Good evening,

We are in the middle of constructing our new studio. I am trying to work up the design for our green room (dressing room). The room is roughly 16 feet long by 11 feet wide. We have a double sit down vanity with a single sink between the two sit down stations. We will be adding mirrors above the counter. I am trying to determine what lighting I should use around the mirrors? I mostly shoot with tungsten but am seriously considering adding some flourescents to our equipment. Should I use flourescent around the mirror or standard lights? We are also thinking about adding a free standing hydraulic salon chair.

I have a plasma for the wall and a love seat to put in as well. We have a hot & cold water machine as well as a coffee machine and a small refridgerator. (lots of our talent bring friends along and we want somewhere to park them during the shoot :-)

Any other advice? We are open to all suggestions. Design ideas, things we should consider adding, etc.

Thanks!

Bill

You'll need mouldy yoghurt for the fridge and the odd banana skin or apple core to shove down the side of the chair. At least half the lights around the mirrors should not be working and there should be 3 less mirrors than the number of actors in the room. Mirrors should only be visible from a crouching position and the best one placed next to the door which should open of it's own accord far enough to hit the actor who chooses that mirror.

Props and various peices of lighting equipment should be scattered around affording crew the need to constantly enter the room and complain about the clothes hanging on them. Actors delight in straddling a broken 5k fresnel to peer into a dirty mirror.

I could go on - I'm in the mood

Okay - I'm not sure how many and what type of actors you'll have in the green room at any one time so i'll assume around 5

there should be a chair, a place to put makup, script water bottle etc for EACH actor (ideally a bench below a well, eveny lit mirror - actually the face of the actor is the thing that should be eveny lit) If you're feeling generous you can supply boxes of tissues along the bench (and bins so they don't end up on the floor) Plenty of powerpoints close by for curling wands and other electric thingo's

each actor needs a place to hang clothes/costume - a long rack will suffice but individial areas would be great. If your'e having professional makeup arists a couple of stools should do (rather than a salon chair).

Quick access to toilets is a must (it's also unfortunately a rarity) and chilled water/ tea/coffee will be appreciated.

Make sure the sound proofings good - it can get pretty loud in the green room. A TV is great but some will find it a distraction - I'd rather have a feed from the studio/stage, that way it's in the front of my mind. A moveable screen of some sort might be handy - theatre actors will strip off in a hallway but some people are shy (kids).

There's a few things off the top of my head - without knowing what you're shooting and how many actors are likely to be involved - it's hard to say.