Winter in the pavilion
Filming began on February 4, but the Moscow winter wasn’t quite providing an abundance of snow. Outside was a mix of rain and slush, so our winter took place in one of the Mosfilm pavilions. We created the lush Christmas snow piles right inside of the pavilion using 15 tons of salt! But what kind of a New Year’s Eve is one without fabulous sparkling snowflakes falling from the sky? The fairytale was created by the workers sitting under the ceiling of the huge pavilion. At the command of the second director, they’d turn on the wind machine and very realistic snowflakes would start falling down. The producers followed the wishes of the directors and really went all out on the snow — as a result, the whole film crew and actors were permanently covered by a layer. Nobody objected to a few fluffy snowflakes in their hair, and only the actor Igor Larin had to shake them off now again. He played the role of the disembodied Ghost who, while wearing a hat and carrying a briefcase under his arm, cannot pick up a glass in his hand, but rather can easily pass through walls. So how could the snowflakes stay on the Ghost? Several times the scene even had to be reshot due to the directors noticed a few snowflakes on him.