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By LAUREN PUTRINO, KETURAH GRAY and ALEXA VALIENTE via <span class="showAttr"><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/2020">20/20</a></span>

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<img alt="PHOTO: Julie Andrews plays Maria in a scene from the 1965 film "The Sound of Music."" border="0" height="360" itemprop="image" src="http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/HT_julie_andrews_the_sound_of_music_jt_150317_16x9_992.jpg" width="640" /></div>
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               Julie Andrews plays Maria in a scene from the 1965 film "The Sound of Music." </div>
                                    <span class="caption_credit">Copyright 2015 FOX. All Rights Reserved.</span>
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About 6.5 million tourists arrive in Salzburg, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/austria.htm" id="ramplink_Austria_" target="_blank">Austria</a>, every year, with hundreds of thousands of them looking to retrace the story of “<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/entertainment/movies/the-sound-of-music.htm" id="ramplink_The Sound of Music_" target="_blank">The Sound of Music</a>.” Fans come to re-enact their favorite scenes, but one setting is off-limits to outsiders: the meadow from the film’s opening.
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Most scenes from the 1965 film were so complex they had to be sketched 
and timed to the actors’ movements. But no scene was more arduous than 
the one on that mountain high in the <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/switzerland.htm" id="ramplink_Swiss Alps_" target="_blank">Swiss Alps</a>, where Maria spins in the meadow and sings, “The hills are alive, with the sound of music.”
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“We actually went up the mountain in big, open carts, pulled by oxen. I 
would sit on top of all the camera equipment, and then they'd hoist me 
up and up we'd go,” <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/entertainment/actresses/julie-andrews.htm" id="ramplink_Julie Andrews_" target="_blank">Julie Andrews</a> told ABC News’ <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/entertainment/diane-sawyer.htm" id="ramplink_Diane Sawyer_" target="_blank">Diane Sawyer</a>
 in the upcoming Diane Sawyer "20/20" special, “The Untold Story of ‘The
 Sound of Music,’” which airs Wednesday, March 18, at 10 p.m. ET.
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The actual hill used in the movie is in <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/germany.htm" id="ramplink_Germany_" target="_blank">Germany</a>,
 not Austria, on land, which, at the time, was privately owned by 
farmers. Today, it is owned by a famous mountain climber, who is 
reluctant to let outsiders onto their property, but granted permission 
to ABC News and <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/entertainment/studios/20th-century-fox.htm" id="ramplink_20th Century Fox_" target="_blank">20th Century Fox</a>. Fifty years after the movie was released, Sawyer traveled to the famous hill to try to recreate the movie’s iconic scene.
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                               <img alt="PHOTO: An illustration of the opening scene from The Sound of Music." border="0" height="300" src="http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/HT_the_sound_of_music_crop_m_illustration_blur_5_jt_150317_4x3_992.jpg" width="400" /><span class="image_icon"></span><br />
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                                           Copyright 2015 FOX. All Rights Reserved. </div>
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                     PHOTO: An illustration of the opening scene from "The Sound of Music."</div>
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Andrews said it was raining and windy when they filmed that scene over 
the course of a week in 1964. On the final day of shooting, the sun came
 out for 20 minutes to get Julie’s iconic shot. The birch trees were 
brought in just for the movie and were taken right out after filming 
ended.
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And the brook, which was actually plastic filled with water, was also 
brought in by the movie studio. They left it as a gift to the farmers, 
who later had it removed.
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Andrews also had to battle a helicopter that kept blowing up a tornado 
of wind on the hill. Her hair and clothes had to be refreshed after each
 of the nine takes it took to get the scene completed.
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“This giant helicopter came at me sideways with a very brave cameraman 
hanging out the side of … where the door would be normally … the 
helicopter would shoot me, and I'd come from one end of the field and 
he'd come from the other,” Andrews recalled. “I'd make the big turn, and
 then he'd go around me to go back and start again, and I'd run to the 
other end. But every time he went around me, the downdraft from the jets
 would fling me down into the grass.”</div>
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                        <img alt="The helicopter and cameraman that filmed the opening scene from The Sound of Music are pictured here." border="0" height="300" src="http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/HT_the_sound_of_music_helicopter_jt_150317_4x3_992.jpg" width="400" /><span class="image_icon"></span><br />
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                               Copyright 2015 FOX. All Rights Reserved.</div>
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The helicopter and cameraman that filmed the opening scene from "The Sound of Music" are pictured here.</div>
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Watch the video above to see how Sawyer used small, silent drones to get the same shot.
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<b>Tune in to the Diane Sawyer "20/20" special, “The Untold Story 
of ‘The Sound of Music,’” which airs Wednesday, March 18, at 10 p.m. ET.</b></div>
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<i>"The Sound of Music" full photo credit: THE SOUND OF MUSIC © 1965 
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Argyle Enterprises. Renewed ©
 1993 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Argyle Enterprises. © 
1998 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Robert E. Wise. All 
Rights Reserved.</i></div>
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Journey to the Meadow: How They Filmed the Opening Scene of ‘The Sound of Music’

By LAUREN PUTRINO, KETURAH GRAY and ALEXA VALIENTE via 20/20 Julie Andrews plays Maria in a scene from t...

Journey to the Meadow: How They Filmed the Opening Scene of ‘The Sound of Music’

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