In the newsroom, Gary meets up with engineer Bobby Holt, and cameraman Ron Edwards. Bobby will operate the equipment in the newsvan and later edit Gary's packaged report. Ron, a freelance camera man, is filling in for a channel 7 regular who was sick that day. Only minutes after driving off, rain drops begin to splatter upon the van's windshield, obscuring Bobby's view as he navigates through a web of L.A. freeways. The team pulls into a gas station on the corner of Topanga Canyon and Burbank in Woodland Hills.
Rain saturates the pavement along with everything else in sight, as the crew sets up.
Even TV reporters in Hollywood are without this luxury. Using facts he picked up that morning in the newsroom, he begins to write his reports. As he rapidly jots down the information in his notebook, Gary repeatedly rehearses his lines, paying close attention to each vocal inflection. I've reported on it so many times, and it's difficult to say something new. But in Southern California, people are never prepared for bad weather.