Filming & Production
B-roll
Also called: broll, B roll, supporting footage
The name comes from the second reel of film that editors cut in alongside the primary footage. It shows what you are describing, so the viewer sees the workshop or the spreadsheet instead of only hearing about it. It compresses time, letting forty minutes of a process pass in six seconds. It also covers cuts, hiding a jump in the audio behind a shot of something else. Shoot more of it than you think you need, and shoot with the script in mind, because a folder of pretty footage matching nothing you actually say gets used badly or left on the drive.