Making Movies is REALLY Expensive

Almost daily, it seems, we are exposed to the multimillion-dollar budget figures for new movie releases - often enough that the tendency is to grow completely inured to them. "Oh yeah - $180m for Matrix 3; that sounds about right."

And yet the truth is that these are really astounding quantities of money for businesses that, from first employee hire to final burn-out, rarely last more than two years. And nothing brings that fact home like an honest-to-goodness big-budget movie coming to film on-location on your block.

That's right - THE SHAGGY DOG (2005) is filming at Colorado & Sierra Madre tomorrow. We saw the first signs this morning, when the entire north side of Mohawk Street was signed off-limits for parking (west side of Sierra Madre too). Looking around, I noticed some windbreaker-jacketed guys from "Reel Security" waving at each other and coordinating the removal of the last hold-outs. Driving home after sunset tonight we saw the trucks and StarWaggons gathering like cattle before the storm. Staff from Reel Security are posted at every corner and in the middle of every block - they have been here all day, and look ready to stick it out through the night. At home we found a flyer on our doorstep explaining the disruption - which lasts throughout tomorrow - and the shot:

The scene involves the Shaggy Dog running down the sidewalk on the South side of Colorado Blvd from Sierra Madre to the West for 200 feet.

So... like I said: Making movies is really expensive.