Hollywood Money

I use to call it "Monopoly Money" because it's hard to wrap your head around why things cost what they do.
The cost of making a movie grows large because people think when you make a movie you have money. For the most part, this should be true. But lots of things happen behind the scene that prove otherwise. Most of the time, the producer who put funding together, doesn't necessarily have ALL the funding. They have some with a promise of finding more. I've heard of many productions shut down due to this brazen attempt at making a movie. OR the budget goes beyond what it was estimated before. When you start filming a movie, all hell really breaks loose. Small expenditures become massive line items. And everything is inflated.
That's why when you re-introduce yourself into the real world, the concept of money is so odd. For instance, I just purchased a car with cash. To me, it wasn't much, to a person who has two kids and is a single Dad working in L.A. it was the world. This stung me a little bit and got me thinking about my privilege before I could process it. Money to the rest of the world that doesn't work in movies, are representation of things. It could be milk, bread, snacks for their kids, and so forth. To people in movies, those are the tiny items. Eating and being comfortable is an odd luxury we really take for granted. But, the poor in the America isn't the same anywhere else in the world, let's clarify that. The poor here would pass as middle class in 3rd world countries.

Now look, I've never lost the concept of money or what things costs. But working in the movie business, the numbers do get odd. For instance, a transfer of 10 seconds of old footage cost the studio $18,000 (I saw the invoice). That is funny Monopoly money.

What I'm getting at is...try to remember what things are like for people who do live edge to edge with their money. Someone now owes me a few hundred, and to me, it amounts to not much...in my 20's that was a ton of dough, but it could mean making rent for them for a month or buying diapers for his kid or he had emergency surgery. And I know there are some ruthless people who have no heart and tell me that it's THEIR problem not MINE. But that type of attitude is what creates the shitbags that line the streets of Hollywood. They lose their humanity if it it is dog eat dog. Hollywood isn't for the weak, but the people who have powered through, I hope you remember that it has moments of compassion.