need fake meth for short film

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djbobbyrhodes

Well-known member
The title says it all. I need some fake meth for a short film. I imagine we could use rock candy or some other crystaline thing for when its in a bag, but what should I do about having the actor smoke it out of a pipe ala "Breaking Bad"

I really want a shot of the meth heating up and glowing. If possible, smoke moving through the chamber of the pipe and the actor inhaling it.

Please help.
 
I don't know if it would melt, but I was thinking of rock salt.

Then I thought of your idea of rock candy, the sugar would melt under heat. I think the trick is going to be to put a pump or bellows on it cause, for sure you don't want to smoke it.

Maybe do it in three shots with continuity cuts.

  1. Pours the rock candy in his hand. Loads it in his pipe.
  2. CU of the actor with the pipe to his lips holding a lighter.
  3. CU of the pipe, not showing the actor, but showing the crystal melting and the smoke going down the pipe due to the pump.
  4. CU of the actor exhaling cigarette smoke.
 
I'm not sure sugar vapor is going to be any worse that cigaret smoke. One thing to watch out for with sugar is that it is flammable. Salt will melt but probably not at the temperatures you can get it to. Sugar is I think your best bet and you will get that brown caramelized gunk look as in Breaking Bad.
 
Try a mixture of small crystals of hard candy (smash it with a hammer) and rock/sea salt - pretty sure that will give you the melting effect, and the fumes should be harmless. Not sure whether you'll get suitable looking smoke though...
 
Soap or wax, both melt for the look, add some colouring.
They both allow you to make flakes or shards or any size and shape you want.
 
Being a magician I thought of several ways - the best method i think is to have a solid tube - not the bowl where the meth is but the smoking tube- and have two holes in it.

I would have the bowl made out of glass and then a connecting rod made out of wood, plastic etc. and you will drill two holes in the rod. Top hole will connect to the bowl section to draw air in and over the substance (sugar and real broken clean glass to mimic pure meth) the second hole will have a smaller hole at the front to allow air in ( but make sure its smaller than the hole connecting to the bowl) and fill this hollow section with real tobacco. So when you draw air through the tube it will bring air into the bowl creating the glow you desire and also through the tobacco filling actors mouth with smoke for the real affect of smoking when the actor exhales a big plume of Meth.

Couldn't take more than an hours worth of work. Hope this helps in some way!

Cheers,
Brian
 
imthinking said:
Being a magician I thought of several ways - the best method i think is to have a solid tube - not the bowl where the meth is but the smoking tube- and have two holes in it.

I would have the bowl made out of glass and then a connecting rod made out of wood, plastic etc. and you will drill two holes in the rod. Top hole will connect to the bowl section to draw air in and over the substance (sugar and real broken clean glass to mimic pure meth) the second hole will have a smaller hole at the front to allow air in ( but make sure its smaller than the hole connecting to the bowl) and fill this hollow section with real tobacco. So when you draw air through the tube it will bring air into the bowl creating the glow you desire and also through the tobacco filling actors mouth with smoke for the real affect of smoking when the actor exhales a big plume of Meth.

Couldn't take more than an hours worth of work. Hope this helps in some way!

Cheers,
Brian
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You lost me a little on this. Sounds really neat, can you draw something simple up?
 
you can use a 500 or 1000 CC syringe attached to some rubber tubing to draw air through the pipe without having someone suck on that nasty sugar/salt/wax/soap stuff.

You can also just get a crackhead to smoke some crack for you and shoot a close up of that, then tell everyone it was one of the above suggested things and we'll all be amazed. I think crack is like $3 a hit so you could do a whole scene over and over for less than $20 and make some crackheads day, you might even get a lil' nudge nidge wink wink in return.
I'm sure it's been done before.
 
Arson said:
You can also just get a crackhead to smoke some crack for you and shoot a close up of that, then tell everyone it was one of the above suggested things and we'll all be amazed. I think crack is like $3 a hit so you could do a whole scene over and over for less than $20 and make some crackheads day, you might even get a lil' nudge nidge wink wink in return.
I'm sure it's been done before.
Click to expand...


LOL, reading this thread, that's what I immediatley thought of. But I wouldn't do that if I were you.
 
Yes Matt I will draw something up for you - i have got to say that the idea of having a crack head smoke some on the set is without a doubt the funniest post i have read on this forum - I can't stop cracking up !!!!!:violent5:
 
imthinking said:
Yes Matt I will draw something up for you - i have got to say that the idea of having a crack head smoke some on the set is without a doubt the funniest post i have read on this forum - I can't stop cracking up !!!!!:violent5:
Click to expand...

I think I've got a decent idea of what you were talking about, but yes, a drawing would be amazing.
 
I tried to draw but my stick figures didnt look good :) - imagine a pipe yet the bowl is glass..the tube that you pull the smoke through is where you will have the two holes..one is for drawing air from the bowl the other is a straight through hole that doesnt go throug the bowl itself but exits right before you get to the bowl and that is where you put the tobacco.

This will almost certaintly give you the effect that you are looking for real cheap.
 
I think I've found my solution after re-watching a couple of scenes from Breaking Bad.

Basically what I think I'm going to try is having the actor take a puff of a cigarette and then:
Light the pipe
Slowly blow smoke into the pipe (to get the burning effect where whisps of smoke come out of the top of the pipe)
Suck the same smoke back out.
Put the pipe down.
Then exhale the smoke of a second puff of a cigarette.

The pipe will just be all gunked up and obscured with grossness. Apparently meth doesn't actually glow and it probably wouldn't melt a whole bunch after one hit.
 
Meth actually makes black smoke that smells like burning plastic. Not that I've done it.
But your average person has no idea. And methheads are all too busy tweaking out somewhere to call you on your films technical mistake.
 
Ok, someone pointed me in the direction of the "Breaking Bad" podcasts. In which, they actually say that they actually do smoke rock candy, but they don't inhale because it's pretty gross.

So, some time this summer I'll throw up a test video or something to let you guys know how it looks.
 
On a light note, I see you guys are struggling with accuracy here. I kind of have to smile because I've seen people smoke crack (in my house), seen them make it from coke with baking soda (in my house) and seen people cooking and shooting heroin (in my house). But, -insert chuckle here- if I saw a close up shot of the drug, I couldn't tell you what it was. Never got that close to it myself, haha.

But I understand you want to be accurate. Just found this whole thing kind of funny/ironic from my perspective. :beer:
 
Raptor365 said:
On a light note, I see you guys are struggling with accuracy here. I kind of have to smile because I've seen people smoke crack (in my house), seen them make it from coke with baking soda (in my house) and seen people cooking and shooting heroin (in my house). But, -insert chuckle here- if I saw a close up shot of the drug, I couldn't tell you what it was. Never got that close to it myself, haha.

But I understand you want to be accurate. Just found this whole thing kind of funny/ironic from my perspective. :beer:
Click to expand...

Ha, yeah. It's supposed to look dangerous and a little bit scary. I just don't want it to look like we're smoking tobacco out of a corn cob pipe. You know, :D .
 
Raptor365 said:
On a light note, I see you guys are struggling with accuracy here. I kind of have to smile because I've seen people smoke crack (in my house), seen them make it from coke with baking soda (in my house) and seen people cooking and shooting heroin (in my house). But, -insert chuckle here- if I saw a close up shot of the drug, I couldn't tell you what it was. Never got that close to it myself, haha.

But I understand you want to be accurate. Just found this whole thing kind of funny/ironic from my perspective. :beer:
Click to expand...

That's some house you live in!
 
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