Before You Book a Breaking News Crew: A Checklist for Editors

A crew can only shoot what it is allowed to reach. Ask early whether the location is public or private, whether a contact on site has agreed to filming, and whether police or other officials have set a cordon. None of this is unusual, but it is the commonest reason a first hour is lost, and a short call to the right person usually settles it.

Safety belongs on the same list. If the story involves water, traffic, crowds or an unstable building, the producer and operator should agree where the crew will stand and when they will pull back before they set off. Rhys plans every crew with this in mind, and we would rather talk through a difficult position at the desk than at the roadside.

Weather matters too in these autumn weeks. Wet ground, early dusk and wind noise all change what the crew carries and how long the light lasts for exteriors.

The smallest crew that does the job is usually the right one. A single operator with a camera and radio microphone can cover a statement outside a building. A fast-moving incident with interviews may need a producer alongside, so one person can talk to witnesses while the other keeps shooting. Tell us what is expected and we will say what we would send and why.

Sound deserves its own line on the checklist. Pictures can be rescued with cutaways, but poor audio on an interview often cannot be. Ask whether a clean microphone feed is planned for every speaker, and whether the location is noisy enough to need a different position.

If the crew needs a light, a tripod or extra batteries for a long wait, say so at the booking stage. Carrying them costs nothing; discovering you needed them on site costs the shot.

Footage is only useful once it reaches your newsroom in a form your editors can open. Agree the file format, frame rate and naming before the crew leaves, and confirm how the material will travel: uploaded from the scene, handed over on a drive, or brought back for a quick edit first. Each route has a different time cost.

Then work backwards from the deadline. If the first pictures are needed for a bulletin at a fixed time, the crew has to finish shooting, move, and upload with margin to spare. A realistic plan states the last moment the crew can still be filming and still make the slot.

Tell us too who receives the material. A named person on your desk who expects the files, and knows what they should look like, makes a hurried hand-over far smoother than a general inbox.

A developing story changes while the crew is out, so decide how the desk and the operator will keep in touch. One phone number for each side, and a person at your end with authority to redirect the crew, avoids long chains of messages. Agree how often you want an update and what counts as worth interrupting for.

Approval is part of the same question. Say who decides whether a shot is used, whether an interview needs a second take, and who handles any complaint from a person on camera. Settling this before the shoot stops the crew waiting on an answer nobody was ready to give.

If the story ends sooner than expected, agree what the crew does next: stay for reaction, return to base, or move to a second location. That avoids paying for time nobody needs.

Ask for a written quotation that names what is included: crew time, travel, kit, and any basic edit or upload. Then ask what would change it, such as a longer wait, a second location, late-evening work or a faster turnaround. Our prices page sets out how we charge, and an enquiry through the contact page gets a written quotation or confirmation before an invoice is raised.

Weigh that cost against what you would otherwise do. For some stories, existing contributors or agency pictures will do, and a crew is not needed. For others, original pictures from your own angle are the point of the story, and that is where a crew earns its place.

Go through the list once more with the producer who will own the story. If every item has an answer, the booking is ready; if two or three remain open, those are the calls to make first.