Three British brothers are centre stage in new Netflix documentary Shot in the Dark about the life of stringers working to cover breaking news in Los Angeles overnight.
They are video journalists equipped with high-performance cars packed to the brim with scanners and computer hi tech to allow them to beat rivals to the latest breaking news story.
Car crashes, fires, shootings, high-speed car chases and rogue bears are the order of the day as the three companies covering Los Angeles compete to beat their rivals to the story of the day.
At the centre are British twins Howard and Austin Raishbrook and their brother Marc who run RMG. They are caught up in the middle and losing out badly in a battle for business between Loudlabs, run by Scott Lane – a veteran stringer and his entrepreneurial rival, Zak Holman, who runs a team of stringers several times larger than any of the others.
With Zak’s network of more than 20 stringers able to be at almost any location within minutes, and Scott’s team selling all their material at dumping prices in order to undercut Zak, the three British brothers struggle to compete.
In between racing to beat rivals to the latest call, stringing crews spend a lot of time waiting around in deserted streets and car parks for the next call, and discussing the stringers’ life.
Austin Raishbrook made the news himself when he dumped his camera and dashed into the middle of a busy freeway to pull a driver from a car which had caught fire and a short while later exploded.
LA stringers were first put on the public agenda when Jake Gyllenhaal played Lou Bloom in the 2014 film Nightcrawler.
The British brothers were also involved in this working as consultants for the production of the 2014 thriller, which included real stories from the Raishbrooks’ lives as well as footage.
The brothers’ father Alan Raishbrook, who lives in north Dorset, said: “It takes the form of a reality show, but thankfully it’s far removed from The Only Way Is Essex and the like.”
When interviewed in 2014 Austin said: “We are all from Gillingham [In Dorset] so you can probably understand that we needed a bit more action when we got in our late teens.”
The series premiered on 17 of November and although Netflix does not release statistics it appears to be proving a winner judging by the social media traffic discussing the show.
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