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.