A prop master is not trying to fool a bank. They are trying to fool a frame. The bill an actor peels off has to survive a close-up. The inside of a briefcase only has to look heavy from the doorway. Those are different products.
The four jobs
- Full print. The hero bill. Printed on both faces well enough to read, and marked for motion picture use so it is not money.
- Blank filler. Volume. A pale face and a white back, banded and packed into a case or a bag the wide shot never inspects.
- Stacks and blows. The unit everyone counts, plus a fan of bills for a throw or a table rake. Aged stacks when the scene is not set now.
- The container. The briefcase or the duffle the actor carries. What is inside is chosen for the distance of the lens.
What a set does not use
Real currency in the amount the story pretends. A million-dollar insert is a prop brick with a band that says so. A half-million case is blank filler with a label. Between takes, nobody is counting legal tender. The bills in the photos on the next pages say "for motion picture use only," or they are blank on the back, or both.
NarcoProp does not print or ship any of it. The photos are CasaNarco product shots. The only place this guide sends you to buy is their prop money collection.
