What is B-Roll?
B-roll is supporting footage cut around the main subject: the product in use, hands at work, the room, the street outside. B-roll covers edits so a talking head can be trimmed without a visible jump, and it gives an editor something to show while narration explains what cannot be filmed directly.
- Category
- Creative & Video Production
- Also called
- B roll, Cutaway footage, Supporting footage
- In our work
- Creative production
The name is an editing-room inheritance. The A-roll carried the interview, the B-roll carried everything cut over it, and the job has not changed since. B-roll hides the joins where an interview is trimmed, illustrates what a speaker describes, establishes a place, and gives an edit somewhere to breathe. Useful b-roll is specific to the story rather than generic, which is why footage of the actual pallets beats stock footage of a warehouse nobody in the company recognises.
Gathering it is cheap during production and expensive afterwards, so a shot list normally carries a b-roll section of its own: hands, faces at work, the product from three angles, the entrance, the street, wide and tight versions of each. AI production makes gaps easy to fill, with the caution that applies everywhere else in this category, which is that a generated shot of premises or equipment a company does not have misrepresents the business.
Common questions.
How much b-roll does an interview video need?
More than most briefs plan for. An editor cutting a two-minute piece from an interview generally needs several minutes of varied supporting footage to cover trims and hold attention. Shooting a dedicated b-roll block while the location and the people are still available is the cheapest insurance in production.
Related terms.
Shot List
Creative & Video ProductionA shot list is the numbered inventory of every shot a video needs, recording for each one the subject, framing, camera movement, location and approximate duration.
Hybrid Production
Creative & Video ProductionHybrid production is a video method that combines live-action filming with AI-generated material, giving each a defined job.
Voiceover
Creative & Video ProductionA voiceover is recorded narration laid over picture by a speaker who is not seen on screen, carrying the script a video’s images cannot state directly.
AVP (Audio-Visual Presentation)
Creative & Video ProductionAn AVP, or audio-visual presentation, is a short branded video that explains an organisation, product or programme to an audience in one sitting.
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