Understanding the Importance of B-Roll in Video Production

The video production industry has a lot of unique jargon and terminology that the average business owner or marketing manager may not know. One such term is “B-roll.” This word harkens back to the days when film was actually rolled up on a big spool instead of stored digitally on a tiny memory card or directly uploaded to the internet or onto a hard drive of the cloud.

Even before you learn what B-roll is, it’s important to understand that it is a very important part of every video production project. If the team you hire to create videos for your brand does not have this, they are not doing a very good job for you.

What Is B-Roll?

First, let’s understand that there is A-roll, too. A-roll is the video footage captured that makes up the bulk of the video message and content. It’s the person you are interviewing answering questions or the film of a product demonstration.

B-roll is supplementary or supporting footage, usually without associated audio, of fill-in clips that help tell the story or set the scene for whatever is going on in the A-roll.

Examples of B-Roll

Let’s say your A-roll is of a man talking about your new GPS pet locator collar for pets. It shows the man explaining the product, putting it on a dog, and demonstrating the locator app. B-roll would be long shots of the dog playing in the grass, a close-up of the man petting the dog, and scenic shots that add atmosphere and indicate where the product could be used.

B-roll is important because it adds informative and emotive dimension to every marketing video production project. The above video would be much less compelling if it consisted only of a man standing there talking and showing off a product. B-roll footage brings it to life.