The Snow Machine represents a new level of collaboration between the two companies, who have been close friends for many years. Originally created in prototype form by White Light for the London production of the musical Billy Elliot, the final version of the Snow Machine is now manufactured for White Light by City Theatrical. It offers variable speed delivery of paper or plastic snow effects under DMX control and is designed to fit into tight spaces and operate with the very minimum of noise.
"White Light has often created special products requested by lighting designers to solve problems on particular shows," commented the company's managing director Bryan Raven. "Some of those products, such as the VSFX Optical Effect System, we've then gone on to manufacture as products, but when planning both the Snow Machine and the new VSFX3 we came to realise that our friends at City Theatrical do product manufacturing really well, so why not just let them take care of that for us? We are delighted with the end product, and very grateful to the judging panel for noticing what might be thought of as quite an old fashioned effect amid the sea of LED lights."
"We've been very excited to work with the good people at White Light on two projects this year, the Snow Machine and the VSFX3 effect," notes City Theatrical's Gary Fails. "We think that both are very useful theatrical products that will have wide appeal, and that both have benefited from our long experience in manufacturing products for theatre users.
(Jim Evans)
