NYSOM: The Mouse that Roars...

Whether I love  the internet or loathe it often depends on my connection speed. In Manhattan I can usually get to whatever site I need faster than successfully hailing a yellow cab, but when I’m on the road or on location and the signal drops out I can be within a few moments of throwing my office notebook through the nearest window and yelling profanity like... well, a yellow cab driver.

How has the internet changed not only my job in the industry but the enjoyment of our favourite action and drama fix? Immeasurably.  Seriously.  Look at the five year olds who are already taking their SATs and exams via their iTablets or tweeting each other across the classroom.  When I go to Starbucks, there's free wifi and tables full of people sipping and surfing. When I was young - and I feel like an old maid old just using that phrase -  home computer entertainment was stuck between basic PONG and DONKEY KONG. I mean it,  despite being able to navigate and multitask between my e-mail and my early morning latte successfully  I frequently  believe that it’s a matter of time before someone scoffs that I still read actual books.

Of course, speed and access don't always count as positives. Working in the communications biz, we know that it's not just flow, but circulation. We want to get word out about a product, event, project, star etc, but it's got to be accurate and timely.  And even then, we reserve the right to drip-feed that info.  Legitimate facts can still be spoilers.  I’ve worked on a couple of projects where one side of the equation (my own) was  working hard to create some surprises on their production and another side was carelessly letting slip huge chunks of story and spoilers. Sometimes opportunistic paparazzi photographers are the bane of our lives , sometimes merely over zealous fans, but all too often people don’t tend to realise that one sentence - be it right or wrong - can wreck months of hard work.  It’s a hard line - like composing a film’s trailer, you want to peak and sustain interest without  giving everything away.  In a world where you can download anything for free, what IS the value of information? Do you really want to know a year in advance who the murderer is? And just because the technology exists to steal a product, and distribute it does that really mean you are morally-free to do so without consequence?

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