Shot In the Dark - new tv news cameraman series.

The new Netflix docu-series about the independent LA tv stringers that shoot stories and sells them to LA tv stations just appeared on Netflix. Not sure about global availability. But its on Netflix in North America. Apparently its on NetFlix UK as well
https://uk.newonnetflix.info/info/80171561/s
Many large cities in North America use stringer footage from incidents that occurred over night. Using stringer footage is far cheaper for tv stations than having a full staff available to shoot in the field all day and night..Stringers typically record unfortunately most of the evil things that people do to each other in the dark. (Killings, fights, fires, car wrecks etc). Looks like a very interesting view of the news business in large cities and how they compile their footage.

Looks very good, I shall give it a go Thanks for the heads up Mouseboy!

Watching the pliot, good so far but I am not sure if I have the patience to watch 8 episodes of this. I am not one for reality shows even if they are as raw as this.

Cheers.

I’ll need to check this out.

I think stringers are more willing to stake out so to speak bad neighborhoods.

Interesting that in the UK 'stringer' is more used to describe journalists in general, rather than specifically TV journalists (or VJ/self-shooters)

The term is often used here if a journalist is partially supported, but not directly employed. The World Service has, or had, a large network of stringers across the globe I believe, in addition to their staff journalists.

(Wonder if the Netflix series was inspired by the movie, Nightcrawler)

Watched the first 3, rather hooked I have to say. The ep1 ending/ep2 resolution was astonishing, it's a very different world to UK news really, and indeed it would seem that actual "journalism" is lacking more over "look pictures of bad stuff" but as a show its very well crafted, beautify scored and graded and I shall look forward to the rest of the series.

Awww wow as a massively voueuristic fan of watching police pursuits online this looks interesting.

I’m a bit obsessed with LA news. I talk to Stu Mundel from CBS LA a lot on twitter and he always shares interesting BTS photos and details

I watched the first episode. My take as someone who works in California television: it's an interesting, if somewhat overly glamorized look at stringers. I've never worked in the LA market and don't have much desire to, so maybe it really is different down there, but my experience with stringers elsewhere is that their work still never fully approaches professional quality. Bay Area stringers are typically retired firefighters or some schmuck with an in on fire or law enforcement, which brings up a whole can of worms about ethics. A few of them are really good at shooting video, while a lot of them aren't. (Would it kill them to shoot on tripods?) One thing that is accurate about this show is that line from one of the stringers that they are somehow on the same level of fire and law enforcement — they really do think that, but I don't even think that of our own photographers, and they don't think that either. Talk about inflated ego.

Every newsroom is different, and some stations care about crime/fires etc. more than others and will be willing to put up a bigger budget to buy stringer video. In general, a TV station knows how to best manage its resources and put photographers (and reporters if need be) onto a scene. It's better to use the people you are already paying than to try to pay extra for some amateur video. Or, even better, use the cell phone video that ordinary people have and are willing to share for much less. I don't think the future of stringers the way they're portrayed here is as bright as it is in real life, except for perhaps in LA.



It's a fair question as to whether it's news. I still prefer to fill up a newscast with as much local government and human interest as possible. But these kinds of fires, crashes, shootings, etc. all make it onto the news for three reasons: 1) TV news in this country is a commercial enterprise, which means it's bound to whatever people want to see; 2) people want to see this; and perhaps the most compelling reason: 3) depending on the story, there is some human element here where it does impact people. If there's loss of life of property somewhere, then that is going to affect a lot of people. That is a story.

Plus, cars and guns are as much of a part of American culture as apple pie, so it's only natural that our news would reflect the car crashes and shootings that happen here more than almost anywhere else.

Are Stringers even credentialed or able to get press passes in Los Angeles or other areas of California.

Edit : They must have letters from three separate media outlets saying you have completed assignments for them.

One thing I’ve noticed is that stringers are more of a California thing based that some video is watermarked or has a courtesy credit. You don’t see that often on the east coast - either the stations don’t buy video or don’t care about credit (unless it’s UCG).

Some of the bonded cellular companies like LiveU seem to be setting up services for stations and stringers to use. LiveU has BeFirst app where stations can track users and message them if something’s happening nearby. LiveU also has their community with as well.

I've just binged through it. It is fascinating and horrifying at the same time.

It did make this spring to mind from The Day Today... ( 1m 33s )


I am kind of glad this is an American phenomenon, and not prevalent in the UK