Studio City's Eric Preven Profiled in Student Video

Studio City resident Eric Preven is vocal and passionate about Los Angeles County government, especially the Board of Supervisors and Sheriff's Department, according to a video from University of Southern California student Matt Hamilton. Hamilton, a broadcast journalism major, followed Preven around with a camera in 2013 to capture the watchdog's commitment to county issues.

The resulting 2:25-minute video shows Preven riding the Red Line to Downtown L.A. to attend government meetings and explains Preven's interest in county politics was triggered by a clash between his mother and animal control officers over her dogs. Preven's mother is interviewed in the video and says her son has "a very developed sense of justice." 

Hamilton's YouTube video is attached to this post.

Preven, who in October 2013 filed a lawsuit with the American Civil Liberties Union against the Board of Supervisors, told Patch he met Hamilton in 2012 at a Citizens Commission on Jail Violence hearing. A year later, Hamilton emailed Preven and asked for an interview for a class assignment.

When asked his thoughts on how Hamilton portrayed him, Preven, who has a background in television production, said a colleague and friend quipped, "Makes you seem perfectly reasonable and like a delightful debating partner. Who edited it?"  

"Matt did a great job of focusing on the behavior and action without going into the politics or issues," Preven said, crediting Hamilton's already-budding journalism career. "Two minutes flies by, and yet Matt skillfully gets the important aspects of the story across without using the word 'gadfly.'"