How do they film movies that take place in a single season?
Usually it takes more than a year to film a good movie. Some movies take place in only one season. For example, Home Alone takes place in winter.
How do they manage to film a two-hour movie in three or even less months? They can not change the location of filming, it's impossible to create the season artificially, then how do they do it?
film-techniques
|
show 3 more comments
Usually it takes more than a year to film a good movie. Some movies take place in only one season. For example, Home Alone takes place in winter.
How do they manage to film a two-hour movie in three or even less months? They can not change the location of filming, it's impossible to create the season artificially, then how do they do it?
film-techniques
9
Stephen Tobolowsky, who played Ned in Groundhog Day, has a very interesting series of podcasts where he discusses the problems they had filming a movie where everything has to reset and be the exact same weather over and over, but the outdoor shots obviously took more than a day to do. Even things like getting footprints out of snow was a tricky problem.
– Eric Lippert
18 hours ago
9
@EricLippert if you happen to have a link, it would be awesome
– Morgen
14 hours ago
1
I've seen "snow" in a film that was white sand in reality. I've also seen shots filmed where it's pouring down rain when there's not a drop in the sky (except for the enormous rain maker and a hose feeding water to it). Special effects are incredible, well thought out, and deftly planned.
– elbrant
12 hours ago
4
it's impossible to create the season artificially Oh no it's not! There is an entire production department whose job this is and a substantial portion of the budget is devoted to it. Also, they cheat a lot. For example, About a boy is supposed to take place in London in the run up to Xmas, but street scenes frequently show real people strolling about in shirt sleeves.
– Oscar Bravo
5 hours ago
3
“Usually it takes more than a year to film a good movie” — The Godfather was filmed in three months. Overall production takes a long time, but I believe it's rare for a movie to spend a year on just the filming part.
– Paul D. Waite
3 hours ago
|
show 3 more comments
Usually it takes more than a year to film a good movie. Some movies take place in only one season. For example, Home Alone takes place in winter.
How do they manage to film a two-hour movie in three or even less months? They can not change the location of filming, it's impossible to create the season artificially, then how do they do it?
film-techniques
Usually it takes more than a year to film a good movie. Some movies take place in only one season. For example, Home Alone takes place in winter.
How do they manage to film a two-hour movie in three or even less months? They can not change the location of filming, it's impossible to create the season artificially, then how do they do it?
film-techniques
film-techniques
edited 22 hours ago
Tetsujin
18.2k66067
18.2k66067
asked 23 hours ago
Ver NickVer Nick
1,1631832
1,1631832
9
Stephen Tobolowsky, who played Ned in Groundhog Day, has a very interesting series of podcasts where he discusses the problems they had filming a movie where everything has to reset and be the exact same weather over and over, but the outdoor shots obviously took more than a day to do. Even things like getting footprints out of snow was a tricky problem.
– Eric Lippert
18 hours ago
9
@EricLippert if you happen to have a link, it would be awesome
– Morgen
14 hours ago
1
I've seen "snow" in a film that was white sand in reality. I've also seen shots filmed where it's pouring down rain when there's not a drop in the sky (except for the enormous rain maker and a hose feeding water to it). Special effects are incredible, well thought out, and deftly planned.
– elbrant
12 hours ago
4
it's impossible to create the season artificially Oh no it's not! There is an entire production department whose job this is and a substantial portion of the budget is devoted to it. Also, they cheat a lot. For example, About a boy is supposed to take place in London in the run up to Xmas, but street scenes frequently show real people strolling about in shirt sleeves.
– Oscar Bravo
5 hours ago
3
“Usually it takes more than a year to film a good movie” — The Godfather was filmed in three months. Overall production takes a long time, but I believe it's rare for a movie to spend a year on just the filming part.
– Paul D. Waite
3 hours ago
|
show 3 more comments
9
Stephen Tobolowsky, who played Ned in Groundhog Day, has a very interesting series of podcasts where he discusses the problems they had filming a movie where everything has to reset and be the exact same weather over and over, but the outdoor shots obviously took more than a day to do. Even things like getting footprints out of snow was a tricky problem.
– Eric Lippert
18 hours ago
9
@EricLippert if you happen to have a link, it would be awesome
– Morgen
14 hours ago
1
I've seen "snow" in a film that was white sand in reality. I've also seen shots filmed where it's pouring down rain when there's not a drop in the sky (except for the enormous rain maker and a hose feeding water to it). Special effects are incredible, well thought out, and deftly planned.
– elbrant
12 hours ago
4
it's impossible to create the season artificially Oh no it's not! There is an entire production department whose job this is and a substantial portion of the budget is devoted to it. Also, they cheat a lot. For example, About a boy is supposed to take place in London in the run up to Xmas, but street scenes frequently show real people strolling about in shirt sleeves.
– Oscar Bravo
5 hours ago
3
“Usually it takes more than a year to film a good movie” — The Godfather was filmed in three months. Overall production takes a long time, but I believe it's rare for a movie to spend a year on just the filming part.
– Paul D. Waite
3 hours ago
9
9
Stephen Tobolowsky, who played Ned in Groundhog Day, has a very interesting series of podcasts where he discusses the problems they had filming a movie where everything has to reset and be the exact same weather over and over, but the outdoor shots obviously took more than a day to do. Even things like getting footprints out of snow was a tricky problem.
– Eric Lippert
18 hours ago
Stephen Tobolowsky, who played Ned in Groundhog Day, has a very interesting series of podcasts where he discusses the problems they had filming a movie where everything has to reset and be the exact same weather over and over, but the outdoor shots obviously took more than a day to do. Even things like getting footprints out of snow was a tricky problem.
– Eric Lippert
18 hours ago
9
9
@EricLippert if you happen to have a link, it would be awesome
– Morgen
14 hours ago
@EricLippert if you happen to have a link, it would be awesome
– Morgen
14 hours ago
1
1
I've seen "snow" in a film that was white sand in reality. I've also seen shots filmed where it's pouring down rain when there's not a drop in the sky (except for the enormous rain maker and a hose feeding water to it). Special effects are incredible, well thought out, and deftly planned.
– elbrant
12 hours ago
I've seen "snow" in a film that was white sand in reality. I've also seen shots filmed where it's pouring down rain when there's not a drop in the sky (except for the enormous rain maker and a hose feeding water to it). Special effects are incredible, well thought out, and deftly planned.
– elbrant
12 hours ago
4
4
it's impossible to create the season artificially Oh no it's not! There is an entire production department whose job this is and a substantial portion of the budget is devoted to it. Also, they cheat a lot. For example, About a boy is supposed to take place in London in the run up to Xmas, but street scenes frequently show real people strolling about in shirt sleeves.
– Oscar Bravo
5 hours ago
it's impossible to create the season artificially Oh no it's not! There is an entire production department whose job this is and a substantial portion of the budget is devoted to it. Also, they cheat a lot. For example, About a boy is supposed to take place in London in the run up to Xmas, but street scenes frequently show real people strolling about in shirt sleeves.
– Oscar Bravo
5 hours ago
3
3
“Usually it takes more than a year to film a good movie” — The Godfather was filmed in three months. Overall production takes a long time, but I believe it's rare for a movie to spend a year on just the filming part.
– Paul D. Waite
3 hours ago
“Usually it takes more than a year to film a good movie” — The Godfather was filmed in three months. Overall production takes a long time, but I believe it's rare for a movie to spend a year on just the filming part.
– Paul D. Waite
3 hours ago
|
show 3 more comments
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
Principal photography, where the actors are in front of the camera, usually takes less than 3 months. I've heard of movies being shot in just 21 days. But the whole production of a movie involves a lot more than just principal photography, and can frequently take a year or more. Movie production is generally broken into 3 stages:
Pre-production: The script is finalized, crew and cast are hired, rehearsals, location scouting, costumes, props, permits, etc. This usually takes several months.
Principal photography: The actors are on sets or on locations, being filmed. This takes 1-3 months, typically.
Post-production: Edit the film, score the film, add special effects, ADR (recording the audio of voice-overs and the like), marketing, etc. This is often the longest part of a film's production schedule, often taking 6 months or more.
So principal photography can easily be completed within one season. In addition, as others have pointed out, much of what you see is "movie magic": fake snow on the ground, the actors pretending to be cold when it's actually summertime, etc. Also, the environment only needs to look like a particular season for shots taken outdoors; if the actors are indoors, they can shoot that at any time of the year that they want.
12
just out of cussedness they usually film winter in summer & summer in winter, though - schedules being more important that the comfort of the cast ;-)) I can remember working in snowdrifts whilst trying to shoot 'girls in spangly shorts' doing a 'summer gala' for Eastenders & also a sub-zero 'bikini contest' for Endeavour.
– Tetsujin
22 hours ago
4
oh.. & 'Good Omens' - summer in Soho? Nope... 2 ft of snow on a disused airfield in Buckinghamshire plus a lot of hand-held gas burners to melt it off every morning...
– Tetsujin
21 hours ago
3
Also, they don’t generally film the scenes in “chronological” order. For the home_alone example, do all the scenes in the backyard, then all the scenes in the park, then cellar scenes, etc.
– WGroleau
12 hours ago
add a comment |
To take a single aspect of this, 'winter'...
Fake snow is big business.
In the UK, the snow companies are busiest in summer, when it's [theoretically] least likely to rain and spoil the effect.
From my own answer on Why does snow appear to go up in movies?
I've seen sets dressed for snow and worked on scenes using it, but I
don't know the full technical details, so I'm going to have to skirt
the 'hard data' a bit.
The basic types I've seen are made of paper [wet or dry], foam,
cellulose and formaldehyde.
The very light 'snow' is formaldehyde, burned as candles - that will
definitely give the look in the Gladiator clip.
Foam, as far as I know, is used for heavier snowfall.
Paper and cellulose are also used to make snow-fall, but I've never seen
those in real life, only on other people's footage. I've seen it laid
down on the ground as a blanket effect prior to the shoot, but not
used as fall. Paper is extremely good for ground-coverage. If you wet
it slightly it even holds footprints that look and feel entirely
convincing even when they're your own feet making them and it's 30°C in
the shade.
Have a look at Snow Business, a UK company, for the myriad ways
they have of trying to convince you it's actually snowing.
...and I only just realised, that's the company who did the snow for
Gladiator! See the page on Snow Sticks
Here's a rare picture of a set in the middle of being dressed for snow for the xmas episode - this was taken in mid-July, the temperature was about 30°C.
The 'snow' on the ground is predominantly paper or cellulose, slightly damp - as you can see in the foreground it is holding footprints well. By the time they'd finished, it was deeper than this and covered most of the set; walking across it would leave prints but not show the ground underneath.
I found this - I didn't work on the show the year they did "The Big Freeze" my shot is from a couple of years earlier - but they made a special on 'the making of', posted to YouTube...
Less important, but principal photography is unlikely to span a year - more like 2 months, whatever the weather.
Just to add on - the snow could be real but in exterior shots. Interior shots could very well be at any time in the year with some fake snow on the window.
– vlaz
7 hours ago
1
Real snow, other than for establishing shots, has one major disadvantage. Once you walked on it, that's it. Every subsequent take will have a greater number of footprints. Some movies get lucky - Nativity Rocks was filmed in March in real snow. Last Christmas took advantage of the xmas lights in London's West End, by actually filming over Dec/Jan, overnight so the passers-by could be extras, not 'real shoppers'.
– Tetsujin
4 hours ago
add a comment |
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
Principal photography, where the actors are in front of the camera, usually takes less than 3 months. I've heard of movies being shot in just 21 days. But the whole production of a movie involves a lot more than just principal photography, and can frequently take a year or more. Movie production is generally broken into 3 stages:
Pre-production: The script is finalized, crew and cast are hired, rehearsals, location scouting, costumes, props, permits, etc. This usually takes several months.
Principal photography: The actors are on sets or on locations, being filmed. This takes 1-3 months, typically.
Post-production: Edit the film, score the film, add special effects, ADR (recording the audio of voice-overs and the like), marketing, etc. This is often the longest part of a film's production schedule, often taking 6 months or more.
So principal photography can easily be completed within one season. In addition, as others have pointed out, much of what you see is "movie magic": fake snow on the ground, the actors pretending to be cold when it's actually summertime, etc. Also, the environment only needs to look like a particular season for shots taken outdoors; if the actors are indoors, they can shoot that at any time of the year that they want.
12
just out of cussedness they usually film winter in summer & summer in winter, though - schedules being more important that the comfort of the cast ;-)) I can remember working in snowdrifts whilst trying to shoot 'girls in spangly shorts' doing a 'summer gala' for Eastenders & also a sub-zero 'bikini contest' for Endeavour.
– Tetsujin
22 hours ago
4
oh.. & 'Good Omens' - summer in Soho? Nope... 2 ft of snow on a disused airfield in Buckinghamshire plus a lot of hand-held gas burners to melt it off every morning...
– Tetsujin
21 hours ago
3
Also, they don’t generally film the scenes in “chronological” order. For the home_alone example, do all the scenes in the backyard, then all the scenes in the park, then cellar scenes, etc.
– WGroleau
12 hours ago
add a comment |
Principal photography, where the actors are in front of the camera, usually takes less than 3 months. I've heard of movies being shot in just 21 days. But the whole production of a movie involves a lot more than just principal photography, and can frequently take a year or more. Movie production is generally broken into 3 stages:
Pre-production: The script is finalized, crew and cast are hired, rehearsals, location scouting, costumes, props, permits, etc. This usually takes several months.
Principal photography: The actors are on sets or on locations, being filmed. This takes 1-3 months, typically.
Post-production: Edit the film, score the film, add special effects, ADR (recording the audio of voice-overs and the like), marketing, etc. This is often the longest part of a film's production schedule, often taking 6 months or more.
So principal photography can easily be completed within one season. In addition, as others have pointed out, much of what you see is "movie magic": fake snow on the ground, the actors pretending to be cold when it's actually summertime, etc. Also, the environment only needs to look like a particular season for shots taken outdoors; if the actors are indoors, they can shoot that at any time of the year that they want.
12
just out of cussedness they usually film winter in summer & summer in winter, though - schedules being more important that the comfort of the cast ;-)) I can remember working in snowdrifts whilst trying to shoot 'girls in spangly shorts' doing a 'summer gala' for Eastenders & also a sub-zero 'bikini contest' for Endeavour.
– Tetsujin
22 hours ago
4
oh.. & 'Good Omens' - summer in Soho? Nope... 2 ft of snow on a disused airfield in Buckinghamshire plus a lot of hand-held gas burners to melt it off every morning...
– Tetsujin
21 hours ago
3
Also, they don’t generally film the scenes in “chronological” order. For the home_alone example, do all the scenes in the backyard, then all the scenes in the park, then cellar scenes, etc.
– WGroleau
12 hours ago
add a comment |
Principal photography, where the actors are in front of the camera, usually takes less than 3 months. I've heard of movies being shot in just 21 days. But the whole production of a movie involves a lot more than just principal photography, and can frequently take a year or more. Movie production is generally broken into 3 stages:
Pre-production: The script is finalized, crew and cast are hired, rehearsals, location scouting, costumes, props, permits, etc. This usually takes several months.
Principal photography: The actors are on sets or on locations, being filmed. This takes 1-3 months, typically.
Post-production: Edit the film, score the film, add special effects, ADR (recording the audio of voice-overs and the like), marketing, etc. This is often the longest part of a film's production schedule, often taking 6 months or more.
So principal photography can easily be completed within one season. In addition, as others have pointed out, much of what you see is "movie magic": fake snow on the ground, the actors pretending to be cold when it's actually summertime, etc. Also, the environment only needs to look like a particular season for shots taken outdoors; if the actors are indoors, they can shoot that at any time of the year that they want.
Principal photography, where the actors are in front of the camera, usually takes less than 3 months. I've heard of movies being shot in just 21 days. But the whole production of a movie involves a lot more than just principal photography, and can frequently take a year or more. Movie production is generally broken into 3 stages:
Pre-production: The script is finalized, crew and cast are hired, rehearsals, location scouting, costumes, props, permits, etc. This usually takes several months.
Principal photography: The actors are on sets or on locations, being filmed. This takes 1-3 months, typically.
Post-production: Edit the film, score the film, add special effects, ADR (recording the audio of voice-overs and the like), marketing, etc. This is often the longest part of a film's production schedule, often taking 6 months or more.
So principal photography can easily be completed within one season. In addition, as others have pointed out, much of what you see is "movie magic": fake snow on the ground, the actors pretending to be cold when it's actually summertime, etc. Also, the environment only needs to look like a particular season for shots taken outdoors; if the actors are indoors, they can shoot that at any time of the year that they want.
edited 19 hours ago
Napoleon Wilson♦
41.7k37268509
41.7k37268509
answered 22 hours ago
BrettFromLABrettFromLA
15.2k549106
15.2k549106
12
just out of cussedness they usually film winter in summer & summer in winter, though - schedules being more important that the comfort of the cast ;-)) I can remember working in snowdrifts whilst trying to shoot 'girls in spangly shorts' doing a 'summer gala' for Eastenders & also a sub-zero 'bikini contest' for Endeavour.
– Tetsujin
22 hours ago
4
oh.. & 'Good Omens' - summer in Soho? Nope... 2 ft of snow on a disused airfield in Buckinghamshire plus a lot of hand-held gas burners to melt it off every morning...
– Tetsujin
21 hours ago
3
Also, they don’t generally film the scenes in “chronological” order. For the home_alone example, do all the scenes in the backyard, then all the scenes in the park, then cellar scenes, etc.
– WGroleau
12 hours ago
add a comment |
12
just out of cussedness they usually film winter in summer & summer in winter, though - schedules being more important that the comfort of the cast ;-)) I can remember working in snowdrifts whilst trying to shoot 'girls in spangly shorts' doing a 'summer gala' for Eastenders & also a sub-zero 'bikini contest' for Endeavour.
– Tetsujin
22 hours ago
4
oh.. & 'Good Omens' - summer in Soho? Nope... 2 ft of snow on a disused airfield in Buckinghamshire plus a lot of hand-held gas burners to melt it off every morning...
– Tetsujin
21 hours ago
3
Also, they don’t generally film the scenes in “chronological” order. For the home_alone example, do all the scenes in the backyard, then all the scenes in the park, then cellar scenes, etc.
– WGroleau
12 hours ago
12
12
just out of cussedness they usually film winter in summer & summer in winter, though - schedules being more important that the comfort of the cast ;-)) I can remember working in snowdrifts whilst trying to shoot 'girls in spangly shorts' doing a 'summer gala' for Eastenders & also a sub-zero 'bikini contest' for Endeavour.
– Tetsujin
22 hours ago
just out of cussedness they usually film winter in summer & summer in winter, though - schedules being more important that the comfort of the cast ;-)) I can remember working in snowdrifts whilst trying to shoot 'girls in spangly shorts' doing a 'summer gala' for Eastenders & also a sub-zero 'bikini contest' for Endeavour.
– Tetsujin
22 hours ago
4
4
oh.. & 'Good Omens' - summer in Soho? Nope... 2 ft of snow on a disused airfield in Buckinghamshire plus a lot of hand-held gas burners to melt it off every morning...
– Tetsujin
21 hours ago
oh.. & 'Good Omens' - summer in Soho? Nope... 2 ft of snow on a disused airfield in Buckinghamshire plus a lot of hand-held gas burners to melt it off every morning...
– Tetsujin
21 hours ago
3
3
Also, they don’t generally film the scenes in “chronological” order. For the home_alone example, do all the scenes in the backyard, then all the scenes in the park, then cellar scenes, etc.
– WGroleau
12 hours ago
Also, they don’t generally film the scenes in “chronological” order. For the home_alone example, do all the scenes in the backyard, then all the scenes in the park, then cellar scenes, etc.
– WGroleau
12 hours ago
add a comment |
To take a single aspect of this, 'winter'...
Fake snow is big business.
In the UK, the snow companies are busiest in summer, when it's [theoretically] least likely to rain and spoil the effect.
From my own answer on Why does snow appear to go up in movies?
I've seen sets dressed for snow and worked on scenes using it, but I
don't know the full technical details, so I'm going to have to skirt
the 'hard data' a bit.
The basic types I've seen are made of paper [wet or dry], foam,
cellulose and formaldehyde.
The very light 'snow' is formaldehyde, burned as candles - that will
definitely give the look in the Gladiator clip.
Foam, as far as I know, is used for heavier snowfall.
Paper and cellulose are also used to make snow-fall, but I've never seen
those in real life, only on other people's footage. I've seen it laid
down on the ground as a blanket effect prior to the shoot, but not
used as fall. Paper is extremely good for ground-coverage. If you wet
it slightly it even holds footprints that look and feel entirely
convincing even when they're your own feet making them and it's 30°C in
the shade.
Have a look at Snow Business, a UK company, for the myriad ways
they have of trying to convince you it's actually snowing.
...and I only just realised, that's the company who did the snow for
Gladiator! See the page on Snow Sticks
Here's a rare picture of a set in the middle of being dressed for snow for the xmas episode - this was taken in mid-July, the temperature was about 30°C.
The 'snow' on the ground is predominantly paper or cellulose, slightly damp - as you can see in the foreground it is holding footprints well. By the time they'd finished, it was deeper than this and covered most of the set; walking across it would leave prints but not show the ground underneath.
I found this - I didn't work on the show the year they did "The Big Freeze" my shot is from a couple of years earlier - but they made a special on 'the making of', posted to YouTube...
Less important, but principal photography is unlikely to span a year - more like 2 months, whatever the weather.
Just to add on - the snow could be real but in exterior shots. Interior shots could very well be at any time in the year with some fake snow on the window.
– vlaz
7 hours ago
1
Real snow, other than for establishing shots, has one major disadvantage. Once you walked on it, that's it. Every subsequent take will have a greater number of footprints. Some movies get lucky - Nativity Rocks was filmed in March in real snow. Last Christmas took advantage of the xmas lights in London's West End, by actually filming over Dec/Jan, overnight so the passers-by could be extras, not 'real shoppers'.
– Tetsujin
4 hours ago
add a comment |
To take a single aspect of this, 'winter'...
Fake snow is big business.
In the UK, the snow companies are busiest in summer, when it's [theoretically] least likely to rain and spoil the effect.
From my own answer on Why does snow appear to go up in movies?
I've seen sets dressed for snow and worked on scenes using it, but I
don't know the full technical details, so I'm going to have to skirt
the 'hard data' a bit.
The basic types I've seen are made of paper [wet or dry], foam,
cellulose and formaldehyde.
The very light 'snow' is formaldehyde, burned as candles - that will
definitely give the look in the Gladiator clip.
Foam, as far as I know, is used for heavier snowfall.
Paper and cellulose are also used to make snow-fall, but I've never seen
those in real life, only on other people's footage. I've seen it laid
down on the ground as a blanket effect prior to the shoot, but not
used as fall. Paper is extremely good for ground-coverage. If you wet
it slightly it even holds footprints that look and feel entirely
convincing even when they're your own feet making them and it's 30°C in
the shade.
Have a look at Snow Business, a UK company, for the myriad ways
they have of trying to convince you it's actually snowing.
...and I only just realised, that's the company who did the snow for
Gladiator! See the page on Snow Sticks
Here's a rare picture of a set in the middle of being dressed for snow for the xmas episode - this was taken in mid-July, the temperature was about 30°C.
The 'snow' on the ground is predominantly paper or cellulose, slightly damp - as you can see in the foreground it is holding footprints well. By the time they'd finished, it was deeper than this and covered most of the set; walking across it would leave prints but not show the ground underneath.
I found this - I didn't work on the show the year they did "The Big Freeze" my shot is from a couple of years earlier - but they made a special on 'the making of', posted to YouTube...
Less important, but principal photography is unlikely to span a year - more like 2 months, whatever the weather.
Just to add on - the snow could be real but in exterior shots. Interior shots could very well be at any time in the year with some fake snow on the window.
– vlaz
7 hours ago
1
Real snow, other than for establishing shots, has one major disadvantage. Once you walked on it, that's it. Every subsequent take will have a greater number of footprints. Some movies get lucky - Nativity Rocks was filmed in March in real snow. Last Christmas took advantage of the xmas lights in London's West End, by actually filming over Dec/Jan, overnight so the passers-by could be extras, not 'real shoppers'.
– Tetsujin
4 hours ago
add a comment |
To take a single aspect of this, 'winter'...
Fake snow is big business.
In the UK, the snow companies are busiest in summer, when it's [theoretically] least likely to rain and spoil the effect.
From my own answer on Why does snow appear to go up in movies?
I've seen sets dressed for snow and worked on scenes using it, but I
don't know the full technical details, so I'm going to have to skirt
the 'hard data' a bit.
The basic types I've seen are made of paper [wet or dry], foam,
cellulose and formaldehyde.
The very light 'snow' is formaldehyde, burned as candles - that will
definitely give the look in the Gladiator clip.
Foam, as far as I know, is used for heavier snowfall.
Paper and cellulose are also used to make snow-fall, but I've never seen
those in real life, only on other people's footage. I've seen it laid
down on the ground as a blanket effect prior to the shoot, but not
used as fall. Paper is extremely good for ground-coverage. If you wet
it slightly it even holds footprints that look and feel entirely
convincing even when they're your own feet making them and it's 30°C in
the shade.
Have a look at Snow Business, a UK company, for the myriad ways
they have of trying to convince you it's actually snowing.
...and I only just realised, that's the company who did the snow for
Gladiator! See the page on Snow Sticks
Here's a rare picture of a set in the middle of being dressed for snow for the xmas episode - this was taken in mid-July, the temperature was about 30°C.
The 'snow' on the ground is predominantly paper or cellulose, slightly damp - as you can see in the foreground it is holding footprints well. By the time they'd finished, it was deeper than this and covered most of the set; walking across it would leave prints but not show the ground underneath.
I found this - I didn't work on the show the year they did "The Big Freeze" my shot is from a couple of years earlier - but they made a special on 'the making of', posted to YouTube...
Less important, but principal photography is unlikely to span a year - more like 2 months, whatever the weather.
To take a single aspect of this, 'winter'...
Fake snow is big business.
In the UK, the snow companies are busiest in summer, when it's [theoretically] least likely to rain and spoil the effect.
From my own answer on Why does snow appear to go up in movies?
I've seen sets dressed for snow and worked on scenes using it, but I
don't know the full technical details, so I'm going to have to skirt
the 'hard data' a bit.
The basic types I've seen are made of paper [wet or dry], foam,
cellulose and formaldehyde.
The very light 'snow' is formaldehyde, burned as candles - that will
definitely give the look in the Gladiator clip.
Foam, as far as I know, is used for heavier snowfall.
Paper and cellulose are also used to make snow-fall, but I've never seen
those in real life, only on other people's footage. I've seen it laid
down on the ground as a blanket effect prior to the shoot, but not
used as fall. Paper is extremely good for ground-coverage. If you wet
it slightly it even holds footprints that look and feel entirely
convincing even when they're your own feet making them and it's 30°C in
the shade.
Have a look at Snow Business, a UK company, for the myriad ways
they have of trying to convince you it's actually snowing.
...and I only just realised, that's the company who did the snow for
Gladiator! See the page on Snow Sticks
Here's a rare picture of a set in the middle of being dressed for snow for the xmas episode - this was taken in mid-July, the temperature was about 30°C.
The 'snow' on the ground is predominantly paper or cellulose, slightly damp - as you can see in the foreground it is holding footprints well. By the time they'd finished, it was deeper than this and covered most of the set; walking across it would leave prints but not show the ground underneath.
I found this - I didn't work on the show the year they did "The Big Freeze" my shot is from a couple of years earlier - but they made a special on 'the making of', posted to YouTube...
Less important, but principal photography is unlikely to span a year - more like 2 months, whatever the weather.
edited 20 hours ago
Napoleon Wilson♦
41.7k37268509
41.7k37268509
answered 23 hours ago
TetsujinTetsujin
18.2k66067
18.2k66067
Just to add on - the snow could be real but in exterior shots. Interior shots could very well be at any time in the year with some fake snow on the window.
– vlaz
7 hours ago
1
Real snow, other than for establishing shots, has one major disadvantage. Once you walked on it, that's it. Every subsequent take will have a greater number of footprints. Some movies get lucky - Nativity Rocks was filmed in March in real snow. Last Christmas took advantage of the xmas lights in London's West End, by actually filming over Dec/Jan, overnight so the passers-by could be extras, not 'real shoppers'.
– Tetsujin
4 hours ago
add a comment |
Just to add on - the snow could be real but in exterior shots. Interior shots could very well be at any time in the year with some fake snow on the window.
– vlaz
7 hours ago
1
Real snow, other than for establishing shots, has one major disadvantage. Once you walked on it, that's it. Every subsequent take will have a greater number of footprints. Some movies get lucky - Nativity Rocks was filmed in March in real snow. Last Christmas took advantage of the xmas lights in London's West End, by actually filming over Dec/Jan, overnight so the passers-by could be extras, not 'real shoppers'.
– Tetsujin
4 hours ago
Just to add on - the snow could be real but in exterior shots. Interior shots could very well be at any time in the year with some fake snow on the window.
– vlaz
7 hours ago
Just to add on - the snow could be real but in exterior shots. Interior shots could very well be at any time in the year with some fake snow on the window.
– vlaz
7 hours ago
1
1
Real snow, other than for establishing shots, has one major disadvantage. Once you walked on it, that's it. Every subsequent take will have a greater number of footprints. Some movies get lucky - Nativity Rocks was filmed in March in real snow. Last Christmas took advantage of the xmas lights in London's West End, by actually filming over Dec/Jan, overnight so the passers-by could be extras, not 'real shoppers'.
– Tetsujin
4 hours ago
Real snow, other than for establishing shots, has one major disadvantage. Once you walked on it, that's it. Every subsequent take will have a greater number of footprints. Some movies get lucky - Nativity Rocks was filmed in March in real snow. Last Christmas took advantage of the xmas lights in London's West End, by actually filming over Dec/Jan, overnight so the passers-by could be extras, not 'real shoppers'.
– Tetsujin
4 hours ago
add a comment |
9
Stephen Tobolowsky, who played Ned in Groundhog Day, has a very interesting series of podcasts where he discusses the problems they had filming a movie where everything has to reset and be the exact same weather over and over, but the outdoor shots obviously took more than a day to do. Even things like getting footprints out of snow was a tricky problem.
– Eric Lippert
18 hours ago
9
@EricLippert if you happen to have a link, it would be awesome
– Morgen
14 hours ago
1
I've seen "snow" in a film that was white sand in reality. I've also seen shots filmed where it's pouring down rain when there's not a drop in the sky (except for the enormous rain maker and a hose feeding water to it). Special effects are incredible, well thought out, and deftly planned.
– elbrant
12 hours ago
4
it's impossible to create the season artificially Oh no it's not! There is an entire production department whose job this is and a substantial portion of the budget is devoted to it. Also, they cheat a lot. For example, About a boy is supposed to take place in London in the run up to Xmas, but street scenes frequently show real people strolling about in shirt sleeves.
– Oscar Bravo
5 hours ago
3
“Usually it takes more than a year to film a good movie” — The Godfather was filmed in three months. Overall production takes a long time, but I believe it's rare for a movie to spend a year on just the filming part.
– Paul D. Waite
3 hours ago