How a film about the storming of the capitol relied on several break through strategies to win big.
It’s a film that’s been watched umpteenth times, Storming of the Capitol by ITV News showing rioters taking over the Capitol. At its time of airing it was equally remarkable for being the only network film broadcast of the event, and that the crew had to drive a number of filmic strategies to make air.
One of the suppositions to emerge from the film, has been, was it luck that the crew found themselves in a unique position?
The answer is an emphatic no, based on ITV’s US Correspondent Robert Moore’s essay. He writes:
Everyone was talking about the protesters and no-one was listening to the protesters. At noon on January 6, I was on the Ellipse, an area on the National Mall to the south of the White House, interviewing Trump loyalists. It was crystal clear there would be an attack of some kind on the Capitol within hours, although whether it would be successful or not was impossible to know.
And here is where other networks made a crucial mistake. It’s reasonable to imagine many other networks knew what would happen, but they made a strategic decision to set up fixed reporting positions for their studios.
According to Moore when it really mattered the networks “sacrificed” a fundamental core of journalism which is to go and gather news.
Knowing where to go was one thing, but how could they film the event and with a small window to transmission how could it be edited in time? The decision here is masterful. The crew shot the film-to-edit. That means they all but calculated how much air time they had and how they might shoot the film with minimal edits.
Moore makes a number of appearances, which stamp both his location and the urgency; the interviews that follow are minimised. Luck here in a way played a part; the interviews provided insight. No need to try and fill for some more.
Notice too that many of the angles of the shoot are overhead. This too is masterful. The cameraman Mark Davey made full use of his height, around 6.3 to film affrays, clashes etc giving the audience privileged views.
Davey “learnt how to handle a riot back in Belfast in the old days”, according to his colleague and news anchor Tom Bradby. You’d had to be fearless to get into these spaces.
With minutes to ITV News in London going on air to lead with the riots, no one in London had any idea what was in the film. ITV News’ crew knew they had a good film, but how good would soon become apparent.
“That’s how close to the wire that evening was”, says ITV’s news reader Julie Etchingham. On the night of the UK’s most respected television news awards, Storming of the Capitol would sweep the boards in several categories.
Undoubtedly, the film which is now iconic owes that to a mixture of strategic planning outside and within the film making process.
Dr David Dunkley Gyimah was one of the jurors for News Coverage — International at Britain’s most respected television journalism awards, The RTS Television Journalism Awards. He’ s a senior lecturer at Cardiff University and one of the advisors and authors for the British Library’s “500 years of News” opening in April 2022. He’s been a journalist since 1990 working for BBC, Channel 4 News and ABC News. He specialises in International affairs, cinema journalism ( his speciality) and Tech. More on him here
