OK, so what the heck is B-Roll, anyway?  B-Roll is all the footage that goes into a film or video that doesn't contain the primary subject of the program.  It can serve many different purposes in a program.  B-Roll can help illustrate or highlight a subject that is being discussed on screen; it can break up long, boring, on-camera speeches by adding visual support; it can change the timing or pace of a program; it can cover up unavoidable audio edits or glitches; and B-roll can help you tell your story in a more interesting fashion.

If you are shooting original footage for a program, whether it is a corporate piece, or documentary, or commercial or whatever, you should usually take some time to shoot B-roll at the same time you shoot your primary shots. Interior and exterior shots of buildings, logos, signs, people working in offices, teachers teaching students, trucks unloading, planes taking off, trees moving in the wind, birds flying overhead...anything that is nearby that is even remotely relevant to your subject. On any production, it is worth planning a couple of extra hours to shoot B-roll, because you never know what will prove useful once you get into your edit. Shoot the same subjects or objects multiple times, making sure you use different framing, angles, camera moves, and such when shooting your B-roll...it will give you more choices in editing, and hopefully make the final product that much more interesting to the viewer.

If you are working on a program where shooting B-roll is not a possibility...like a historical documentary for example...you will need to start searching through the available material from libraries, historical societies, private collectors, or stock footage archival companies like Creatas to see what's available. Many times they will have similar basic material in lots of different formats...like footage of a steam locomotive...they might have stills, 16mm film, 35mm film, and maybe even some videotape from historical re-enactments or restored trains. Some might be B&W, some color. You review the footage and pick the shots that best match your program needs, as far as overall quality, shot composition, scenery, lighting, etc.

If you can't find exactly what you want, you may have to pick the closest thing available, and start playing with serious color correction and maybe use some sort of filter or effect to mask the differences and/or deficiencies in the footage. Or you may decide that it doesn't matter if it doesn't match...it all depends on the subject matter and the audience. You might want your main shots to be in lush, vivid color with shallow depth of field, and your B-roll to be washed-out, bland and flat-looking to accentuate the difference between them.

Like A-roll (primary footage), B-roll can vary all over the map in quality. Every situation is different and you just have to make some decisions, adjust to what you have to work with, and make the best of it.  But make no mistake about it, in every edit, for every kind of program, B-Roll is your friend!

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