Drugs & Money

USNFilms

USNFilms

Hey all, I'm making a short film about a fictional "Canadian Drug Cartel" and in order to put it into production I need two more things: Money and Drugs

Obvious it is unrealistic (and unethical!) to use real $100 bills in the film, and I was wondering where I could get some authentic looking fakes. I just need stacks so if any of you have any experience in this field if you could fill me in that'd be great.

Now, on to the drugs ;). I'm thinking of having the drugs be Marijuana because I've been doing some research and apparently it is more "tolerated" in Canada than in the U.S. and is therefore my likely for it to be manufactured there and smuggled into the U.S. Anyone know what to use as a suitable, realistic substitude for marijuana? I'm still considering using a different drug in the video so if you have any suggestions feel free to share.

Thanks
 
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Bagged sphagnum peat moss from HoDePo or Lowe's should provide the quantity of pot-like substance you need.

Cash bundles... ? Start building them yourself.
Find a source of throw away or to be discarded office paper, cut three across the top and half way down, (Close enough)!
"What are the dimensions of U.S. paper currency? Our present currency measures 2.61 inches wide by 6.14 inches long, and the thickness is 0.0043 inches. Larger sized notes in circulation before 1929 measured 3.125 inches by 7.4218 inches."
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0774850.html

Small Mom&Pop printing companies will have a huge knife cutter machine that can slice like butter stacks of hundreds.
Ask if they'll cut you some stacks for a few dollars.

paper-cutter1.jpg
 
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It looked pretty good to me.

A question to the guys that know, is it illegal to show real money on screen? I didn't think it was, but google is giving me varying answers.

If it's legal (pretty sure it is) then best bet is to use the real deal in closeups. It's not like the audience is actually touching the money and feeling cheap paper. Just needs to look good on camera right?
 
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First of all, you don't need as much money as you think. You could fit 100 grand on a backpack. On the bills, well, that depends on the story. If you are going to focus your script on a big drug kingpin, you'll be fine with $100 dollar bills, but a bag full of twenties, tens, fives, and the like, might be more realistic if you are dealing with a small time dealer.
For stacks of money, just cut bill sized squares of newspaper (bill-newspaper money-bill).

Drugs... Pot is hard to show in buds and make it believable. They sell fake pot as props, but that shit is expensive. You could always go for oregano :lol:

I would go with cocaine, where you can use baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate. Better yet, confectioners sugar.
 
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I went with cocaine -- flour actually. Looks real and dusts up nicely if there's a sneeze involved! :)

I'm not sure I buy the 'it's illegal to show money in films' bit . . . but I'd stay away from extreme close-ups -- the kind where people could use the image to print off fake copies.
 
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Thanks for responses everyone, 2 questions:

1. Why can't real money be shown close up on film? I see it in movies all the time
2. what do you guys think about meth? I've been watching "Breaking Bad" lately and I think meth could work if I used like those chemical crystal things people dump on their driveways to melt the snow
 
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1 - I haven't the slightest idea WTH some of these fine fellow ITers are thinking that prop money is illegal or dangerous to show anywhere.
It's counterfeit only if you try to buy something with it. So... not relevant!
http://www.secretservice.gov/money_illustrations.shtml
http://www.secretservice.gov/money_receive.shtml

2 - Rock salt for driveways and roads ought to be pretty easy to come by in Maine. Ha!
Gotta buy little baggies, though.
Unless your guy is moving it in bulk. The little baggie stage is street level work.

meth.jpg
SNN1411A-682_947790a.jpg
 
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I didn't think it was illegal to show on screen. Just asking for clarification if it was. Didn't add up to me, but there's a lot of differing answers on the interweb haha.

We used real money in our briefcase shot. Pulled $1500 out of savings, printed my own money bands since the bank was out of higher amounts and made 12 stacks of about 20-30 $1's with a $100 on top. Once it's in the briefcase and as for as little as you see it the thickness of the stacks didn't matter. Stuck a stack of paper underneath to add weight for the actors and boost the stack up.

Deposited it all back the next day. I'm pretty good friends with my cast and crew though, there wasn't really a "security" risk.

http://youtu.be/T6i_uPTLa8o?t=1m27s
 

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