Hollywood's Low-Temperature Sound-Stage

The California Consumers Corporation of Los Angeles set aside one of its large ice-storage buildings to introduce to the studios a new method of making realistic snow scenes. The purpose of the ice-storage building was to furnish a low-temperature sound-stage, where water ice could be used for snow, and enable the cast's, breaths to become visible, as actually occurs in cold or wintry climates. — Snow is manufactured on the low-temperature sound-stage by means of specially constructed portable blowers, grinding 50-pound blocks of ice and expelling through suitable nozzle a fine, aerated snow, directed to the set where and when needed. — The introduction of Technicolor to the low-temperature sound-stage created many new problems in ventilation, due to the low temperature of the atmosphere and quantity of air movement needed to remove gases and smoke from the stage during shooting periods. — The unusual heat load requirements necessitated the construction of external bunker systems to augment the existing refrigeration for color production. This was accomplished by the combined use of water ice and ammonia refrigeration in these bunkers, giving a total refrigerating capacity of approximately 650 tons in the system to chill 64,000 cfm of fresh air to 20° F.

Print ISSN

0097-5834

Published

1941-04

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/J12916