With "The Informant" either about to start or already in the midst of its brief stretch of filming in Decatur (your guess about the "official" schedule is probably as good as anything anyone else wants to make up), now is as good a time as any to revisit the question this corner has discussed once before:

How will this film reflect on Decatur?

Originally, my thought was that "The Informant" will not reflect on Decatur at all. It's a story that happens to take place largely here and in Moweaqua, the home of ADM executive and FBI mole Mark Whitacre. The film, which stars Matt Damon, documents Whitacre's role in working as an informant for the FBI in uncovering an ADM price-fixing scheme.

If the story were about a scandal at State Farm, Bloomington-Normal would be the locale. If it were a Caterpillar conspiracy, the story would be set in Peoria. There's no reflection on the community; the story is about people and what happened to them.

My thoughts have adjusted a little bit as the filmmakers' efforts have come closer to home.

How will this film reflect on Decatur?

That depends on all of us.

These folks are here to do a job. Sure, some of them are better looking or considerably more wealthy or more talented or luckier (or some combination of those four) than many of us, but they still have WORK to do. That work is not supposed to be viewed until presented to us (sometime, probably next year) in its finished form.

The last thing they need is to be chased home after work from people who want "just five minutes" of their time, or "just an autograph," or just to see someone famous.

The last thing they need while working is to go on some kind of Keystone Kops chase, eluding people hoping to get a glimpse of a star or a movie being filmed.

We're largely decent folk here. Honestly, in Central Illinois, you meet more people with whom you'd enjoy spending more time than the other way around. The best thing we can do for these people who have decided to come and spend a little time here is leave them with a decent impression of our community.

And one of the best ways to do that is let them do their work. Be friendly if they come your way. If they decide they'd rather concentrate on their work, respect that.

We can decide when the movie comes out how they treated our community. (Again, there's no reason - other than the normal self-loathing too many of us possess - to think the film will reflect anything but positively on Decatur.) But one of the best ways to assure a positive experience in Decatur is for us to avoid doing anything that would make the filmmakers' brief stay here a negative experience.

We live in a time where news travels fast, and nothing travels faster or stays around longer than bad news. Consider, for example, the young Florida women who posted their attack of a classmate on YouTube and were charged with crimes. No matter what takes place the rest of their lives, that incident will always be part of their story.

"Jane Jones, who 20 years ago was seen on YouTube as part of a mass beating of a classmate, was awarded a Nobel Prize today for her efforts toward curing certain forms of cancer."

The only thing we should be concerned about is any kind of knuckleheaded behavior that might reflect on us in a less-than-positive fashion.

Not unlike Mark Whitacre in that fateful time when he pondered, then declined to reveal to the FBI, his role in embezzling $9 million from ADM, our fate is in our own hands.

Let's hope we make the right decision.

Tim Cain can be reached at timcain@herald-review.com or 421-6908.