I’m making a movie (that’s due on the first of April, BTW, and I haven’t started shooting yet!–yes it’s doable, it’s only a 10-15 minute movie–anyway, that’s a topic for another day) in which three deaths from overdose of a prescription drug occur. My question is whether it’s easy to get some kind of placebo/sugar pills for use in my movie–I have my own prescription medications and vitamins, but (1) I don’t want to actually kill my actors and (2) I don’t want to use all my pills (which would be pretty difficult to explain to my parents anyway).
So, how easy is it to get placebo pills? How many can one take at a time safely? Is there any pharmacological effect at all? Are there different kinds of placebo pills? Where do I go to get them? A pharmacy? A doctor’s office? A pharmaceutical company? (There are a few around here–I live in San Diego.)
I guess I should add that those are empty pills, so you might want to fill them with sugar or something similar if they are too light and look wrong when being handled, otherwise I guess they should be fine.
This is not an endorsment of this particular company, I’ve never used them. you question piqued my interest so I thought I would see what I could find. For other companies, try using the phrase I found the pulle this one up: “empty capsules”.
Thanks. Should I just put sugar in these? BTW, can I get these at any vitamin store? I need them to be breakable and to have some kind of powder in them (the killer makes two of the three killings by breaking the pills open and dropping the powder into his victims’ drinks).
Placebos dont’ have any active ingredients, by definition. They’re usually just sugar pills. They shouldnt’ be harmful in any reasonable quanity (i.e. eat enough of anythign and you’ll die).
Dunno where to get them. But if they’re just empty capsules or sugar pills, they should be safe as can be.
Do sugar pills actually have sugar? I have a friend who’s a hopeless sugar addict and I’ve seen that it’s not much of a stretch to call sugar an “active ingredient”. And since sugar is a stimulant, it doesn’t seem like much of a stretch either to figure that it would have some reachable LD50. (In one of the scenes, someone tries to down an entire bottle of pills–this is why I’m wondering.)
If you can get ahold of some empty capsules, try powdered sugar in them. It’s cheap, it looks good on camera, it’s safe (if you’re not diabetic) and it makes carbonated drinks fizz dramatically.
Perhaps you could use the powdered sugar in the empty capsules for the scene where the killer breaks open the pills, and use empty ones for the scenes where they people overdose.
Go to vitamin shop and get empty capsules
Fill them with powdered / confectioner’s sugar
If you don’t have powdered sugar, you could also use cornstarch. If you’re making movies, you need a box of cornstarch anyway for Foley work - squeeze the box for walking in snow sounds.
Only problem I can see with vitamin shop capsules is that they’re probably utterly clear, or at best lightly golden tinted. If you want something like bright red, you may be out of luck.
Well, I’m not concerned about the scenes where people get their drinks drugged–I doubt that two or three sugar pills will kill anyone. What I’m worried about is the one where someone downs a bottle of the stuff. I guess I’ll just try to use empty ones for that scene, although it’ll probably be difficult to hide the fact that the guy’s guzzling a bunch of see-through pills. Any other ideas?
Oh, and to fill them - just scoop up the powder with the smaller part of the capsule. Don’t fill higher than the rim or you’ll have trouble putting the cap on. Once you have your dummy capsules, wipe them gently to remove any powder from them.
Thanks. Didn’t see this post before I made my last post. I don’t need that sort of Foley work in my movie, because it’s filmed and based in San Diego. Thanks anyway, though–I’ll keep that in mind for future projects. I’ll see if I have powdered sugar or cornstarch.
For filling, you might use Kool-Aid unsweetened powder, or even the presweetened stuff. This will give a nice bright color, and you have your choice of a range of colors. I have a canister of Tang (orange-pineapple flavor) and the powder within is a bright yellow orange color. It has a pleasant aroma, pleasant taste, and of course it’s non-toxic. I doubt that a couple of pills’ worth of this powder would have ANY noticeable effect on a diabetic, though I am not a doctor, I am a diabetic. It should be safe for just about anyone.
And, of course, you can use up the rest of the canister for making drinks for the cast party.
Or you can avoid all the work and just buy some vitamins and have the actors take those (assuming one or two, not the whole bottle, obviously). Hell, have the actors bring in whatever vitamins they would normally take and use them on set.
Some other ideas for pre-made pills: the place-holder pills from birth control pill packs (which have no drug in them), anything homeopathic, or the amino acid pills from vitamin stores.
Make sure you’ve checked out any possible allergies with your actors, though.
Great idea! I hadn’t thought of that. The only problem would be that it would discolor the soda, I would imagine, which is a trait that (to me) seems characteristic of a date-rape drug, which is a bit different from the image I’m trying to put forward. I like the way the powdered sugar fizzes in soda (tried it last night) and dissolves–looks dramatic (good for the camera) and unnoticeable after the fizz clears (so it’s believable that the owner of the soda would just go ahead and drink from it without noticing anything ‘off’). I already have several powdered-sugar pills, and they seem pretty convincing (I got two of my friends to believe that they’re Marinol, the THC pill–purely for filmmaking research purposes, of course…)
You may also consider using:powdered gelatin[you can actually buy these, some women use them to have stronger fingernails{it’s a bogus claim, but there you are}]; dehydrated milk powder; ground up hard candies[like Lifesavers™]; cocoa powder; colored sugars used to decorate cakes and cookies[depending on what colors you’d like to have];crushed breakfast cereal or even vitamin C powder. Have fun.