Rosco Spectrum: Matthew Timoszyk, the Technical Supervisor of the Historic Oroville State Theatre in Oroville, CA, recently tagged us in some photos on Facebook that showed how he prepped his stage deck for the coming season with Rosco Tough Prime Black. In the post, he said “it’s the perfect choice for theater floors.” Whether it’s because of Tough Prime’s semi-gloss finish, which makes it easy to mop (and to light!), or its ability to stick to just about any substrate – technical directors all around the world have been using Tough Prime Black on their stage floors for years.
7 comments:
It was a little shady how the review for the primer was on the primer's distributor's website. I'm not sure how much I trust the review. I know nothing about primer though, so who knows, maybe it is as great as they advertise. They also didn't specify the exact cost difference just that the difference was 'minimal', meaning their tough prime black primer is not a cheaper alternative.
I never really put much thought into considering what type of black paint to use to paint a stage floor. In my experience, it was usually some sort of flat black paint and it never seemed to fail anyone. I am intrigued to see someone set up a comparison between a normal flat black paint bought from Home Depot versus Rosco's Tough Prime Black. If there was a an actual test conducted, I would be more inclined to believe the review but like Claire mentioned above, this review for the paint was listed on Rosco's website. That is shady business. Now, that doesn't mean that he necessarily got paid to write a good review, but I feel like the lack of comparison makes this feel like he's just touting it for other reasons. Or he just really love this paint. I don't really know. But like I said before, no one has really complained about flat black, but maybe that's because no one's ever challenged it....
I thought this would be a really cool article, and while it still is, it bothered me that it was basically a Rosco promotion and not actually a review. They didn't line up different types of paints and compare, and there was nothing analytical about it, it was just a review of Rosco's paint. While I'm sure it's paint, I expected a more in depth article about the best paints for a black stage, instead of just a short article about one type of paint from one particular brand. I don't necessarily think it's shady, but I expected a more thorough article. The article reads like an advertisement--even from the title, it is just a glorified ad with one man's testimonial about how this one type of paint worked for his stage in his theatre--and this may not be the same across the board, as each theatre uses a different material of flooring and has different specs. Now I'm just more curious about what paint is actually the best.
I remember having to refinish the floors in my high-school theater after hosting a dance show sans-Marley (tap shoes should be a regulated substance, honestly), and having to wait for my school district's facilities crew to come in, armed with a pristine new coat of blacker-than-black semigloss. I'll never forget removing my shoes to take that inaugural journey across that virgin surface, marveling in wonder at its pristine swaths.
Some of the comment-writers above express their skepticism at the properties of Rosco Tough-Prime, but I will simply say that while, to quote Kevin Hines, theater is the bastard child of a hundred other industries, products developed for use in other industries do not necessarily surpass those developed with theater uses in mind. Yes, I'm sure there are industrial semi-gloss paints that would hold up just as well, but what about dry time and cost? What about the luster, as not all semi-gloss is created equal, or the saturation of pigment? What about the quality of the black?
Rosco is an established authority on theatrical paints and treatments, for a good reason. Healthy skepticism, however, is always a good thing.
I can honestly say that I have never put any more thought into painting floors black than just painting floors black. 95% of my experience painting theatre floors involved many colors and different primers and finishes. My high school theatre did not have the space or budget to have different floorings, so we would paint the floor (tiles, wood grain, even to look like sand once) for every show. This paint seems to be a hit, I'd like to see if they decide to produce it in different colors.
I have never used anything but Tough Prime so I can't make any comparison (and this article didn't really offer any). This reminds me of those beauty vloggers who promote products for their quality and consistency etc. but really the makeup company being promoted is just giving them $50 for every view on the video. I would like to see a less bias article but at the same time, I can vouch for the quality of tough prime. It will cover anything in a perfectly opaque shiny coating; Steel, Ply, Rubber bits used to make turf that some ridiculous scenic designer decided to cover the stage in...anything. I dont really care how sketchy this article's placement is (rosco's website" I just care that they continue to make a good product that does the job well.
It’s so weird that the stage they were painting was originally medium grey, I’ve never seen a grey stage before, unless it was a treatment for a specific show! I feel like it just makes so much more sense to paint a stage black to prevent a ton of reflected light, and have a blank dark canvas to hide crew members/ scenic element supports against. In high school we would repaint our stage every 2-ish years with good old black flat Glidden from the Home Depot, and it would inevitably be a gross dark grey that would scratch up immediately. One year the employee accidently mixed us dark green instead of black and we had to drive all the way back to get a refund. We also didn’t put much care into taking up every last bit of spike and gaff tape gunk or sweeping away every last bit of glitter/ paint specks. In the end, it always looked like a bit of a mess. But I remember being very grateful for our unfortunate “black” stage when we went to another high school for a festival event and their stage was bright white, because all of their overhead fixtures were LEDs. It looked like an ice skating rink! It’s very impressive that they only had to use 4 gallons of the Rosco Tough Prime to get 2 coats and such an even finish. And the difference between coats one and two is much much darker. I can see why it pays to use a high quality paint for your stage deck.
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