20 Things You Didn't Know About It's A Wonderful Life

At the time of producing, the film set for Bedford Falls was one of the most elaborately built for an American movie. It covered four acres of RKO’s Encino Ranch and included over seventy-five buildings, a main street of 300 yards long, a factory district and a large residential and slum area.

Furthermore, production created a brand new kind of fake snow to use across the set. Prior to this, film sets typically used cornflakes painted white to replicate the snow falling effect, but the crunch of the them were so loud, the dialogue had to be dubbed in later.

Director Frank Capra had a new snow effect developed. It contained foamite (a fire-fighting chemical), soap and water, which was then pumped through a wind machine to create a more vivid form of snow. As a result, the RKO Effects Department actually achieved a Class III Scientific or Technical award from the Academy of Motion Picture arts and Sciences for the development of new snow.