Filming & Production
A-roll
Also called: A roll, primary footage
A-roll is whatever carries the narrative: the presenter to camera, the interview, the gameplay commentary, the performance. B-roll is everything cut over it. The distinction is about function rather than quality or camera, so a locked-off phone shot is A-roll if the edit is built on it, and cinematic drone footage is B-roll if it only illustrates. Audio usually decides which is which, since A-roll normally carries the voice everything else hangs from. Newer creators tend to shoot too little A-roll and too much B-roll, then find they have hours of pretty footage and nothing to attach it to.