Knock, Knock, Knocking on Network Doors

I have been reprimanded by several colleagues who remind me that my last entry was two weeks ago, and that a blog is supposed to be updated regularly, unlike the WORD FROM LEO’s on my website which tended to languish on the vine for years before being replaced. I plead guilty, m’lud (British courtroom etiquette) but with extenuating circumstances, since I’ve been looking for work. With corporate sponsors and foundations locking up their wallets and making signs against the evil eye every time a public television producer comes close looking for money, and with PBS itself “running on fumes” (their words, not mine), I’ve been forced to throw my hat into a wider ring (and, yes, some might call that “going over to the dark side”).

I’ve done plenty of cable shows in my time. I invaded Haiti with the US Army; sat in the back seat of an F16 patrolling the no-fly zone over Iraq before the latest war, filmed a college freshman Rodeo Queen getting branded on her left flank (at her instigation) with a red-hot coat-hanger bent into the shape of “daddy’s cattle brand”; even looked two grizzly bears in the eye with the comforting knowledge that, whatever they did, there would always be a cameraman and two hosts between me and the bears. On one notorious occasion, I was even arrested after landing from a helicopter shoot for “harassing manatees” (for a brief moment of glory, I was ‘the most wanted man in Crystal City, Florida’). Apparently ‘harassing manatees in Florida is pretty much a hanging offence! “I plead innocent, m’lud.” Luckily I was released without a stain on my character, but I give these examples to prove that I and the dark side aren’t unacquainted, although I’m better known for my public television work.

And as I go hat in hand to the cablenets – the only ones who still have (some) money – I’ve learned that a good reputation in public television is like carrying ‘the mark of Cain’ on one’s forehead. Cablenet commissioners shudder and make a sign against the evil eye before turning away, just like those corporate sponsors I mentioned earlier. It’s not unlike how salsa dancers might regard the waltz (the words ‘archaic’, ‘expensive’ and ‘glacial’ come to mind). But with the wolf drooling and howling mournfully at the door (otherwise known as a kid in college), I will continue to sing and dance as fast as I can. Remember Richard Gere in Chicago, singing “Give ‘em the old razzle dazzle”?

Today ‘knocking on doors’ is virtual, but I recall when it was for real. When I first entered ‘the business’ back in the UK in the years before Noah’s Flood, there was a tradition known as the Wardour Street Crawl (for cable commissioners who believe age equals old-fashioned filmmaking, I should point out I was only two at the time). Wardour Street in London is where the majority of British film companies used to be based, so the young man-about-town, hoping to break into the film biz, would knock on every door, naively hopeful that one of them would offer him a job. Being a sensitive and shy soul, I found this an intimidating and embarrassing ritual. But luckily Wardour Street had a pub on every corner as well as dozens of film companies; perfect for topping up on Dutch courage between rejections. By the time I reached the bottom end of the street, where it opens into Shaftsbury Avenue, the crawl had become literal, and a kindly production manager let me sleep off my drunk on his office floor (needless to say, the Wardour Street Crawl was not how I got my first job in television).

So now I’m knock, knock, knocking on network doors all over again but hoping the results won’t be quite so embarrassing to my ego. And with a hammock chair under the trees outside my office and a good bottle of Pinot Grigio on ice, I can always sleep off the alcoholic excesses brought on by rejection in comfort and privacy.

Going over to the dark side

Yesterday I sent an email to a number of my industry colleagues announcing this new blog, with the heading “Going over to the dark side”. A surprising number of responses expressed relief that I hadn’t taken a job with Discovery Communications, which is what they first assumed on reading the heading. It got me thinking about why the Discovery networks have got this reputation, even known as the Evil Empire among producers on both sides of the Atlantic. Sure they are financially successful; the trade press has been trumpeting how their profits are up this quarter. But how far has Discovery fallen from the dream that John Hendricks once shared with me when he was a guest at a Maryland Public TV executive retreat back in the early 1990s (before he became a gazillionaire and handed over the running of his empire to a succession of predatory bean counters). He said he began Discovery to give audiences the same level of quality documentaries he loved watching on PBS years earlier; series like Cosmos and Ascent of Man. That’s not to say that certain programs across the Discovery networks don’t still represent such quality, but they’ve become scarcer over the years and the best (like Planet Earth), are usually produced by the BBC in Britain.

Of course PBS was Hendricks’ model. It’s easy to forget that public television was the model for most of the factual cable networks; each skimming off a niche programming genre (DIY, cooking, history, arts, nature, travel and many more) inspired by programs previously successful on public television. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; had PBS remained the visionary trend-setter in factual programming it once was, instead of relying on icon series so old they creak, documentary programming wouldn’t be in its present parlous state and I probably wouldn’t be writing this blog (but that’s a topic for a later post).

The problem with the cablenets is that once they’d created a business around a single programming genre, they began to “strip-mine the ocean”, producing dozens of variants at different levels of quality until any uniqueness was dissipated. And once a particular genre lost its money-making luster, they began to cannibalize what other cablenets were doing. Hands up everyone who can tell much difference between History, Nat Geo and Discovery these days!. An occasional ‘tip of the iceberg’ quality show will attract critical acclaim and awards, but the majority lurk beneath the surface, an ocean-full of Mac-docs and Mac-reality (yes, there are some quality reality shows too) that fill screens and have as much nutrition as anything else in our Fast-Food Nation.

Some years ago, a top Discovery executive once told me that “the difference between an okay program and a great program is a pain-in-the-ass producer; and since my audience doesn’t know the difference, why should I put up with a pain-in-the-ass producer?” My 21-year-old son tells how he and his college friends like the Discovery & History channels of this world because they’re undemanding. The TV’s on in the background and they dip in and out; learn a few interesting things but can walk out in the middle without feeling they’ve missed something important. Media marketers love this model, breaking down viewing figures into 5-minute bites (it’s why pod casts are so popular). But is this something to be proud of? Few have yet woken up to the fact that this mass-commoditization of mac-media is as bad for quality media as fast food is for our health. But because the industry is run by those whose sole criterion for success is making money, no one cares.

Oh, dear! What does this say about America today? It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about media, banks, health-care or anything else; we’re forgetting to do our jobs. No matter what the industry, job #1 is to satisfy the customers, not the shareholders. When customers are satisfied, shareholders make money; that’s supposed to be why they invested in the first place (before the era of predatory capitalism). The job of health care is to keep people healthy; the job of banks is to loan people money; my job as a filmmaker is to create media (in whatever distribution form happens to be in vogue) that entertains, informs or educates (and sometimes all three together). The job of cablenets, and broadcasters, and VOD suppliers, and all of the other gatekeepers in our business, is to give their customers the very best programming they can give them, not siphon off the majority of revenue to satisfy shareholders. We’ve lost track of what it means to invest in companies; because we believe in what they do; no wonder the Recession hit!.

There’s always going to be a surfeit of mediocrity but it can’t be allowed to turn cancerous, eating away at the quality that remains. Mr. Hendricks, I remind you of what you said all those years ago; that you were inspired by quality. You still have the bully pulpit, even though you no longer own the business. What if Discovery Networks became a beacon for factual quality again, somewhere the best media creators aspired to be? Then people wouldn’t have to assume that “going to the dark side” was the same as joining Discovery Networks.

A Small Beginning

For several years, I've included a proto-blog on the Eaton Creative website (http://www.eatoncreative.com/) called A WORD FROM LEO but I found myself only updating it yearly (if at all). Our industry is changing so fast, and the crisis in factual programming on television is now so immediate, that I decided it was time to utilize a more fluid form of communication. And so is born LEO EATON ON TV. It will be commentary, thoughts, rants, ideas and anything else that strikes me after more than forty-five years in this crazy business we call TV. A few years ago, a new breed of commissioning editor (most of whom were - and still are - incapable of producing their way out of a paper bag), decreed that the era of filmmaking 'as a lifestyle' was over. This is a serious business, they fulminated, and there's no room for people who just "do it because they love it". But in our business, we all work much too hard to take it seriously. If I must work all the hours that God made, and wake up bolt upright night after night in the middle of a production, worrying about the script, or the shoot, or the cut, then I might as well love what I'm doing. A producer friend of mine once said: "I want only three things out of life - to save the world, make a fortune and have fun doing it - and two out of three ain't bad!" Well, after four decades, I confess I've had more success making good films than I have making good money, but who cares; I've loved every moment of it! And perhaps, just once in a while, my films have made a difference.

The media landscape may be in a state of flux but it's still about telling a good story on the screen. It doesn't matter what distribution channel we use, whether broadcast, cable, web, VOD, streaming or even an island in Second Life; that's just distribution. What I've always cared about is the content, telling a good story, opening a window for my audience so they can see a wider world and gain a broader perspective. 'Good enough' is not good enough, yet 'good enough' is where the majority of our cablecasters land right now, or worse, while much of the 'professional' material on the web (separate from viewer-generated content) is just embarrassing. So LEO EATON ON TV aims to raise a small flag for quality and integrity over the coming months and years. And hopefully a few brave souls out there will even join me on the barricades. Our industry may be changing day by day - often for the worse - but that doesn't mean we should turn our faces to the wall and abdicate our responsibility as filmmakers. It's up to us to make sure it remains an industry we're proud, rather than ashamed, to be a part of.