5 Tips for Better B-Roll!

Hey y’all! Today I’m going to give you 5 tips to remember when planning to shoot b-roll (and also a few tips to remember if you are shooting b-roll on the fly).

And remember, the purpose of b-roll is to illustrate the point of your video, or what people are talking about in your video.

#1 - Make sure you shoot enough! It is really rare to shoot too much b-roll. Usually what happens is you sit down to edit and you wind up using almost everything you shot. Or you realize that you wish you had just a little bit more - then you wind up having to use the same shot, but from a slightly different angle a bunch of times. You’re resorting to that choice because you've just run out of footage.

In your preproduction, try to think about all the different ways you can show, or illustrate, the point of your video, or what is being said in the video. Something you can try is to think about how you can show what is happening just through your shots without any audio.

And remember, shooting this much b-roll takes time! Leave yourself plenty of time, more time than you think, to get everything that you need.

#2 - Maintain the same direction of movement. If you have someone walking down the street in 1 shot, you don’t want them to walk into their house from the opposite direction in the next shot. But if that person is leaving their house, you could have them walk in the opposite direction then, because the audience will assume they are going back where they came from.

Do the same thing with any camera movements. If you have a dolly shot from right to left, don’t dolly from left to right in the next shot. If you don’t maintain consistency in your motion direction, your audience may start to get confused, loose interest, and they may click away.

#3 - Think about structuring your b-roll as a sequence without words. So if I’m going out for a walk, I’ll think about telling the story of that walk without having to talk at all. I’ll show myself pulling the stroller out of the car, I’ll record a shot of my feet as I’m walking, I’ll show my face, a wide shot, and then a shot of me slowing down and sitting at the end of my walk. Remember that you want to try to tell some kind of mini story with your b-roll. 

#4 - Be careful to have very clear, and focused shots. If you have a really wide, establishing shot, your viewer’s eye should still be able to go directly to your subject. You could use depth of field, contrasting colors, lighting, framing, leading lines - these are all ways to make it obvious what we as the audience should be looking at.

#5 - The fifth tip is related to my personal background. I did a lot of work in my career as a documentary filmmaker. When you’re filming a documentary, sometimes it is a more formal setting, such as an interview. And sometimes you are in the position of just recording what is going on around you. So you have to be prepared to think quickly about your shots. So these are some tips to just keep in your back pocket if you find yourself in a situation like that. 

A - Don’t just film at eye level, change perspectives. Get crazy & have fun! Get high & low angles. Record the same object from different perspectives.

B - Add movement to your shots. Not just pan and tilt, but mimic a crane or dolly, move your body or feet with the camera.

C - Create depth. Use the foreground when filming.

D - Scan your surroundings.

Look for smaller details like the sun peeking through the leaves of the tree