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Fake Snow from Potato Starch
Makarand writes "According to this article on Nature.com
German chemists have created a new biodegradable type of fake snow from potato
starch for the film industry. Most artificial snow types are plastic and
it is impossible to pick up all the snow flakes scattered on film sets.
The new snow presents no such problems. A good soaking is all that is needed
to dissolve these biodegradable snow flakes. The process involves using starch from corn, potatoes or seaweed
and puffing it up to make a spongy foam resembling snow."
How will Iodine-man stay camouflaged if the snow is made of starch? Without Iodine-man's camouflage, the world is doomed!!!
Keeping
Wow. So Hailstorm wasn't about a brave new e-service. Rather just another plot of Microsoft to take over the movie industry. But it's sad they need German scientists to cover up their involvement, why can't they just admit they like both Hollywoon and potatoes?
--
The right to be heard does not include the right to be taken seriously
filmmakers have been using potato buds for decades to fake snow scenes...
i know that in Home Alone for some of the winter scenes they used a combination of real ice-made snow and potato buds to create snow in 50F weather...
Interesting.
It sounds like it would take a LOT of potatos to blanket a complete scene in this kind of fake snow.
I wonder if anyone has considered using all of these potatos for any other purposes... like maybe feeding hungry people?
Seriously, I think that everyone would be better served if they would just develop a better method for collecting all of the old plastic fake snow after it had been used. That way it could be recycled as fake snow for the next motion picture.
...Can you ski on it?
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
The movie "It's a Wonderful Life" won a special Academy Award (Oscar) for its invention of a new way to make realistic looking snow for the movies (a kind of plastic/foam used by fire departments).
Before that, movie productions used cornflakes painted white. They were loud, leading to sound problems that required redubbing. Moreover, they caused rodent infestation problems.
I wonder if these potato starch snowflakes are going to cause problems simialr to ones the corn flakes caused?
BTW, I learned this from an interview on the Motley Fool radio show last night:
<?php while ($self != "asleep") { $sheep_count++; } ?>
Another benefit to these potato flakes is that they wouldn't be as harmful as the plastic ones if accidentally inhaled or ingested.
I like potatoes :D
A little bit of rain, and the set will turn into potato soup.
[pictures Tara Reid floundering around in potato paste]
When you're unpacking all your mail order toys be on the lookout for this stuff. Back in the early 90's we got some supplies delivered to our Bio class in High School and the Packing Peanuts were made out of starch (not sure if it was potato). They look like the Cheese-Doodle type not the S-shaped. They're not as white as the polystyrene kind. If you wet your finger (lick it) and touch one it will be sticky/slimey. We disposed of them by washing them down the sink with warm water. Some spit (amylase digests starch) would prolly speed it up.
*Whips out the sour cream and chives, and sticks out his tounge*
http://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
Use real snow and shoot on location? After all, they're spending millions of dollars on each actor, they could at least afford to do that.
Repeal the DMCA!
Cook: "I don't understand why nobody is ordering potatos this week. Are they tired of them?"
On another note, it reminds me of a Hieniken (sp?) beverage TV commercial. You see a view of an office building with bunch of snow falling from the sky to the xmas tune of "Let it Snow". On the first floor is a group of people enjoying a drink in a cozy pub. The camera then pans up to near the top floor and you can eventually see that the snow is really a bunch of documents being shreaded by a roomful of worried accountants. Closing caption:
"To all those who have not been naughty this year: a Hieniken"
Why don't the studios simply buy some Worldcom and Enron confetti?
Table-ized A.I.
Hey, there might be money in my dandruff!
I looked outside and the ants are doing a victory dance.
I live in Studio City (a suburb of L.A.) and there are movie shoots on my street all of the time (I live down the street from Captain Kirk).
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
According to the DVD extras on the extended edition of Fellowship of the Rings, they used a rice product, not plastic. So apparently degradable fake snow is not exactly new.
(wow, how's that for geek karma?)
...Now that's an innovation!
Honorary Member of Jackie Chan's Kung Fu Process Servers
Oh man, allmost christmas.. Im looking out and its allmost -15C outside. Aah and the snow. That wonderfull spongy foam. .ffm! WHAT ! SPONGY FOAM!?!?!
Man i gotta lay off from that crack pipe for a while..
Seriously. I wouldnt describe snow as spongy.. Nor foam. Having lived thru quite a few snowy days down here in finland where polarbears poo icycles.
yush
So whey they smack someone in the face with a fake snowball on the set.. no need to freak out :)
---- Booth was a patriot ----
What will the USA Drug Enforcement Agency think about making cocaine, known on the street as "snow", from potato starch?
Will I retire or break 10K?
cuzz they puffed em up real good
Potatoes much frozen will make very good starch, though it is a shade darker in color. All coarse clothes requiring to be stiffened, where whiteness is no object, may be done with starch made from potatoes greatly penetrated with frost. The best method of making potatoes into starch is to grate them down into water, then to take out all the refuse with the hand, and next to strain the whole of the water in which the potatoes have been grated through a thin cloth, rather coarse, or fine sieve, and afterwards frequently putting on and pouring off water until it comes clear from the starch, which is always allowed to settle or fall to the bottom of the vessel in which the operation is performed. An experiment was tried with a few potatoes that were put out to frost. They were grated down and made into starch powder. The produce of the fresh potato weighed 876 grains, while that of the frosted was only 412, being less than half the quantity.
The refuse of the potato, when taken from the sieve, possesses the property of cleansing woollen cloths without hurting their colors, and the water decanted from the starch powder is excellent for cleansing silks without the smallest injury to their color. In making hair-powder it has long been used, and is therefore well known.