How ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ transformed the art of using fake snow on film

What holiday movie is complete without the soft white flurries of the winter snow?

Snow is a must for family Christmas films, but how do you film a cold scene in the middle of say … July? The answer: simple movie magic.

Frank Capra’s 1946 classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” transformed how the film industry utilizes fake snow, according to Jeremy Arnold, author of the illustrated book “Christmas in the Movies.” He explained to Entertainment Weekly just how Capra and a crafty crew produced the white stuff for the magical holiday flick.

During the classic Hollywood days, early films used methods such as cornflakes painted white, cotton and asbestos in place of snow, according to EW. However, cornflakes proved to be too noisy and asbestos was found out to be harmful to actors’ health. Well-known movie classics that used asbestos during production included 1939’s “The Wizard of Oz” and 1941’s “Citizen Kane.”

Plus, these techniques weren’t dramatic enough for Capra’s film, where snowfall was essential to the plotline, like the several scenes with Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey dramatically running through the snow with his guardian angel, Clarence (Henry Travers), in search of his Christmas spirit.

Arnold said the revolutionary filmmaker consulted with RKO Pictures special-effects department chief Russell Shearman and the pair constructed a snow solution that would be quiet enough to shoot with.

“Capra wanted to be able to shoot live dialogue in close-ups while snow was falling and he also knew he needed a lot of snow in general,” Arnold said.

“The snow is vital to the storytelling,” he continued. “It conveys not just a joyful Christmas Eve, but also the character’s rebirth. It tells the audience George is back in the real world. He’s back from this alternate reality; the snow starts falling and we get it right away. And that is a very gentle, cleansing snow.”

Because “It’s a Wonderful Life” was shot in the middle of summer, the flakes were created using a concoction of Foamite — a carbon dioxide foam seen in fire extinguishers — along with soap, sugar and water that was sprayed from canisters.

“You could create various types of falling snow from really gentle to wind-driven, and it could be sprayed anywhere on the set in a targeted way,” he revealed. “That was something that hadn’t really been possible because when you’re releasing cornflakes, you’re basically just dropping them straight down.”

The invention was able to create the illusion of winter in the midst of the blistering Los Angeles summer. The Californian heat helped “endorsement” of the fake snow, making it look so lifelike. “Because the snow looks very real. It looks great even in those hot conditions,” Arnold stated.

About 6,000 gallons of the faux snow was used to envelop the four-acre Bedford Falls set.

Shearman’s intuitiveness led to him scoring a scientific and technical achievement Oscar in 1949.