Stroud’s top cinematic effects company is green 2023

Darcey Crownshaw launched Snow Business in 1983, utilizing paper to manufacture snow instead of hazardous chemicals.

“By chance, my first product was biodegradable paper. Darcey noted that films were created utilizing polystyrene, formaldehyde, and salt, which were bad for the site.

They employ plant-based biodegradable snow effects and emphasize their eco-friendliness. Darcey thinks this will maintain the Snow Business at the top for decades.

“We are the gold standard of snow in the film industry and the plans are to stay there and get even better,” Darcey said.

Snow Business features over 300 snow effects and is continually improving and creating new ones, often out of necessity.

The environmentally responsible reputation of the cinematic effects industry in Stroud is widely known.

Each film has unique problems. We made tiny snowflakes for the rat Muppets in The Muppet Christmas Carol. We had to design a smaller snow since Thomas the Tank Engine couldn’t handle the Muppet snow.

The Snow Barn has 13 full-time employees and works on two or three projects at a time alongside freelancers. The barn was built in 1721 as a linseed oil mill and had several different uses until the 1980s, when it fell into ruin. It houses Snow Business since 2001 and contains a snow cave and theatre.

The business has worked on The Day After Tomorrow, Narnia, Notting Hill, Gangs of New York, and Snow White and the Huntsman.

Hamlet, directed by Kenneth Branagh, was unforgettable. Darcey remarked, “We had 200 acres to cover with snow, and we couldn’t drive on the grass, so it was really hard.”