History of Falling Snow Effects by CITC

Since 1964, Gary Crawford has created all types of ground snow and falling snow for many major motion pictures and television. One movie was Camelot at Warner Brothers Studios. Since then the items and type of snow have become much safer. His inventiveness led him to design user friendly snow machines that could cause the snow to evaporate when falling. This caused a whole new type of idea for use indoors without clean-up. He made a snow machine converting liquid into a foam, separate the foam and threw a distance to cause particles of snow flakes to fall like snow. Since this did not require an operator in the catwalks, it could be controlled from a distance for times an area was impossible for snow. Many tests were made and completed before he introduced his first falling snow effect. This first machine was popular but noisy. In 1992, he designed a quieter unit that was very large and bulky. After sales climbed, he introduced the quieter snow machine by reshaping the entire unit into a smaller case and adding a new idea for sound deadening. Today each year, over 400 units are being sold due to the special quietness and convenient compact style of the Little Blizzard Sound Proof Snow Machine.

With so many other snow machines on the market today, CITC’s Little Blizzard Sound Proof is still the quietest snow machine on the market with more adjustments and the best output. Gary, with his company CITC, added features to the machine for the motion picture industry to make a type of snow that looked like floating snowflakes (not falling raindrops) and was able to be controlled from a distance. This fluid is called Little Blizzard Extra Dry. Other added features include:

1. flake size adjustment paddle (still unique to the Little Blizzard) 1997
2. a 2- speed-motor for quieter operation1998
3. smaller metal housing with curved vents to deflect the noise 1995
4. hanging bracket to attach a C-clamp for spin and tilt adjustments 1995
5. A complete body made large enough for sound proofing used at Boeing Aircraft to reduce sound (2001)
6. Changed again to include a tapered round opening in the front that increased the distance of falling snow, and made it quieter on the outside by reflecting noise back to the inside (2003).
7. Created a Dream-Team package for best coverage of large areas with evaporative liquid snow (Little Blizzard Extra Dry, Quiet 1 hp Fan + LBSP)
8. Added a bracket to a large fan for full adjustments and hanging (1999)
9. The Dream-Team consists of the extra-dry fluids, the fan and the Little Blizzard Snow machine. The Secret: For gaining evaporative snow, it is necessary to add the fan air to dry the water content of each flake of falling snow released from the Little Blizzard, decreasing the weight of each flake of 3 dimensional snow so floating in the air is 600% longer, drying as it descends to the ground, then evaporating on contact.
10. Dry, floating snow prevents slippage. This new technology looks so much like the real thing it has been classified the "closest looking falling snow for the movie industry" by special effects technician J.C. Brotherhood of Spiderman Series and many others.

When it comes to making a great floating snow over audiences, CITC has been doing it for years and is still unsurpassed in quality performances for major amusement parks, concerts, churches, schools, rally’s, theatre, ballet, operas and more. See why CITC is the leader in floating snow quality. Check out our new website at www.CITCFX.com and join the professionals around the world in making dry, floating snow effects that don’t need clean-up.

If the flakes are floating, then you’ve found the magic!