Fake Snow

[Dave Frank]

Hey everyone, I am looking to do a very quick shot with some snow in it tomorrow and was looking for some tips. The shot is a closeup of a man in a phone booth, so I obviously don't need to make it look like it's snowing everywhere. This is very last minute, so one of those speciality effects stores is out of the question. Any common(buy it at Walmart) ideas out there?

-David Frank

[Fredrik-Larsson]

You can buy an effect and generate it in post with for example http://www.trapcode.com/products_particular.html

There is also some frosty spray that they use here at christmas time to give a rimfrost effects on windows. Might be that some store have it stashed away in a stock somewhere.

[Dave Frank]

I was trying to stere away from CGI. I know it's possible, but it would end up taking more time I am sure.

[Dylan Couper]

Instant mashed potato mix is one of the products of choice for medium/low budget effects guys. Not sure which brand to suggest, but at $2 a box you can't go wrong.

[Fredrik-Larsson]

Yeah, that might be the case. I haven't played with the effect myself so I don't know. I stumbled on this:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038650/trivia

"Films made prior to this one used cornflakes painted white for the falling snow effect. Because the cornflakes were so loud, dialogue had to be dubbed in later. Frank Capra wanted to record the sound live, so a new snow effect was developed using foamite (a fire-fighting chemical) and soap and water. This mixture was then pumped at high pressure through a wind machine to create the silent, falling snow. 6000 gallons of the new snow were used in the film. The RKO Effects Department received a special award from the Motion Picture Academy for the development of the new film snow."

That sounds like something. I was thinking of maybe cotton or rice or something. There is something called "frigolit" in swedish. Of course I can't find a picture or the english translation. But it's a white building material that can be used for isolation. It's similar in consistence as those you get when you receive a package. Hmm.. it's kind of "foam". Typically I can't find the right word. But maybe something like that can be used and crushed into smaller pieces?

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Maybe these threads are of any help:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...highlight=snow

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...highlight=snow

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...highlight=snow

[Matt Sawyers]

go to http://watersorb.com/buypowder.htm
they sell super absorbent polymer for a pretty cheap price... the powder form will give you snow and 2lbs of powder for $20, that’s cheap, at least for what I can find. Or you can but the sparkle-snow powder which is basically the same as the powder, except it sparkles giving it more of an icy effect to it. If you explore their site, they have some pretty cool stories even about how they created “snow” for a movie…

[Josh Bass]

I seem to recall somewhere other that pieces of plastic were used. . .like from a garbage bag or something. So you takes your white Hefty bag, or some plastic sheeting, or something like that, and shread the crap out of it, and voila! Maybe white paper, same deal? Think confetti. . .don't see why that wouldn't work.

[Marcus Marchesseault]

Thanks for that link to Watersorb! Faux Snow is much more expensive. I have a movie scene that I want to look like Winter. It will be much easier to make Hawaii look like Winter with some fake snow!

Aloha,

Marcus