The Twisted Side of Twitter

Is this it?

Ok, let's talk film. Fast and Furious did 72 million. I know I predicted 67 million. I was 5 million off. I was close. I did say it would do a gazillion dollars and it did just about. It was the biggest opening ever in April. I think I smell sequel here. Like I said, it would be a sequel to the fourth film in a franchise. So we will see what happens with that news.
Jon Favreau is Twittering his heart out as he is filming Iron Man 2. I was actually curious if he had his own personal twitterer on hand to do the updates for him and as it turns out, he himself is the twitterer in question. I laughed to myself pictureing someone following around Jon giving colorful and witty Twitter updates. However, Jon's actual updates are infrequent and not that exciting, "I slept like a rock...Heading to the set". This leaves me to believe that Jon is actually writing them. They are the updates of a busy, tired working man, not the updates of someone following a busy tired, working man. He writes nothing juicy plot-wise or relative to story, not even gossip.
So why bother? Well, I look at this in a couple ways. The whole twitter idea and "constant update" idea is exciting. As a fan, tt is exciting to stay in constant touch with someone whom you adore. It makes you feel a part of it all. Even if the updates are not juicy. Jon is posting pictures here, which is exciting to see things as he sees them, such as his directors chair and the set direction sign.
Yet there is another side of Twitter. Does it make the non obsessed, obsessed?
In my teens I was obsessed with Debbie Gibson, I wanted her to be my GF. I was and am a rational person. I knew she never would reall be my GF. Yet, the fantasy is fun to make believe.
Sadly I had to stay up to date with her career on the covers of Teen Beat and Teen People. If the computer age encased my life in 1990 as it is now, it may have satiated my curiosity with Debbie instead of being in the dark about her, whom I enjoyed looking at and fantasizing about in a non obsessed way.
I ask myself, would I have been more interested? Would I have looked at constant updates of Debbie Gibson and not the monthly visit to the magazine rack? I dunno. Or would the constant update made me tired of hearing of her and shortened my teen crush?
Let's just look at Rob Pattinson. Some teen girls are obsessed with him. So, the twitter thing can work out in two ways, it can quench the obsession and they can realize how silly star craziness can be, or it can lead to further unhealthy obsession. Should Rob elevate some craziness by Twittering and facebooking, it may make his life and the non obsessed fan happy. It may help elevate unnatural obsessions such as stalking, which in some cases lead to potential harm to the young actors.

Interesting, though not too juicy...

Using that as an example, let's move away from star obsession and look at plot and spoiler obsession the same way. With the recent leak of the Wolverine film across the Internet, studios are looking for ways to quench a fan's thirst without giving away too much and at the same time quench it enough to hopefully prevent major leaks in the form of important plot information and/or the whole film itself. This will not save internal leaks of course as may as well been the case with Wolverine, yet it can prevent external leaks in the way of theft as Michael Bay's laptop was stolen a couple years ago during the filming of Transformers.

Twitter can also make us feel as if we are part of the process. We are on set with Jon Favreau from day one and in the form of small updates can follow him conducively. We may even feel satisfied with Jon's updates and small, safe plot leaks, someone may not feel the need to steal. It's taking away the vault secrecy and giving it to the fans. I do think that fans have a problem with vault secrecy and we need to be included in the process since communication is instantaneous. It's a theory. I could be full of hot air. Until tomorrow, let's talk film!