Shot in the Dark (2017) s01e01 Episode Script
The Hustle
[dogs barking in distance.]
[Howard.]
Honestly, I feel like a vulture or a coyote at night.
I feel like I own the city.
After dark in LA, I mean, you never know what's gonna happen.
[siren wailing.]
In the middle of the night, when everybody else goes to sleep, we're nocturnal.
[Scott.]
We document very bad things.
[Zak.]
The reason that people slow down and stare at crashes is kind of the reason that I have a job.
[Howard.]
I film people's misery.
I'm there at the worst time in their lives.
And you never hope for someone to die.
But it makes a better story.
Competition is non-stop.
We're all fighting for that one story of the night.
[Zak.]
The television stations are not gonna buy everyone's footage.
They're gonna pick one photographer who got there first, shot it better, got it in faster and more accurately than the others.
[Scott.]
There are dollars to be made in this business.
But you don't get your stories on TV, you don't get the dollars.
So, you need to be bigger and better than your competition.
That's how you win the night.
This job isn't for everyone.
You have to be a little crazy.
It gets to you, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
[siren wailing.]
[Howard.]
We're out here documenting a war.
[indistinct chattering over radios.]
[Howard.]
What we see in a week, most people do not see in an entire lifetime.
[indistinct chattering over radio.]
[Howard.]
I've been chasing stories every single night as a stringer for the last 20 years.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
I was born to do this job.
There they are.
You'll be able to tell me apart from these guys.
I'm the one with the hat.
Apart from that, we look pretty identical.
My company is RMG News.
It's myself, my twin brother and my younger brother.
It's just three of us.
It's kind of a family business.
- [Austin.]
Quiet? - [Howard.]
Yeah.
Lazy bastard.
[chuckles.]
[Howard.]
Growing up in the countryside in England, we grew up watching Cops.
We bought a couple of cheap digital cameras, and a used Buick and we'd sit in the middle of South Central, essentially running after fire trucks and police cars.
Five years went past and we turned into a legitimate money-making business.
- Where are we going tonight? - I'm gonna probably do metro.
- Want to go in The Valley? - I'll go straight on the 110.
- Let you know if I hear anything.
- [Howard.]
Yeah.
[Scott.]
I'm very passionate about this job, about life.
I'm very passionate about anything that I do.
And stringing is what I do.
On a bad night, you waste a tank of gas.
On a good night, you can make rent.
On a really good night, you can make a mortgage.
So, it's super-competitive.
I was working with Howard.
But now I'm on my own and I started LoudLabs in 2012.
[engine revs.]
[Scott.]
You need five things to do this job.
You need a car.
You need a camera.
You need a phone, computer, and you need some scanners and radios.
The sixth thing I can't teach, it's called the hustle.
[tires squeal.]
You need the hustle.
I cannot stress that enough.
You don't have the hustle, go home.
[indistinct chattering over radio.]
[Howard.]
Everybody has their idea of LA.
For me it was Baywatch.
The sun, sand and the surf.
Famous faces.
See celebrities.
But as a stringer, you know it completely differently.
To us, LA is 508 miles of freeways connecting 158 cities and 114 neighborhoods.
And we cover all of it.
Over by the beach on the west side is Santa Monica.
The police encrypted their radios, which means we're never there.
Up north is the San Fernando Valley.
There's a lot of family homes there and huge wildfires in the summer.
Then there's the wealthy Beverly Hills.
If anything at all happens here, it's news.
Smack in the middle is Hollywood.
It's home to the Walk of Fame and world-famous Hollywood sign.
However, most of our stories are from here, South Los Angeles, where the headlines are often shootings and stabbings.
Also downtown, where businesses mix with a vibrant nightlife and street dwellers.
And it's also easy access to all the major freeways, so, we can get anywhere within minutes.
[indistinct chatter over scanner.]
I'm staged.
I'm just waiting for one of those big calls.
A big call.
Newsworthy call.
Anything visual makes a good story.
We see a lot of sales from fires, hydrant crashes, physical rescues, shootings.
I mean, that's what the stations buy.
Those are the moneymakers.
[dispatcher.]
Ambulance traffic, pedestrian involved.
He called back and said fine, no vehicle involved.
Sent himself down only.
I mean, we get paid per station, a flat rate per story.
So, if I get Channel 5, that's one hit.
Obviously, we want multiple hits.
There's multiple stations, there's five or six stations in LA.
You shoot three stories a night, you get ten hits.
- Ten hits adds up.
- [dispatcher.]
We have failure to yield.
I'm gonna be in pursuit approaching 100.
White Mercedes, possible DUI.
Shit.
We got a pursuit.
[dispatcher 1.]
I'll let you know, we'll start advising on taking turns.
- He's going 120 miles per hour.
- A hundred and twenty miles an hour.
[dispatcher 2.]
He's committed to the 101 North.
Fucking hell! He's on the 101 as well.
If I'm gonna try and get this, we gotta be there quick.
The entrance to the highway is here.
Move.
Come on, you fucking beauty.
We're gonna get the passing shot.
It's the money shot.
In a crash, you gotta get the victim.
With a fire, the flames.
With a pursuit, you need the car coming past you.
If you can get that, that's good money.
It should be coming right at us now.
[truck horn honking.]
Where's? The fuck's it gone? Fucking hell! I hope it hasn't stopped.
There's one exit, he could've gotten off there, too.
Okay.
Here it is.
[sirens wailing.]
That'll do fucking nicely.
We need the arrest.
I love this shit.
I swear to God, I was put on this planet to film police chases.
I swear to God.
Hopefully, I get this exclusive.
[indistinct chattering over radio.]
Control 455, if I could get the frequency on standby.
I'm gonna be northbound attempting to intercept.
We need the arrest.
Here it is right now.
[officer.]
Roll your windows down.
It looks like Howard's here.
All right, we're gonna jump in.
There is competition times one.
[Howard.]
I'm extremely competitive in everything I do.
So, whether it's against OnScene or LoudLabs, I just have this complete drive and passion to beat these other guys.
[officer.]
Roll your windows down.
[sirens wailing.]
[Howard.]
If you wanna fuck with the Highway Patrol, take them on a big chase.
[officer.]
Roll your windows down.
Roll your windows down.
[Zak.]
No way.
That's interesting.
[officer.]
We'll talk to you in a second.
Don't worry, we'll talk to you in a second.
[Howard.]
Fucking Zak.
There's a lot of good shooters out there.
And to get ahead it comes down to out-shooting your competition.
Getting different angles.
Getting victims.
Nailed.
Fucking nailed it.
[Howard.]
And running back to your car and getting that footage out first.
I'm still shaking.
That was a good one.
DUI driver in pursuit.
CHP through downtown.
Exited Hollywood.
Crazy.
- You got the passing? - And the pit.
- Ah! Unbelievable.
- [Howard.]
It's over.
[grunts.]
I'm just, uh, editing this video quickly.
I'll call you back in a second.
[sirens wailing on video.]
We know how to edit a quick three- or four-minute piece.
I have it ready to go, so, I'm just gonna do an upload, send it to our video server and then we send it out from our video server to all the stations.
And if you out-shoot your competition and you get your footage out before the others, you'll get the sale.
We've got the pit maneuver on tape.
We've got the takedown.
We don't have a passing shot.
But I'll send it out to the networks just on the off chance they end up picking it up.
But Howard's got the passing shot.
Chances are he's got this in the bag.
With the passing shot, that's pretty much what could win this.
Oh, man.
That is some good shit.
That's worth watching again.
[newscaster.]
Breaking news now out of East Hollywood.
A young woman is in custody after leading CHP officers on a wild pursuit.
Ninety miles per hour.
You can see the CHP pitted that car on Vermont just south of the 101.
Troopers took the driver into custody, their guns drawn.
It's rare we get this close during a chase.
She was originally wanted for failure to yield.
It's unclear if drugs or alcohol are involved.
It's a shame.
She's very cute.
[chuckles.]
[Zak.]
When I took over OnScene back in 2014, we had four photographers, and now we have 25.
I've got two dispatchers, one full-time, one part-time.
And we're expanding like crazy.
We've got just an unbelievable wealth of resources.
I can call dispatch and get information on anything.
I can have a story written like that.
Got Howard working his butt off with his small team of guys.
It's far more difficult for him, far more difficult for him, doing this the way he's doing it.
It's really difficult to compete against a network of skilled photographers who work towards one goal, and that's what OnScene TV is.
We've been number one a while.
Staying number one, that's the trick.
Getting there is hard work, staying there is even harder.
Austin, where are you? You at Slauson? [Austin.]
We're at Rosecrans and the 110.
I got a passing shot and the pit maneuver.
You motherfucker! You son of a bitch.
Yeah, that's not bad.
Bet that Howard lucked us some good shit.
Yup.
That's not luck of the Irish.
It's luck of the oldest Raishbrook brother.
[Howard.]
Anything else going on? Did you get anything yet? I got a massive story, but I'm not gonna tell you what it is.
That is a lucky motherfucker.
He just comes across everything.
Like, it's incredible.
Cops.
[indistinct chattering over radio.]
They love doing the slow roll.
[officer.]
Anything good? [Austin.]
I'm waiting for it, but nothing great.
I listen to everything you go to.
- [officer.]
Can we look? - Have a look.
Yeah.
[officer.]
I always wondered what it looked like.
[Austin.]
Five touch-screen digital scanners.
[officer.]
Like the air unit.
- You got five radios at once.
- [Austin.]
There's those, then I have this for CHP, this for tac channels.
All the gang, everything going on here.
Sheriffs.
Are you guys from OnScene, or are you guys from? - No.
We're RMG.
- [officer.]
RMG? - Yeah.
Take that back.
[laughs.]
- Yeah, I take that back.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No.
We're RMG and we're a family company.
There's three brothers out there - That's cool, man.
- [Austin.]
So, yeah, no, this - We know what's going on.
- [officer.]
Know more than we do.
- I get there quicker than you guys.
- It happens all the time.
Well, you literally do put your lives on the line to help people and that's very commendable.
[officer.]
Thanks, guys, I appreciate that.
- All right.
- Nice to meet you.
- [Austin.]
See you.
- Take care.
[Austin.]
All right, you, too.
That was cool.
[dispatcher.]
Car fire on the freeway.
10 west, Arlington exit.
Fully involved.
Red 5 en route.
Car fire on freeway.
[indistinct chattering over radio.]
We're headed to the westbound 10.
A vehicle fire on the freeway.
Firemen love us because they get to show their family what it is they do.
But cops are not excited to ever see us.
The cops think we're out to get the next Rodney King, we're not.
We're out to document what they do.
If they do a Rodney King, that's on them, not me.
I didn't do anything wrong.
Here comes Arlington.
So, where you at? Where you at? Oh, there it is.
Found it.
Watch out, everybody.
Let's go.
To be a good stringer, I know what I have to do and what I'm allowed to do.
And I know what I'm gonna do.
I've learned through lots of car fires as soon as you press stop that's when the action happens, so, I just let it roll.
You're gonna hear explosions.
It'll be the tires.
[booming.]
The driver's over there.
[fire truck horn honking.]
There's good flames about to pop up.
Can't sell a fire without flames.
Car fires don't always make news.
Depends on the circumstances.
What's up, guys? But this thing's badass.
These are some good flames.
That was fun.
[newscaster.]
This was the scene overnight at the 10 freeway near Crenshaw.
Look at this.
A Nissan on the right shoulder almost fully engulfed in flames.
It looks like the occupants did get out okay.
No one was reported injured.
[Scott.]
Every night when I leave the house, I'm looking for the story of the night.
You want that one big, big story that all the networks are gonna want, that the stations are gonna want.
You're not chasing tiny things every day.
You're looking for the big dog.
There are dollars to be made in this business, so, it's super competitive.
Out of the top three stringer companies in Los Angeles, I helped establish two of them and I own the third.
OnScene video's been around since the '90s.
I started hanging out with them in 2000.
Brought them into the night.
And then, there was some inner turmoil and I left.
I went from OnScene to RMG.
But now I'm on my own.
I slowly built up a team.
I now have a team, RMG has a team, OnScene has a team.
What the three of us have done, or what the three companies have done, is turn freelance news into a multimillion-dollar business.
The three best stringers are Howard, myself and Zak.
There's no denying it.
[indistinct chattering over radio.]
We got a car into a light pole.
Control 455, I'm going to be on scene on the TC on Ventura.
[siren wailing.]
Oh, hey, man.
- Hey.
- Good to see you.
On a T-stop when it went down? - No, we didn't even see it.
- Okay.
That would've been crazy.
[chuckles.]
I've been doing this for a pretty long time now, every night is something new and exciting and that's really what drives me to come out and do what I do.
The car came in at high speed, wrapped around the pole, and you can see the impact on the driver's side.
There's a female victim in the driver's seat right now and she's unconscious.
This is a great shot right here.
So, we're seeing the pole.
There's the victim.
You can't see her too well, which is what we want.
You know she's there.
Look at that.
Him pulling the glass.
There's the jaws.
It's as cinematically beautiful as we can make this.
[whirring and grinding.]
What we're seeing here is professional firefighters.
These people are heroes.
They are absolute heroes.
And they're working with the struggle between life and death and they're trying their best to save a life.
And then right there They're bringing out the sheet and covering the body.
You can see the energy change.
You can see those firefighters behind there, the ones that are on the other side of the car completely changing.
We're not assholes.
You don't want bad things to happen to people.
That's not something anybody wishes for.
That's not something that I wish for, or any of my guys wishes for.
But you just wanna do your job.
It's like firefighters or the police.
They don't want people to get murdered or to get shot, they don't want buildings to burn down.
But when a firefighter's at a building fire, he's fulfilling his purpose.
He's actually doing what he set out to do.
And it's the same as what we do.
It's literally identical.
I'd rather film kitties playing with each other.
[chuckles.]
Like dogs and just weather packages, rain maybe would be nice.
But, um, that's not what people wanna see.
That's not what sells.
A young woman is dead and her passenger is injured after a crash in Studio City.
Investigators say that woman slammed into a phone pole in the 10,000 block of Ventura Boulevard just before one.
[indistinct chattering over radio.]
Ooh, that might work.
We're gonna go check out that crash.
We're hoping to get transports or, unfortunately, we're hoping for covered bodies.
Uh [chuckles.]
It sucks, but that's the story.
Uh-oh.
No, we just I have to pull here.
I'm out of gas.
I ran out.
I just ran out of gas.
Oh, fuck.
Seriously, I just ran out of fucking gas.
I just ran out of gas.
That was no Hollywood joke.
That was no editing.
That was real.
[man over radio.]
Did you get to the? No, I didn't get to the crash.
Gonna put a couple bucks in and go.
Could've been so much worse.
So much worse.
[Howard.]
He go down all right? [Howard's wife.]
He's out.
In bed asleep already.
[Howard.]
Is he really? Nice.
- [Howard's wife.]
All right.
- Speak to you in a bit.
- See you later.
- Bye.
Love you.
Love you.
Take care.
Bye.
I've been married coming on five years.
And it's amazing.
Having a kid a year ago definitely had an impact on this job, I'm not gonna lie.
Having a kid and doing this job [indistinct chattering over radio.]
[dispatcher.]
LR 100, Area 20, Baywatch del Rey.
Baywatch del Rey.
- Ocean rescue.
- Ocean rescue.
Venice Pier.
Ocean rescue.
[Zak.]
It's a good call.
It's a good story.
But, um, Venice, that's gonna be a little too far for us.
Roger.
414, if you're in that area, check it out.
You're closer.
We're just gonna stage downtown and wait for another call.
Don't know if they have a confirmed victim or what, but there's a lot of units on their way to the beach.
Could be a good story.
The story of the night.
Story of the night is the biggest story.
That's gonna get the most hits.
The story of the night is the one stations are looking for.
We're en route.
[Howard.]
A weird call.
It started out as ten people fist fighting at the end of Venice Pier.
Now there's somebody in the water, possibly a weapon involved.
That's an unusual call.
That will sell over anything else tonight.
Definitely the story of the night.
It goes from 0 to 100 quick and that's just not the miles per hour.
[chuckles.]
That's your adrenaline, everything.
That's the calls.
Everything around us can just calm down or get real exciting real quick.
[indistinct chattering over radio.]
[Zak.]
Oh, here we go.
[dispatcher.]
Engine 9 on scene reports a bus engulfed.
[Zak.]
Bus fire.
That's a good one.
[Howard.]
Bus fire.
Can you believe it? That's a tough call.
We're driving away from a good call.
We have two potentially good stories.
Bus fire.
Fuck! That's a good one.
[groans.]
Fuck it.
I'm going to the bus fire.
[tires squealing.]
Yeah, that fully involved bus fire's ten minutes away.
Fires happen all the time so we're gonna go to this water rescue.
That's gonna be the bigger story of the night.
I don't get jacked up when dispatch happens.
'Cause it's almost exhausting getting all excited.
"Yeah, we got a fire.
" It's exhausting to go through that day in, day out, night after night.
[honks horn.]
Move! Come on, man.
Come on.
Let's go.
[horn honks.]
[laughs.]
[Zak.]
Holy shit.
That's an actual That's a serious bus fire.
There.
See it on the horizon? That's cooking pretty good.
[Howard.]
Fuck.
Move! [indistinct chattering over radio.]
We need that victim in the water.
If the victim's out, it's still a story, but not visually.
Move.
Come on.
Oh, you've got to be kidding me.
Move! Oh, for fuck's sake.
[cell phone ringing.]
- Hello.
- [Austin.]
Oi.
You can cancel.
See, one person that ran towards water did not go in the water.
Yeah, it looks like it's a waste of time.
Yeah, there's nobody in the water.
[Howard.]
Ah, fuck! Going to fake calls now.
There's a fully involved bus fire.
[overlapping radio chatter.]
[dispatcher.]
propane going off in there.
Propane going off? [tires squeal.]
Buses in LA use compressed natural gas, so, it's like you've got like a bomb sitting on top of the bus.
So, if the bus is on fire and the bomb on top of the bus is cooking, there's potential for serious problems.
See? It's a good one.
If that shit turns white, we're fucked.
Come on, come on, come on! Come on! Move! Move! Move! Go! Come on, come on, come on! Everyone's fucking slowing down! Control, if you could, I've got a major loom up on this.
If you could get a write-up started in the blind for a bus fire of some type.
[Scott.]
So close.
So fucking close.
Fuck.
Oh, Scott.
[laughing.]
You know what, Scott? You go that way.
I'm gonna go this way.
God, he's just like Whew.
He's a crazy man.
[Scott.]
Fuck me, dude.
Fuck! All right.
[sirens wailing.]
Scott's running in like an idiot.
We're gonna hang back.
This is compressed natural gas, we're gonna be extra careful.
Okey-dokey.
Excuse me, guys.
Holy shit.
[Scott.]
That's crazy! Wow.
[fireman.]
Hey! Watch the wires! You got it.
Go to the other side.
That's crazy.
[Austin.]
May not be anything, but there's a stalled vehicle that could turn into a crash.
One of the worst things to do if you crash on the freeway is get out and try and run across the road.
It never ends well.
[crashes.]
My God.
[horn wailing.]
Story of the night.
The question is who's gonna win it, Zak or I? We both pretty much have the same thing.
So, it's a matter of a roll of the dice.
But, wow, right? Smell the propane.
We gotta back up.
If you smell gas, you're way too fucking close.
[fireman.]
Better watch out, bro.
[Howard.]
Zak is there.
Didn't see Scott, but he's probably in there, too.
We're here.
Might as well take a look, see what we missed.
Here's a card.
I got it.
If you need a copy, shoot me an e-mail.
- Appreciate it.
What's your name? - I'm Zak.
- Thank you very much.
- Good to meet you.
See you.
Let's grab my sticks and get out of here.
Scott's there.
Somebody's not happy.
[Howard.]
What'd you get? You get flames? It's, uh, natural gas.
So, the natural gas caught fire, and Zak and I pretty much got it equally.
You hear the Venice rescue? I was on my way.
I made my U-turn at La Cienega and this came out.
Fuck, dude.
It was a good one.
- [Zak.]
Howard? - Yeah.
Don't even start.
- Oh, no - [Howard.]
Don't even start.
- I assumed you were on the other side.
- I was inside.
- Inside where? - Inside the bus.
Did you get flames? [Zak.]
Yeah.
It was 30 feet.
You'll see the video.
[Howard.]
Bus fire, 30-foot flames.
Story of the night is essentially that.
There's one story that will be top news in the morning.
And so far tonight I didn't get it.
A huge fire on a bus sent flames 30 feet into the air in downtown LA.
[male newscaster.]
Somehow the bus's natural gas fuel ignited sending flames shooting more than 40 feet in the air.
[female newscaster 1.]
They say this was more dangerous than a normal gas fire.
[female newscaster 2.]
All you can say when you see the video, which is remarkable, is thank goodness no one was hurt.
Back to you.
[female newscaster 3.]
Laurie, thanks for that update from downtown LA.
Ah He's blacked out.
[crashes.]
Shit.
[horn wailing.]
[crashing and tires squealing.]
Oh, shit! Fuck! - [cameraman.]
Are they in there? - [Austin.]
Yeah.
[cameraman.]
Other side.
Other side.
Better get out, man.
Better get out.
[Howard.]
Honestly, I feel like a vulture or a coyote at night.
I feel like I own the city.
After dark in LA, I mean, you never know what's gonna happen.
[siren wailing.]
In the middle of the night, when everybody else goes to sleep, we're nocturnal.
[Scott.]
We document very bad things.
[Zak.]
The reason that people slow down and stare at crashes is kind of the reason that I have a job.
[Howard.]
I film people's misery.
I'm there at the worst time in their lives.
And you never hope for someone to die.
But it makes a better story.
Competition is non-stop.
We're all fighting for that one story of the night.
[Zak.]
The television stations are not gonna buy everyone's footage.
They're gonna pick one photographer who got there first, shot it better, got it in faster and more accurately than the others.
[Scott.]
There are dollars to be made in this business.
But you don't get your stories on TV, you don't get the dollars.
So, you need to be bigger and better than your competition.
That's how you win the night.
This job isn't for everyone.
You have to be a little crazy.
It gets to you, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
[siren wailing.]
[Howard.]
We're out here documenting a war.
[indistinct chattering over radios.]
[Howard.]
What we see in a week, most people do not see in an entire lifetime.
[indistinct chattering over radio.]
[Howard.]
I've been chasing stories every single night as a stringer for the last 20 years.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
I was born to do this job.
There they are.
You'll be able to tell me apart from these guys.
I'm the one with the hat.
Apart from that, we look pretty identical.
My company is RMG News.
It's myself, my twin brother and my younger brother.
It's just three of us.
It's kind of a family business.
- [Austin.]
Quiet? - [Howard.]
Yeah.
Lazy bastard.
[chuckles.]
[Howard.]
Growing up in the countryside in England, we grew up watching Cops.
We bought a couple of cheap digital cameras, and a used Buick and we'd sit in the middle of South Central, essentially running after fire trucks and police cars.
Five years went past and we turned into a legitimate money-making business.
- Where are we going tonight? - I'm gonna probably do metro.
- Want to go in The Valley? - I'll go straight on the 110.
- Let you know if I hear anything.
- [Howard.]
Yeah.
[Scott.]
I'm very passionate about this job, about life.
I'm very passionate about anything that I do.
And stringing is what I do.
On a bad night, you waste a tank of gas.
On a good night, you can make rent.
On a really good night, you can make a mortgage.
So, it's super-competitive.
I was working with Howard.
But now I'm on my own and I started LoudLabs in 2012.
[engine revs.]
[Scott.]
You need five things to do this job.
You need a car.
You need a camera.
You need a phone, computer, and you need some scanners and radios.
The sixth thing I can't teach, it's called the hustle.
[tires squeal.]
You need the hustle.
I cannot stress that enough.
You don't have the hustle, go home.
[indistinct chattering over radio.]
[Howard.]
Everybody has their idea of LA.
For me it was Baywatch.
The sun, sand and the surf.
Famous faces.
See celebrities.
But as a stringer, you know it completely differently.
To us, LA is 508 miles of freeways connecting 158 cities and 114 neighborhoods.
And we cover all of it.
Over by the beach on the west side is Santa Monica.
The police encrypted their radios, which means we're never there.
Up north is the San Fernando Valley.
There's a lot of family homes there and huge wildfires in the summer.
Then there's the wealthy Beverly Hills.
If anything at all happens here, it's news.
Smack in the middle is Hollywood.
It's home to the Walk of Fame and world-famous Hollywood sign.
However, most of our stories are from here, South Los Angeles, where the headlines are often shootings and stabbings.
Also downtown, where businesses mix with a vibrant nightlife and street dwellers.
And it's also easy access to all the major freeways, so, we can get anywhere within minutes.
[indistinct chatter over scanner.]
I'm staged.
I'm just waiting for one of those big calls.
A big call.
Newsworthy call.
Anything visual makes a good story.
We see a lot of sales from fires, hydrant crashes, physical rescues, shootings.
I mean, that's what the stations buy.
Those are the moneymakers.
[dispatcher.]
Ambulance traffic, pedestrian involved.
He called back and said fine, no vehicle involved.
Sent himself down only.
I mean, we get paid per station, a flat rate per story.
So, if I get Channel 5, that's one hit.
Obviously, we want multiple hits.
There's multiple stations, there's five or six stations in LA.
You shoot three stories a night, you get ten hits.
- Ten hits adds up.
- [dispatcher.]
We have failure to yield.
I'm gonna be in pursuit approaching 100.
White Mercedes, possible DUI.
Shit.
We got a pursuit.
[dispatcher 1.]
I'll let you know, we'll start advising on taking turns.
- He's going 120 miles per hour.
- A hundred and twenty miles an hour.
[dispatcher 2.]
He's committed to the 101 North.
Fucking hell! He's on the 101 as well.
If I'm gonna try and get this, we gotta be there quick.
The entrance to the highway is here.
Move.
Come on, you fucking beauty.
We're gonna get the passing shot.
It's the money shot.
In a crash, you gotta get the victim.
With a fire, the flames.
With a pursuit, you need the car coming past you.
If you can get that, that's good money.
It should be coming right at us now.
[truck horn honking.]
Where's? The fuck's it gone? Fucking hell! I hope it hasn't stopped.
There's one exit, he could've gotten off there, too.
Okay.
Here it is.
[sirens wailing.]
That'll do fucking nicely.
We need the arrest.
I love this shit.
I swear to God, I was put on this planet to film police chases.
I swear to God.
Hopefully, I get this exclusive.
[indistinct chattering over radio.]
Control 455, if I could get the frequency on standby.
I'm gonna be northbound attempting to intercept.
We need the arrest.
Here it is right now.
[officer.]
Roll your windows down.
It looks like Howard's here.
All right, we're gonna jump in.
There is competition times one.
[Howard.]
I'm extremely competitive in everything I do.
So, whether it's against OnScene or LoudLabs, I just have this complete drive and passion to beat these other guys.
[officer.]
Roll your windows down.
[sirens wailing.]
[Howard.]
If you wanna fuck with the Highway Patrol, take them on a big chase.
[officer.]
Roll your windows down.
Roll your windows down.
[Zak.]
No way.
That's interesting.
[officer.]
We'll talk to you in a second.
Don't worry, we'll talk to you in a second.
[Howard.]
Fucking Zak.
There's a lot of good shooters out there.
And to get ahead it comes down to out-shooting your competition.
Getting different angles.
Getting victims.
Nailed.
Fucking nailed it.
[Howard.]
And running back to your car and getting that footage out first.
I'm still shaking.
That was a good one.
DUI driver in pursuit.
CHP through downtown.
Exited Hollywood.
Crazy.
- You got the passing? - And the pit.
- Ah! Unbelievable.
- [Howard.]
It's over.
[grunts.]
I'm just, uh, editing this video quickly.
I'll call you back in a second.
[sirens wailing on video.]
We know how to edit a quick three- or four-minute piece.
I have it ready to go, so, I'm just gonna do an upload, send it to our video server and then we send it out from our video server to all the stations.
And if you out-shoot your competition and you get your footage out before the others, you'll get the sale.
We've got the pit maneuver on tape.
We've got the takedown.
We don't have a passing shot.
But I'll send it out to the networks just on the off chance they end up picking it up.
But Howard's got the passing shot.
Chances are he's got this in the bag.
With the passing shot, that's pretty much what could win this.
Oh, man.
That is some good shit.
That's worth watching again.
[newscaster.]
Breaking news now out of East Hollywood.
A young woman is in custody after leading CHP officers on a wild pursuit.
Ninety miles per hour.
You can see the CHP pitted that car on Vermont just south of the 101.
Troopers took the driver into custody, their guns drawn.
It's rare we get this close during a chase.
She was originally wanted for failure to yield.
It's unclear if drugs or alcohol are involved.
It's a shame.
She's very cute.
[chuckles.]
[Zak.]
When I took over OnScene back in 2014, we had four photographers, and now we have 25.
I've got two dispatchers, one full-time, one part-time.
And we're expanding like crazy.
We've got just an unbelievable wealth of resources.
I can call dispatch and get information on anything.
I can have a story written like that.
Got Howard working his butt off with his small team of guys.
It's far more difficult for him, far more difficult for him, doing this the way he's doing it.
It's really difficult to compete against a network of skilled photographers who work towards one goal, and that's what OnScene TV is.
We've been number one a while.
Staying number one, that's the trick.
Getting there is hard work, staying there is even harder.
Austin, where are you? You at Slauson? [Austin.]
We're at Rosecrans and the 110.
I got a passing shot and the pit maneuver.
You motherfucker! You son of a bitch.
Yeah, that's not bad.
Bet that Howard lucked us some good shit.
Yup.
That's not luck of the Irish.
It's luck of the oldest Raishbrook brother.
[Howard.]
Anything else going on? Did you get anything yet? I got a massive story, but I'm not gonna tell you what it is.
That is a lucky motherfucker.
He just comes across everything.
Like, it's incredible.
Cops.
[indistinct chattering over radio.]
They love doing the slow roll.
[officer.]
Anything good? [Austin.]
I'm waiting for it, but nothing great.
I listen to everything you go to.
- [officer.]
Can we look? - Have a look.
Yeah.
[officer.]
I always wondered what it looked like.
[Austin.]
Five touch-screen digital scanners.
[officer.]
Like the air unit.
- You got five radios at once.
- [Austin.]
There's those, then I have this for CHP, this for tac channels.
All the gang, everything going on here.
Sheriffs.
Are you guys from OnScene, or are you guys from? - No.
We're RMG.
- [officer.]
RMG? - Yeah.
Take that back.
[laughs.]
- Yeah, I take that back.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No.
We're RMG and we're a family company.
There's three brothers out there - That's cool, man.
- [Austin.]
So, yeah, no, this - We know what's going on.
- [officer.]
Know more than we do.
- I get there quicker than you guys.
- It happens all the time.
Well, you literally do put your lives on the line to help people and that's very commendable.
[officer.]
Thanks, guys, I appreciate that.
- All right.
- Nice to meet you.
- [Austin.]
See you.
- Take care.
[Austin.]
All right, you, too.
That was cool.
[dispatcher.]
Car fire on the freeway.
10 west, Arlington exit.
Fully involved.
Red 5 en route.
Car fire on freeway.
[indistinct chattering over radio.]
We're headed to the westbound 10.
A vehicle fire on the freeway.
Firemen love us because they get to show their family what it is they do.
But cops are not excited to ever see us.
The cops think we're out to get the next Rodney King, we're not.
We're out to document what they do.
If they do a Rodney King, that's on them, not me.
I didn't do anything wrong.
Here comes Arlington.
So, where you at? Where you at? Oh, there it is.
Found it.
Watch out, everybody.
Let's go.
To be a good stringer, I know what I have to do and what I'm allowed to do.
And I know what I'm gonna do.
I've learned through lots of car fires as soon as you press stop that's when the action happens, so, I just let it roll.
You're gonna hear explosions.
It'll be the tires.
[booming.]
The driver's over there.
[fire truck horn honking.]
There's good flames about to pop up.
Can't sell a fire without flames.
Car fires don't always make news.
Depends on the circumstances.
What's up, guys? But this thing's badass.
These are some good flames.
That was fun.
[newscaster.]
This was the scene overnight at the 10 freeway near Crenshaw.
Look at this.
A Nissan on the right shoulder almost fully engulfed in flames.
It looks like the occupants did get out okay.
No one was reported injured.
[Scott.]
Every night when I leave the house, I'm looking for the story of the night.
You want that one big, big story that all the networks are gonna want, that the stations are gonna want.
You're not chasing tiny things every day.
You're looking for the big dog.
There are dollars to be made in this business, so, it's super competitive.
Out of the top three stringer companies in Los Angeles, I helped establish two of them and I own the third.
OnScene video's been around since the '90s.
I started hanging out with them in 2000.
Brought them into the night.
And then, there was some inner turmoil and I left.
I went from OnScene to RMG.
But now I'm on my own.
I slowly built up a team.
I now have a team, RMG has a team, OnScene has a team.
What the three of us have done, or what the three companies have done, is turn freelance news into a multimillion-dollar business.
The three best stringers are Howard, myself and Zak.
There's no denying it.
[indistinct chattering over radio.]
We got a car into a light pole.
Control 455, I'm going to be on scene on the TC on Ventura.
[siren wailing.]
Oh, hey, man.
- Hey.
- Good to see you.
On a T-stop when it went down? - No, we didn't even see it.
- Okay.
That would've been crazy.
[chuckles.]
I've been doing this for a pretty long time now, every night is something new and exciting and that's really what drives me to come out and do what I do.
The car came in at high speed, wrapped around the pole, and you can see the impact on the driver's side.
There's a female victim in the driver's seat right now and she's unconscious.
This is a great shot right here.
So, we're seeing the pole.
There's the victim.
You can't see her too well, which is what we want.
You know she's there.
Look at that.
Him pulling the glass.
There's the jaws.
It's as cinematically beautiful as we can make this.
[whirring and grinding.]
What we're seeing here is professional firefighters.
These people are heroes.
They are absolute heroes.
And they're working with the struggle between life and death and they're trying their best to save a life.
And then right there They're bringing out the sheet and covering the body.
You can see the energy change.
You can see those firefighters behind there, the ones that are on the other side of the car completely changing.
We're not assholes.
You don't want bad things to happen to people.
That's not something anybody wishes for.
That's not something that I wish for, or any of my guys wishes for.
But you just wanna do your job.
It's like firefighters or the police.
They don't want people to get murdered or to get shot, they don't want buildings to burn down.
But when a firefighter's at a building fire, he's fulfilling his purpose.
He's actually doing what he set out to do.
And it's the same as what we do.
It's literally identical.
I'd rather film kitties playing with each other.
[chuckles.]
Like dogs and just weather packages, rain maybe would be nice.
But, um, that's not what people wanna see.
That's not what sells.
A young woman is dead and her passenger is injured after a crash in Studio City.
Investigators say that woman slammed into a phone pole in the 10,000 block of Ventura Boulevard just before one.
[indistinct chattering over radio.]
Ooh, that might work.
We're gonna go check out that crash.
We're hoping to get transports or, unfortunately, we're hoping for covered bodies.
Uh [chuckles.]
It sucks, but that's the story.
Uh-oh.
No, we just I have to pull here.
I'm out of gas.
I ran out.
I just ran out of gas.
Oh, fuck.
Seriously, I just ran out of fucking gas.
I just ran out of gas.
That was no Hollywood joke.
That was no editing.
That was real.
[man over radio.]
Did you get to the? No, I didn't get to the crash.
Gonna put a couple bucks in and go.
Could've been so much worse.
So much worse.
[Howard.]
He go down all right? [Howard's wife.]
He's out.
In bed asleep already.
[Howard.]
Is he really? Nice.
- [Howard's wife.]
All right.
- Speak to you in a bit.
- See you later.
- Bye.
Love you.
Love you.
Take care.
Bye.
I've been married coming on five years.
And it's amazing.
Having a kid a year ago definitely had an impact on this job, I'm not gonna lie.
Having a kid and doing this job [indistinct chattering over radio.]
[dispatcher.]
LR 100, Area 20, Baywatch del Rey.
Baywatch del Rey.
- Ocean rescue.
- Ocean rescue.
Venice Pier.
Ocean rescue.
[Zak.]
It's a good call.
It's a good story.
But, um, Venice, that's gonna be a little too far for us.
Roger.
414, if you're in that area, check it out.
You're closer.
We're just gonna stage downtown and wait for another call.
Don't know if they have a confirmed victim or what, but there's a lot of units on their way to the beach.
Could be a good story.
The story of the night.
Story of the night is the biggest story.
That's gonna get the most hits.
The story of the night is the one stations are looking for.
We're en route.
[Howard.]
A weird call.
It started out as ten people fist fighting at the end of Venice Pier.
Now there's somebody in the water, possibly a weapon involved.
That's an unusual call.
That will sell over anything else tonight.
Definitely the story of the night.
It goes from 0 to 100 quick and that's just not the miles per hour.
[chuckles.]
That's your adrenaline, everything.
That's the calls.
Everything around us can just calm down or get real exciting real quick.
[indistinct chattering over radio.]
[Zak.]
Oh, here we go.
[dispatcher.]
Engine 9 on scene reports a bus engulfed.
[Zak.]
Bus fire.
That's a good one.
[Howard.]
Bus fire.
Can you believe it? That's a tough call.
We're driving away from a good call.
We have two potentially good stories.
Bus fire.
Fuck! That's a good one.
[groans.]
Fuck it.
I'm going to the bus fire.
[tires squealing.]
Yeah, that fully involved bus fire's ten minutes away.
Fires happen all the time so we're gonna go to this water rescue.
That's gonna be the bigger story of the night.
I don't get jacked up when dispatch happens.
'Cause it's almost exhausting getting all excited.
"Yeah, we got a fire.
" It's exhausting to go through that day in, day out, night after night.
[honks horn.]
Move! Come on, man.
Come on.
Let's go.
[horn honks.]
[laughs.]
[Zak.]
Holy shit.
That's an actual That's a serious bus fire.
There.
See it on the horizon? That's cooking pretty good.
[Howard.]
Fuck.
Move! [indistinct chattering over radio.]
We need that victim in the water.
If the victim's out, it's still a story, but not visually.
Move.
Come on.
Oh, you've got to be kidding me.
Move! Oh, for fuck's sake.
[cell phone ringing.]
- Hello.
- [Austin.]
Oi.
You can cancel.
See, one person that ran towards water did not go in the water.
Yeah, it looks like it's a waste of time.
Yeah, there's nobody in the water.
[Howard.]
Ah, fuck! Going to fake calls now.
There's a fully involved bus fire.
[overlapping radio chatter.]
[dispatcher.]
propane going off in there.
Propane going off? [tires squeal.]
Buses in LA use compressed natural gas, so, it's like you've got like a bomb sitting on top of the bus.
So, if the bus is on fire and the bomb on top of the bus is cooking, there's potential for serious problems.
See? It's a good one.
If that shit turns white, we're fucked.
Come on, come on, come on! Come on! Move! Move! Move! Go! Come on, come on, come on! Everyone's fucking slowing down! Control, if you could, I've got a major loom up on this.
If you could get a write-up started in the blind for a bus fire of some type.
[Scott.]
So close.
So fucking close.
Fuck.
Oh, Scott.
[laughing.]
You know what, Scott? You go that way.
I'm gonna go this way.
God, he's just like Whew.
He's a crazy man.
[Scott.]
Fuck me, dude.
Fuck! All right.
[sirens wailing.]
Scott's running in like an idiot.
We're gonna hang back.
This is compressed natural gas, we're gonna be extra careful.
Okey-dokey.
Excuse me, guys.
Holy shit.
[Scott.]
That's crazy! Wow.
[fireman.]
Hey! Watch the wires! You got it.
Go to the other side.
That's crazy.
[Austin.]
May not be anything, but there's a stalled vehicle that could turn into a crash.
One of the worst things to do if you crash on the freeway is get out and try and run across the road.
It never ends well.
[crashes.]
My God.
[horn wailing.]
Story of the night.
The question is who's gonna win it, Zak or I? We both pretty much have the same thing.
So, it's a matter of a roll of the dice.
But, wow, right? Smell the propane.
We gotta back up.
If you smell gas, you're way too fucking close.
[fireman.]
Better watch out, bro.
[Howard.]
Zak is there.
Didn't see Scott, but he's probably in there, too.
We're here.
Might as well take a look, see what we missed.
Here's a card.
I got it.
If you need a copy, shoot me an e-mail.
- Appreciate it.
What's your name? - I'm Zak.
- Thank you very much.
- Good to meet you.
See you.
Let's grab my sticks and get out of here.
Scott's there.
Somebody's not happy.
[Howard.]
What'd you get? You get flames? It's, uh, natural gas.
So, the natural gas caught fire, and Zak and I pretty much got it equally.
You hear the Venice rescue? I was on my way.
I made my U-turn at La Cienega and this came out.
Fuck, dude.
It was a good one.
- [Zak.]
Howard? - Yeah.
Don't even start.
- Oh, no - [Howard.]
Don't even start.
- I assumed you were on the other side.
- I was inside.
- Inside where? - Inside the bus.
Did you get flames? [Zak.]
Yeah.
It was 30 feet.
You'll see the video.
[Howard.]
Bus fire, 30-foot flames.
Story of the night is essentially that.
There's one story that will be top news in the morning.
And so far tonight I didn't get it.
A huge fire on a bus sent flames 30 feet into the air in downtown LA.
[male newscaster.]
Somehow the bus's natural gas fuel ignited sending flames shooting more than 40 feet in the air.
[female newscaster 1.]
They say this was more dangerous than a normal gas fire.
[female newscaster 2.]
All you can say when you see the video, which is remarkable, is thank goodness no one was hurt.
Back to you.
[female newscaster 3.]
Laurie, thanks for that update from downtown LA.
Ah He's blacked out.
[crashes.]
Shit.
[horn wailing.]
[crashing and tires squealing.]
Oh, shit! Fuck! - [cameraman.]
Are they in there? - [Austin.]
Yeah.
[cameraman.]
Other side.
Other side.
Better get out, man.
Better get out.