HORSE WHISPERER

       
SNOWMAKING FOR
Robert Redford's
"THE HORSE WHISPERER"
A Story of Our Crew's Contributions
This is not an official HORSE WHISPERER site

Sturm's Special Effects Intl., Inc.
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
262-245-6594
dsturmfx@aol.com

       A Quick Look "Behind The Scenes" 

We would like to share with you our experience
of special effects snowmaking.

In Spring of 1997, our specialized SNOWMAKER CREW from Sturm's Special Effects (SSE-based in Lake Geneva, WI)
was asked to tackle the job of creating snow and winter scenes in the mountains and hillsides of Saratoga Springs, New York for
Robert Redford's motion picture.... "HORSE WHISPERER".

Photo of our man-made, snow-covered roadway and mountain-side.

The weather in upstate New York didn't cooperate for the Production Company, with temperatures bouncing from 25 degreesF to 45 degreesF. 
Most of the snow was gone on the mountain sides, as seen in the below  picture. All of the locations chosen were considered "off road",
usually on dirt roads, mountain roads, grass fields, or through muddy non-existent pathways.

Our job on this project was to strictly deal with groundcover snow in upstate New York locations....

As seen in the photos, no natural snow was present on the shooting location.

     Temperatures in the daytime generally were above freezing; our snowguns (like the ski-hills) were rarely used.
  Most of the methods employed for snowmaking was considered "warm-weather" techniques with shaved ice
(for the foreground) and high expansion foam (for the backgrounds).

Kenny Coulman on the SnowMaker Truck Hose

Entire lighting systems had to be set-up each night and essentially an entire operation of trucks, equipment,
and crew would converge on a location to snow it in.  When the film crew would arrive on-set in the morning, it would look like
a 'winter-wonderland' from the hard work of Snowmaker Foreman Yvonne Sturm, and her crew of snowmakers.
A day snowmaking crew would maintain and redress snow for First Unit as they were filming and needed touch-ups or additional snow
made for wider camera angles.

New York Crew
 

Special effects coordinator (NY Unit) Richard Stutsman and his crew (who did a excellent job!) dealt with the falling snow situations as needed in New York.

More Snowmaking......

FIRST UNIT MONTANA & CALIFORNIA

Once the Production and our crew left the New York locations, Neil Trifunovich, Special Effects Coordinator of The HORSE WHISPERER,
came aboard and headed up the project for an additional 33 weeks!

In that time period, Neil and his special effects crew  were responsible for a very large amount of snow dressing and falling snow while shooting in Northern California. 
Alot of the snow shots filmed in upstate New York involving the accident were reshot for editorial reasons.  Neil was extremely instrumental in the effects and snow
for that sequence. (Our hats off to him and his crew... awesome job!!!!)

                                              OFF THE BEATEN PATH......

    

At this remote location, Sturm's Snowmakers had to wear waders and snow in
(with environmentally safe high expansion foam) the sides of a river bed.
  Shaved ice was blown in around the entrance of the bridge underpass.

COMBINING EFFORTS..    WHAT WE ALL WORK TOWARDS
With the many man-made snow scenes created by Sturm's snow crew and
Neil Trifunovich's special effects crew, the Director and editors select  from the dozens of shots and combine them
to produce a convincing visual scene.

  "As you can see, there are hundreds of specialized and creative technicians involved in creating realistic
and exciting visuals for the movie-going audiences. 
This was just a short story to tell you about our own personal involvement in one such project."
                                                                   Dieter Sturm

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This is not an official HORSE WHISPERER site

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