Snow

[jwl868]

Can anyone tell me some resources for making falling snow? Our dance school does an annual production of the Nutcracker, and for years, we’ve been trying to come up with ideas to make it snow (during, well, Waltz of the Snowflakes). I came across one diagram of a “snowbag” and references to non-flammable snow (?). The venue has very limited fly-space and the width is about 55 feet. I need a “snow” that can be broomed away during intermission. The “snow machine(s)” would also have to be something that could be assembled off-site, then brought to the venue and quickly attached to a pipe. (I’m still working on the detail of whether is snow upstage of or downstage of the dancers, but that’s a detail right now.)

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Joe

[hollinj]

Ok, heres how weve done it in the past, We take a piece of muslin hung on two battens. One side has holes cut in it. I forget what we used as snow but we fly it out and keep the side with the holes above the other side when its time to snow we lower the side with holes and shake it up and down and presto. Snow...

[jorno67]

To add to what hollinj said - if you want it look as if the snow is falling on the entire stage, put the bag as far down stage as possible. The further up stage, the more distant the snow will apear.

[SuperCow]

If you don't want top have such a big set-up, you could obtain an industrial shop fan (they're about the size of a car tire) and set it on high, and just scatter the fake snow in front of it, and it will blow on stage. Obviously, it's a little harder to control the area the snow hits with this one.

[ship]

You might also get by with cutting a slit in a say 4" or 6" set of sections in PVC tubing so you can re-load, than some holes of unknown but perhaps 3/4" size in the bottom of the tube at say 9:00 if the feed area is at 12:00. (Size of the hole is a question, start with 3/8" at say 6" centers and work your way up in size after that dependant upon the necessity for rate verses duration. A second tube of this will add volume and add to the fill as opposed to a single tube.) This allows you to fill the tube say ½ way and all it takes is rotating the tube by way of a attached shiv and rope to actuate the snow falling. This rotation of a attached together length of tubing also allows you to keep the snow falling at a rate you determine thought the entire show or scene.

Should you get more complex, you can cover the feed slot and very the holes into something that will allow for a storm verses a small amount of snowfall.

A fan within the tube might be interesting, otherwise a fan around the area of the snow projection might be of use in spreading it around.

As for what product to use, while you might be able to get some metallic confetti that will simulate the snow, Rosco snow itself should be the best solution. Vacuum it up an re- use it with care given a really clean stage in doing so. Also no matter if confetti or snow, pre-spray the stage down with static guard and the snow won’t stick as badly to everything in and out of sight.

Further observations on this above system. Don’t make the feed slots effect the structural integrity of the tube. In other words, it can’t be a “C” section, it must have parts of it in being round sufficient to support the tube’s structure. More long windows for feeding than any form of channeling. Above this, if you cant, use adhesive to permanently adhere one section to another by way of coupler, you must be using screws to keep tubes together. Also, given a typical span, some wire rope run between hinge points will no doubt be needed to be placed withing the wire rope to make a safety cable for the tube.

[jwl868]

Thanks for the input.

I had seen that muslin idea before. The problems that I have with that are limited fly space and limited number of battens. Also, my time at the venue is so limited, I wouldn't be able to test it ahead of time to work the bugs out.

ship: I was thinking about an approach like that. Figuring out a good way to make it move has been a problem. I also hadn't thought about the snow getting all over everything. (By the way, what's a shiv?)

Thanks

Joe

[Calc]

DON'T, and I repeat, DON'T use little styrofoam pellets as snow.

My freshman year of high school, the football team was doing a fund raiser around christmas time. They thought it would be a great idea to drop the little pellets (the stuff that comes in sheets, but it breaks into pellets real easy) from the grid. They hauled a couple of garbage bags full of the stuff up to the grid (against our knowledge) and began to try and sprinkle it during the assembly. The sprinkling didn't go well, and it pretty much all fell at once, in two large clumps.

Less than half of it reached the ground. The rest stuck to the curtains, the lights, empty pipes, the walls, pretty much whatever was on the way down.

To this day low, loud sounds on the stage cause it to snow a little.

[ship]

A shiv is a pulley, acgually it's a moble pulley and frame for it assembly.

Static Guard works wonders with them little foam pellets.

[techismylife]

several companies also make snow machines. But if you take this route, beware, because some have reputations for being very very noisy. LeMaitre makes a Silent Storm DMX machine that is around $710 USD. i have never used this one, so you'd need to look into how much area it can cover. Lastly, the snow machines i have used leave a sticky residue on the floor depending on how much falls, which might not be good for dancers. The convient thing is that you don't have to go sweep up pieces of paper or anything.
--Lincoln

[Radman]

I think the most do-able options are either a snow machine, or a snow cradle.

A snow cradle is the PVC thing ship talked about. There are small details in the construction that have to be seen to, however, to make it a sucessful cradle.