Eli5: What are the substitutes used in movie making for e.g. Cigarettes, cocaine, alcohol, dangerous weapons, etc?
In: 5
I remember an interview with Cilian Murphy and he said they used tea instead of whiskey, not sure about the others though.
Cigs are usually just cigs in the USA. Alcohol is just food dye in water. Weapons are a complex topic because they vary wildly based on use. If it’s a close up shot, it needs to look as real as possible and sometimes will be a real weapon. If it needs to be waved around or in a fast action shot, then it’ll be some type of prop (rubber or plastic guns/knives). There’s a million scenarios for weapons.
Google search told me:
Cocaine: powdered milk or vitamin b powder. Sometimes the straw or dollar is coated in something so the powder sticks and doesn’t go up your nose, as this is very irritating when doing multiple takes.
Cigarettes are herbal cigarettes (and they are disgusting)
Prop swords with no edges and guns are (hopefully) loaded with blanks.
* Herbal cigarettes are used for actors who can’t or won’t smoke tobacco cigarettes on set.
* Cocaine usually is powdered milk or vitamins. Jonah Hill apparently had a vitamin B overdose from snorting too much of it on the set of *The Wolf of Wall Street*.
* Alcohol is often replaced by water or juice that resembles the real stuff. If it’s a beer can, it’s usually seltzer water with a label slapped on it.
* Drug needles often use syringes with spring-powered retractable needles that hide inside when you press them on your arm.
* For knives, they tend to operate similarly: spring-powered collapsible blades. If it’s not used for stabbing, it’ll typically be a rubber or blunted metal prop. One movie (I wanna say the Halloween remake) used a real knife for a scene where someone had a whole prosthetic throat on their neck.
* For guns, it’s common to use a real gun loaded with blanks (gunpowder with no bullet, like really powerful toy cap gun), or airsoft/nonfunctional guns with the gunfire added with special effects. Blood effects are done by either shooting them with what are essentially blood paintballs, or sqiib charges (little blood packets hidden on the person wires to burst on cue).
There’s some great YouTube content on this,I’m not affiliated, but I figured this might help more then any description I could offer. https://youtube.com/c/ScottPropandRoll
Latest Answers