Written by RMG News Feature from Western Gazette
By Western Gazette – North Dorset | Posted: November 30, 2014
AFTER leaving the sleepy streets of north Dorset in search of a more high octane lifestyle in LA, three Gillingham brothers have found their energy transformed onto the silver screen as part of the latest Jake Gyllenhaal blockbuster.
Twin brothers Austin and Howard Raishbrook along with younger brother Marc head up the nail-biting family business RMG News, trawling the dangerous streets of LA each night in order to supply the world’s mainstream media with breaking news footage.
But earlier this year they found themselves behind the lenses of another set of cameras – those of recently released pulse-pounding thriller Nightcrawler, penned and directed by Dan Gilroy of The Bourne Legacy fame. The brothers were called in by producers to offer expert advice on their profession, before taking up cameo roles in front of the cameras as well.
“It all started when I got a call from the Nightcrawler production team looking for some stock footage of crime scenes that they could use in the film, mainly to be played on the monitors in the movie’s TV station scenes,” revealed Austin.
“After providing them with what they were looking for I suggested Howard, Marc and I take a look at the script so we could advise them on an technical errors and suggest any alterations that would help the movie be more true to life. I just jumped on the opportunity to help out and become part of the movie.”
The pulse-pounding thriller sees Jake Gyllenhaal take up the role of Lou Bloom, a young man desperate for work who stumbles across the high-speed world of late night LA crime journalism in the nocturnal underbelly of the city. Putting together a team of freelance camera crews the action unfolds as they take to the streets to film crashes, fires, murder and disorder, muscling in on the cut-throat realm of nightcrawling to turn emergency situations into breaking news big bucks.
Austin said the brothers had been honoured to have been consulted as part of the movie. He said: “It was great to have the opportunity to play alongside Jake, Bill and Riz and work with Dan Gilroy. It was quite an honour to have them come to us for advice. This ranged from how to hold the video cameras, how to act when they get on scene and how to stage the fire trucks at fire incidents.
“To see what is a relatively unknown profession come to life on the big screen is quite humbling.”
Austin first crossed the pond in 1995 after feeling unfulfilled by the north Dorset news patch.
Once in the states he found work with local and national newspapers including the New York Post and People magazine. His portfolio grew quickly to include pieces in the LA Times, FHM Magazine and The Independent back at home in the UK. Noticing the upward trend towards video and multimedia in the journalism industry he trained in film and video at the Hollywood Film School and became a certified and distinguished cinematographer.
Twin brother Howard also left for the states at the age of 18 and it wasn’t long before the brothers decided to pool their resources and founded their own news agency, RMG News.
Frequent visits to see his older brothers had youngest of the three Marc hooked and it wasn’t long before he followed in their footsteps and joined the team as well.
The brothers regularly see their footage form part of breaking news bulletins on major channels such as CNN, Fox News and Univision.
“We are all from Gillingham, so you can probably understand that we needed a bit more action when we reached our late teens,” laughed Austin.
“We all came to Los Angeles in the pursuit of crime – LA being one of the most dangerous cities in America. We came armed with a cheap video camera, an old police radio and ventured out in the worst parts of town, often not knowing what real danger we were facing while trying to capture everything on tape. It’s the adrenaline rush we get from being in the middle of the action that keeps us doing this.”