Whether you’re making a shoestring budget independent film or a million dollar feature, you’re likely aware that your film will be using a lot of movie props. Props for films range from little details like a watch or a book, to full scale pieces of furniture sitting in the corner of a set. Many of these movie props are what are known as fake movie props because they can replicate rather value items while using less expensive materials. For example, an item might be covered with gold paint to make it look like it’s made of solid gold. One type of fake movie props that many people don’t think about is prop money. This is cleverly designed fake money that can be used during a film’s production in place of the real thing. There are several important reasons you should be using prop money in your film instead of the real thing and this article will look at a few of those reasons.
- Using Real Money is Impractical: One reason to use prop money in your film is that using real money is highly impractical, especially if the film wants to depict large amounts of money. For example, if you’re making a film about a bank heist and you want to depict a million dollars in cash, there’s no way you can realistically obtain that much real money for a film, especially if you’re working with a small budget. Fake prop money doesn’t cost nearly as much as the real things and can be used to depict large amounts of cash if the film calls for it.
- You Can’t Destroy Real Money: Another important reason to use prop money is that it is actually illegal to destroy real money. For instance, if you did use real money, and the film shows it being destroyed, you would have committed a crime because it’s illegal to destroy real currency. Therefore, to remain in compliance with the law, if your film requires money to be destroyed, it’s important to use fake prop currency instead of the real thing.
- No Risk of Theft on Set: A third, and probably most important reason to use prop money in a film is that the risk of theft will be next to zero. If a film set had a pile of real money just sitting in a corner, it would provide a great temptation for many people to try and steal some or all of it, which could provide a huge payday for the thieves and a massive headache for the film’s production. This is why prop money should be used instead; no one is going to want to steal fake money because it can’t be used in the real world.
In conclusion, there are several important reasons to use prop money as one of your fake movie props in a film’s production. These include the fact that using real money is impractical, you legally can’t destroy real money even for a film, and there’s little to no risk of having the prop money stolen from the set. These are all important reasons to use fake prop money in your film.
