone was standing over me in the bed when there was noone there also I have very bad dreams in that room.

As long as the room feels light and airy when you can have it that way, but also capable of darkening it to a degree that you won't affect your grading.

I personally like white walls with as much (non-rainforest) wood as possible. colours do affect the way you see other colours - for instance if you stare at a blue object/wall then look away to a white space you will see an orange (the complimentary colour) object/hue.

Sound proofing for audio post can cost a lot but it is a necessity if you intend to do a really good job with sound - plus you need good mic(s), cables, audio monitors, etc. If you are recording post audio such as looping/dubbing then the sound proofing and a good mic is even more important.

Above all make it practical but comfortable otherwise you'll spend a lot of time in there feeling awkward rather than good!

I did a stint in an Avid Online suite that made me feel sick! Fluorescent lighting (with no filters) which was horrid and the walls were...

...blue!



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Red with yellow vertical stripes. Don't forget to put a window right behind your monitors

Seriously...

My work studio is what I like to call "baby-sh!t brown"...which is a muted matte medium brown. I didn't choose it but it is soothing. Also have a dimmer on all recessed lights (halogen - NO FLOURESCENTS!!). NO PRIMARY COLORS. No semi-gloss. A muted matte medium green is also excellent.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Technically you should paint it the colour of the FCP interface. Neutral grey. But really unless you're getting the mega-buck for grading, any toned down colour would be fine.

There is a SMPTE document for an optimal environment if you are doing final color work. I don't know where to find it now. It includes neutral gray walls, soft lighting on the wall behind the monitors, plus color temperature of the lighting and overall illumination levels in the room. Think flat lighting for the entire room but a little on the darker side.

I've always wanted to be working in a room with a huge funky white spot on one side. That would help rebalance your eyes when you're pushing a particular color for too long.

It's a bit of an understated point, but I remember having to tweak colors once and midway through the session, I felt my eyes getting a little tired and the director was pushing a certain color a bit too hard, so we broke for tea. When we came back the director was wondering why the shot turned so orangish/reddish...



www.strypesinpost.com

I found quite a good article here: [www.cinemaquestinc.com]

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Excerpt from Cinema quest inc
Room surfaces outside the observer?s field of view can incorporate nearly neutral colors to add more interest to the décor when desired. SMPTE uses the Munsell Color Order System for reference in defining ?nearly neutral.? Munsell Color samples can be found at: [cinemaquestinc.com]

For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]