So…this blog was about half written, and something happened to make me want to finish it, and also push it ahead of another blog that had been percolating for a while in my head.

See, I have a theory. In the world of nearly immediate access to information about almost anyone you care to get information about…don’t be an asshole. Everything that has transpired for the past ten years in technology makes everyone susceptible to anyone and everyone knowing their business nearly immediately. So how about this – live like you already know everyone around you will know everything about you.

This was inspired by something that happened over the summer. My twitter feed has always been public. I don’t say things I wouldn’t want anyone in my personal or professional life to read. (so all you lurkers, both on my blog and my twitter – feel free to engage-whether I know you or not) While I was in Michigan shooting the last movie, there were, to put it mildly, some problems on the set. We had problems with a couple of departments, and it wasn’t the smoothest production in the world. Did some of this end up on my twitter? Well, kind of. In very general terms, I would put stuff like “I forgot pre-pro on kids movies is 20 hour days” <—- the truth, not specific to this movie, or “Clusterfuck is one way to describe it” Now, very consciously, there was never any mention of any specifics EXCEPT in a good way. And I gave plenty of those. Pics of the teams, lauding performances, specifics came with praise. Always.

Barry Bostwick – my favorite. Great performer, and great guy

And then one day I got a call from someone. “XXX XXX on your set is made uncomfortable by your twitter” Wow. ok. So, I took it, and made it private. Now the only people who could read it were people I knew were reading it.
And I resented it.
See, here’s the thing. The person who was made uncomfortable was one of the people who was fucking up on the shoot. There was nothing specifically positive that had been said about this person. And the things that weren’t positive could have been attributed to a million factors. In fact, there were a million factors. But here was this one person…taking it personally. Why? Because this person was fucking up. And I guarantee this person knew it. So while, quite frankly, nothing I said was directed towards this person, this person had overlaid their personal awareness of poor performance on what had been said.

Teaching our lead kid actor the other important jobs on set

Which reinforces my belief. Personally and professionally – live like everyone is going to know what you’re doing and how you’re doing it at all times.  Maybe people will, and maybe people won’t…but if you’re never doing anything you would be ashamed other people knew about – then you’ll never be ashamed if they do know.

So, my twitter is back to being public. People know who this blog belongs to. And I’ll continue to, while being polite and nice, say what is actually going on.

So here’s a suggestion – do your fucking job. Don’t be an asshole. Today’s life is no longer lived in private, and if your own conscious wasn’t enough to make you act right…well, maybe that will be a side benefit of the digital age. Shame.