B-roll is everything that is not you talking: the close-ups, the cutaways, the establishing shots, the hands doing the thing. It is what stops a video being ten minutes of a single locked-off shot of your face, and it is almost always the footage creators wish they had more of and almost never the footage they wish they had less of.
The cost of thin B-roll is a video that feels static and a little cheap, and an edit with nowhere to hide a cut. The cost of plenty is a slightly longer shoot. That trade is so lopsided that the rule is simple: when you think you have enough, get a bit more.
What counts as B-roll
More than you think. Anything the edit can cut to while your voice continues underneath.
| Type | What it does |
|---|---|
| The subject, close up | Shows the thing you are talking about |
| Hands working | Covers a process, hides edit cuts |
| Establishing wide | Sets the place, gives the eye a rest |
| Detail and texture | Adds richness, fills transitions |
Work the shot list first, so the essential covering shots are captured. Then, while the setup is still up, get the extras: another angle, a few seconds longer, a slow push in. Those are the shots that save an edit.
Shoot it longer than you'll use it
Hold every B-roll shot for longer than feels natural, around ten seconds, even for a clip you will trim to two. Long clips give the edit room to choose the in and out points; short clips force a cut exactly where you stopped, whether or not that is where the edit wanted it. Steady and a touch too long beats snappy and unusable.
A handful of genuinely good B-roll shots, used well, lifts a video more than any transition pack or effect. It is the cheapest production upgrade available to a small channel, and it costs only the extra ten minutes at the end of a shoot you have already set up.
Where Chewbr fits
Shoot the B-roll is step 12 of the 47, the last capture step before the footage moves to the edit. It closes the filming session: A-roll for the spine, B-roll for everything that covers it, both banked before the lights come down.
Keep reading
With everything filmed, back up the footage before you touch the edit. The B-roll list came from your shot list, and these cutaways keep the middle alive when you read the retention graph later.