On the Road with a Breaking-News Crew: What Happens Before We Hit Record
Gareth Pritchard walks through a typical call-out, from the first phone call to the file landing on your desk, and the small habits that keep a crew useful.
The call that starts it
Most call-outs begin with a short phone call from a duty editor or a producer, and the first few minutes decide how smoothly the rest goes. I ask where the story is, what the desk already knows, who is on the ground, and what the channel wants by when. I also ask about the format: a live position, a package for the evening bulletin, or raw footage to be cut at your end. We write the answers on a single note and share it with the producer travelling with me. That note stays open on a phone all day, so nobody relies on memory when the story shifts. If the brief changes halfway, we change the note first and the plan second.
Before I leave the yard, I confirm one contact on your side who can answer questions without passing them along. A named person with a mobile number saves more time than any piece of kit. When a desk is busy, a straight answer in thirty seconds beats a perfect answer in twenty minutes, and our crews are used to working that way.
Distance matters too. Being based in Bangor, we know the roads across North Wales well, and we can usually judge within a minute or two whether a location is reachable in time for a particular bulletin. If it is not, I say so on the first call. An honest no early on lets your desk send someone else, which is better than a promise we cannot keep.
- Location, access and any road closures
- Deadline and delivery format
- One named contact on the desk
- A fallback if the signal drops
What goes in the van
Our kit list is short on purpose. A camera we trust, a tripod that opens in seconds, two radio microphones, a stick microphone for vox pops, a small LED light, spare batteries and more cards than we expect to need. In autumn I add waterproof covers and a cloth for lenses, because rain and spray are the usual enemies of a clean shot on the coast. Everything has a fixed place in the bag. When a story turns and I have ten seconds to grab a lens or a battery, I do not want to search for it. We check batteries and cards the evening before, not at the roadside, and we format cards on the camera, never on a laptop in a hurry.
The producer carries the second bag: a laptop, a mobile hotspot, a charger bank and printed copies of any permissions we hold. Having paper may sound old fashioned, but a wet phone is a poor way to show a security guard that you are allowed to film. We would rather carry a folded sheet than argue at a gate.
We do not bring everything we own. A crew weighed down with kit moves slowly, and slow crews miss the moment a story peaks. If a shot needs a gimbal or a drone, we agree that with you beforehand and plan for it. Otherwise we travel light, set up quickly and keep our attention on what is in front of the lens.
- Camera, tripod and two radio mics
- Spare batteries and extra cards
- Rain covers and lens cloths
- Laptop, hotspot and power bank
Arriving and reading the scene
The first ten minutes on location are spent looking, not filming. I walk the edge of the scene, note where the light falls, where the noise is coming from, and where people are standing. A good position is one that shows the story and keeps us out of the way of those dealing with it, and I would rather lose a dramatic angle than get in the way of an emergency crew. The producer speaks to whoever is in charge and asks what we may film and where. We follow instructions from officers and officials politely and without argument. Trust built in that first conversation tends to hold for the rest of the day, and it often gets us a better position than pushing for one.
Once we know the ground, I shoot what I call the safe set: a wide shot to establish the place, a medium of the main activity, a close detail, and a clean piece of ambient sound. That set is enough for an editor to build a basic package even if everything after it goes wrong. Only then do I start looking for the better, riskier shots. Weather and light change fast in the hills and on the Menai shoreline, so I check exposure again every few minutes. A shot that was fine at the start can be a muddy grey by the time a reporter is ready to speak, and I would rather correct early than apologise later.
Shooting under pressure
Breaking stories rarely stand still, so most of my work is handheld and short. I hold shots for at least ten seconds, longer than feels natural, because editors need room at the head and tail of every clip. I avoid zooming while recording and instead move my feet. A steady, slightly late shot is worth more to a desk than a clever one that cannot be cut. Sound gets the same attention as pictures. A reporter's words in a gust of wind are no use to anyone, so we use the radio microphone first and the camera microphone only as a backup. I listen on headphones throughout, and I say out loud when something is wrong, even if it means asking a reporter to repeat a line.
When the reporter does a piece to camera, we agree the framing and the first words beforehand, then do two takes. The second is often the better one, but the first is the safety. I mark each take in my notes with a short phrase, so the editor can find the right clip without scrubbing through the whole card. We also keep an eye on each other. A long shift makes people careless, and a producer who notices that I have been standing in the cold for an hour might remind me to eat or swap a battery. Small checks like that keep a crew reliable.
- Hold every shot for ten seconds or more
- Move your feet rather than zoom
- Radio mic first, camera mic as backup
- Two takes of every piece to camera
Getting footage back to your desk
Footage is only useful once it has arrived. As soon as we have a usable set of clips, the producer selects the strongest and sends them over a mobile connection, while I keep shooting. We name every file with the place, the subject and the time, so your editors can sort material without opening each clip. The full cards stay with us and are backed up to a second drive before we leave. If the signal is poor, we do not wait for it to improve. We drive to a spot with better coverage, or hand a card to a runner if your desk has arranged one. The aim is simple: your editor should never be waiting for us when we could have been waiting for them.
We also send a short written note with each batch: what is in it, what is missing, who was interviewed and any names and spellings checked on the spot. Spelling a name wrongly on screen is an easy mistake to make and a hard one to take back, so we check it at the scene, with the person, before we leave. Where your channel needs captions or a specific frame rate, we agree that beforehand and deliver to it. Rapid editing can follow if you want it, but many desks prefer to cut the material themselves, and we are happy to hand over clean, well-labelled rushes and let your editors take it from there.
After the story: wrap and review
Back at the yard, we clear cards only after the desk confirms receipt of everything it needs. Kit is dried, batteries go on charge, and the producer writes up a few lines on what worked and what did not. If a particular road, gate or contact caused delay, that goes into our notes for next time, so the next crew starts a little further ahead.
We also ask for brief feedback from the desk. Was the audio clean? Did the files arrive in the right order? Was anything missing that would have made the package stronger? These answers are usually short, but they shape how we prepare for the next call, and over time they matter more than any piece of equipment we buy.
A breaking-news crew is mostly preparation, communication and plain discipline, with the camera as the smallest part of the story. When the call comes, the work is a chain of small, sensible choices: a clear brief, light kit, a safe set of shots, clean sound and files that arrive labelled. If your desk wants to talk through how a call-out would run for you, our contact page is the place to start.
Gareth Pritchard
Senior Camera OperatorGareth shoots breaking stories on location and runs our camera technique workshops.
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