What is B-Roll footage in a video?

Recently the Think Out Loud Studio team and I have been producing a few video projects, and when speaking with clients about the production plan, we throw around the term "B-Roll" and had a few people asking us what that means...

If you're curious, "B-Roll" is... not "A-Roll".

Just kidding, that's a horrible answer ??

The actual answer is:

B-roll is a term used in video and film production to refer to supplementary or secondary footage that is used to enhance the main storyline or primary footage. It serves several important purposes in the visual storytelling and video production process:

• Visual Variety: Helps break up the monotony of a single continuous shot or scene. It provides visual variety and can make the final video/project more engaging for viewers.
• Context and Detail: Can provide additional context, details, or close-up shots that help the viewers better understand the message, product, service, or story.
• Enhancing Storytelling: It can be used to reinforce emotions, themes, or key points in a narrative. For example, in a film about environmental conservation, B-roll of natural landscapes, wildlife, and pollution might be used to emphasize the message.

In a marketing video that's promoting a product or service, B-Roll would serve to show any visuals that make this tangible, show usage, show the characters of the story in context, and otherwise build a bigger visual element to the content.

Here's a B-Roll heavy video we produced that was focused on the characters we featured in interviews to provide more visual context of their stories.

• Supporting Narration or Interviews: Can complement voiceovers, interviews, or on-screen narration by providing relevant visual content that aligns with what is being discussed or explained.
• Transitioning: Can serve as a transition between different parts of a video or film. For example, it can be used to bridge the gap between two scenes or to provide a segue from one topic to another in a documentary.

• Covering Edits: Can be used to cover up edits or transitions between different scenes or shots. When editing footage, it's often necessary to splice together multiple takes or shots, and B-roll can be used to smooth out these transitions.
• And in a worst-case - Covering Mistakes: In case there are technical errors or mistakes in the primary footage, B-roll can be used to cover up these issues or provide a seamless transition.

B-Roll footage is typically shot separately from the primary footage during the same production day(s). Examples of how we plan for this are:

1. Filming between interviews or narrative-type segments.
2. Having a second camera dedicated to capturing this footage.
3. Staffing extra crew members dedicated to only filming B-Roll.
4. Having a second day dedicated to only filming B-Roll.

Last note I'll leave you with: Not all projects have B-Roll.

• For projects that are specifically planned, shot listed, storyboarded, and only need a specific amount of shots to create a video (think of a 30-second commercial), you plan and film only what is needed to accomplish that project.

We work and produce both types of projects. Both approaches are separate but equal to make a project a success ??