Auto Focus
A podcast by the PodcastVideos.com team focused on gear reviews, studio equipment setups, and lessons and experiences from building an audio and video content creator business.
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B-Roll: Elevating Your Video Game
The difference between amateur-looking videos and professional productions often comes down to one simple technique: B-roll. This game-changing approach to visual storytelling forms the centerpiece of our fascinating conversation with in-house experts Sam Lewandowski and Coco Vasquez, who break down this essential production element in accessible, practical terms.
B-roll—the supplementary footage that plays while your original audio continues—transforms ordinary videos into compelling visual narratives. As Sam explains, there's a simple rule to follow: "If you say cow, you want to see a cow." This straightforward philosophy helps creators determine exactly what supplementary footage to include, making your content more engaging and easier to understand.
Our experts share critical insights gained from real production experience, including the golden rule of always capturing three times more B-roll than you think you'll need. Coco, who learned video production on the job, reveals how her perspective on both creating and consuming media completely changed once she understood the strategic power of B-roll. From hiding editing cuts to completely altering the tone of your message, properly implemented B-roll can make or break your visual storytelling.
The conversation also explores practical aspects of B-roll editing, with accessible recommendations for beginners using free software like DaVinci Resolve and CapCut. You'll learn technical tricks like transitioning to B-roll mid-word for smoother cuts and strategic placement considerations that ensure your visuals enhance rather than contradict your message. Whether you're creating content for social media, producing professional videos, or simply want to understand media production better, this episode provides valuable techniques you can implement immediately.
Ready to elevate your video content with professional-looking production techniques? Listen now to transform how you create and view visual media. Then try incorporating these B-roll strategies in your next project—we'd love to hear how it changes your approach to visual storytelling!
Welcome back everybody. This is Autofocus. I'm Dan Craft. You know Brooke Galligan over there, and today we've brought in a couple of in-house experts and we're going to talk B-roll.
Speaker 3:Broll.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, is that the technical term?
Speaker 3:It's the technical term if you don't know, broll. Broll. Yeah, I got, yeah, I gotta roll the r, so why don't you guys introduce yourselves? So, sam, my name is sam lewandowski and I am the customer success specialist here.
Speaker 2:podcastvideoscom my name is coco um. My legal name is nicole vasquez. Oh you tell people, that's yeah um and I work at the front desk, but I also do a lot of her advertising and a lot of marketing.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's great, your legal name. You know how many takes we had to do on one of the first episodes Because I wasn't sure what to call Brooke.
Speaker 4:I know the woman of many, many titles. My legal name is four names, oh, we won't mention that live. Eleven vowels.
Speaker 1:Eleven vowels.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, forget the vowels, we're talking about B.
Speaker 4:B-roll. We're back to the.
Speaker 1:B-roll B is for B-roll Guys. This is your forte, guys and girls. I am basically here to moderate and smile and nod because I come from a newspaper background. We didn't do a whole lot of video, but obviously we figured out a few things about shooting video. But sometimes you don't want to look at us, me. Let's talk about how you can splice other video into your show within the editing process, even ahead of time, because that is called B-roll.
Speaker 3:B-roll. Yeah, I think the benefit of B-roll is it can enhance any video that you normally have. So, first off, a lot of people, I don't think, understand what B-roll even is. They're like what? Especially if you don't have a technical background and so in a technical sense your A-roll is your main video. So what you're watching right now that would be considered A-roll. It's on the main track and then B-roll is just the secondary track, it's the stuff that goes over the main stuff. There's a saying that's like when you're placing B-roll, it's like if you say cow, you want to see a cow, and so that's kind of like a good thought process to think about when you're like well, what even is B-roll? What do I put?
Speaker 1:You put what you're talking about, you put what's relevant, and that just helps give the audience and the listeners a little bit better of an understanding of what you're speaking on I think the easiest thing I've seen that that relates to this is when you're watching the five o'clock news and yes, we're going a little old school here you will see the reporter standing there. They will have a mic in their hand, they will be talking and then they'll keep talking but suddenly they will cut to the plane, crash, the traffic jam, and then we're showing those pictures.
Speaker 4:That's the b-roll that's been shot separately yeah, but you actually hear the person talking, so in the actual file. Like both of those files live together, like like the a-roll and the b-roll, so like that's why it's called a-roll, b-roll so replacing the video, yeah, like so what. What the people see once it's exported is just it looks like just one big thing, but there's actually like layers to it.
Speaker 1:Sure, okay, obviously we're not, you know, hiding a camera out there and just hitting a button that says go to B-roll, Go to B-roll. How do you get it? How do you get it in?
Speaker 2:I will say I had no experience in video, in videography, before this.
Speaker 2:So props all to sam, which is like round round class she taught us everything as we were there, um like on set, on how to do b-roll. The first set of b-roll clips that we had because I'm so used to like social media and it's just like a boom one, two, boom one, two, boom one, two is. I mean, it's just clips of everything and really you only stay like like two seconds, two seconds, three seconds. So I didn't know that you had to like pan, or I didn't know that you could like have something in the foreground to like make it more interesting what is the what's the most helpful thing that you learned?
Speaker 2:yeah, probably that. And immediately after I started doing it for one of my friends, cc, um, they had like a video shoot and like all the dancers were dancing, they had like the, the big stand for the, for the lights. So I had that. It made it look so much more interesting because it made them look like they were in that environment. Yeah, yeah, so props to you.
Speaker 1:Thank you. It's more like adding another short video in than a snapshot. Yeah, you can use graphics or other still shots for B-roll. Traditionally it is a separate video clip.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Longer than a few seconds.
Speaker 4:And you want to make the clip longer than the what you're going to use it for. So, yeah, that's why. Why it's like you do, like you know six to 10 seconds, even though you know you're only going to use like two or three.
Speaker 3:I think the biggest roadblock or fail that happens when someone tries to tackle B-roll is you never. You never have enough.
Speaker 2:You never like, there's never enough I just shot so much.
Speaker 3:And then you sit down to put it together and you're like I need three times whatever I just shot. So a good rule of thumb is always, always, always, shoot like three times more than what you think and, to brooke's point, three times as long of a clip as what you think, because you're shooting it and you're like that'll be great. And then you get sit down and you're like, oh, this should have been like five seconds longer.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah and also because, like you know, you're like, oh, this should have been like five seconds longer, yeah yeah. And also because, like you know, you think like, oh, that'll be three seconds, but when it like comes up in the screen and then it goes away, like it's not like your eye, like you need to give enough time for the viewer's eye to adjust, see what it is, recognize what it is, and then you can move on to the next thing. And so you want to make sure that, like you, you, you can't.
Speaker 2:There's no such thing as too much b-roll and what and what I've noticed like while editing is that you also need to give your hands like a chance to to like stabilize themselves for like, for some reason, like those two to three seconds in the very beginning, it's like your hands are like okay, all right, and shooting now especially if you're filming on a phone.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like that. You know you got to press the button, so you usually shake the camera and then your hand gets back set and so, yeah, whatever you start with and it happens to get at the end because you have to go back to push the button again.
Speaker 4:So you like put it down slightly or you move it up slightly yeah, okay, here's an editing question.
Speaker 1:obviously you shoot more b-roll. You can always trim it down, right? So rather than try to, in the editing process, edit the audio to match the length of the clip, you take the audio you've got let's say it's a 12-second report and then you take your B-roll and trim it to 12 seconds. You don't start with the video and then match the audio in. You keep the audio underlying and then lay the video in as needed.
Speaker 4:Yes, yeah, that's why the audio is the A-roll, so you're telling the story like the story. The audio version comes first and then you tell the story with more visuals.
Speaker 3:The whole point of B-roll is to enhance the video that you currently have. Any video without B-roll could be its own video and live on its own, but it'd be a lot better if you added some B-roll.
Speaker 1:How complex does it make the editing process compared to straight A-roll editing?
Speaker 3:I think that really comes down to what you're editing in. A lot of free, simple tools online. Well, I go back and forth. I think it depends on what tool you use to edit on. There's a lot of tools online for free, like Found DaVinci, which is a really great substitute for Premiere Pro if you don't have the budget to get the Adobe subscription, and that's a timeline-based editing tool, so it has that multi-layer tracks that you can put in your A-roll, your B-roll, your C-roll, your D-roll, whatever you want. It can get stickos, can put in um your a roll, your b roll, your c roll, your d roll, whatever you want. You know you can go a lot, um, and even like phone-based editing apps. I think cap cut has the same capabilities, right? So, um, it's super, it's not really complex. Um, if you're used to timeline-based editing tools, then you'll be able to quickly drag and drop. Uh, it could be a limitation of the tool, though if they don't have that capability. Okay, yeah.
Speaker 4:So, coco, when you since you were new to this what did you learn the most when you sat in there? What was the easiest to use?
Speaker 2:DaVinci CapCut I will say CapCut is fairly easy, but Da Vinci, you can make it as easy as you need it to, and that's why I found it really helpful. There's some limitations with iMovie or what's the other one that Apple has Final Cut, final Cut, there's a free version of Final Cut? No, but I paid for it but even that one kind of has a hurdle. You have to learn a lot more than I feel like you do on DaVinci.
Speaker 1:And there's simpler versions of B-roll where you just have one segment within your show that has an overlay. That's one add-in. If you're going to splice in multiple cuts from multiple cameras from multiple times are looking at a a more complex process to get them all layered incorrectly yes, yeah, it definitely adds a step to your point.
Speaker 3:I mean you, could you cut the story together, and if that's all you want to do, then you're done. The second step would be now. I got to go back through it and place my b-roll so that I know what I'm going to show, do any kind of special effects or add text or anything like that.
Speaker 4:That's when you start getting into the other layers.
Speaker 1:So with the B-roll generally, you're going to lay out, call it your A-roll, your audio, your video track. You're going to see everything through and then you're just going to go back and put the B-roll where you want it, Just cover up the original video side, keep the audio. But it's late in the step. You've got to get the big show put together first and then go in and patch.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:When I was doing documentaries, I would do it in sections, and so I would be like, okay, I'm going to put together this section, but I would put all the interviews together and I would splice all that together and then I would put the B-roll on it. And then I would have to go back and reshoot because I never got enough B-roll, and so then I would leave holes, knowing like, okay, now that I've seen the story, now I know exactly what B-roll I need to go get. But you want to try to get as much of it as possible. But that was a more long form, and so you just kind of break it up into section, into section. But for the short form, yeah, you basically just lay your audio out and then you just plop the video on top we've talked about b-roll pretty much entirely in a video sense.
Speaker 1:But you can b-roll an audio clip into things too correct. You can drop a separate audio clip in. That wasn't out of your able, that was right separately.
Speaker 4:It's like bringing in an interview yeah, and like having background music or something. Sure, background music not sounds. So if you see a cow, if you're talking about a cow, then you see a cow.
Speaker 2:You can also hear a cow, that's true yeah, I will say back to your, your documentary thing, something that I that I learned because, sam, thank you sam again. I'm gonna just keep on saying that was whenever I first started. I would do like, okay, people talking, b-roll people talking, b-roll people talking, b-roll, b-roll people talking. And it looks very for me. I was like, okay, yeah, that's, that's fine, but it looks kind of choppy if it's like not b-roll, b-roll, b-roll people talking, if that makes sense and a lot of people use b roll to like hide different things or um, yeah, like hiding jump cuts is a is a big reason to use b roll, especially in a social media sense.
Speaker 3:Yes, you know you gotta make it quick, engaging fast. You can't get around those quick cuts. But if you put a video over it, then people don't even know that you cut it together.
Speaker 1:It's a little less jarring yeah, speaking of the transitions, are there any tricks to fade in, fade out to a cut, to b-roll to to make it smoother than I'm talking? I'm talking, I'm talking, you don't see me anymore. Are there? Are there any fades or? Or audio or?
Speaker 2:I don't I don't know if this is I don't know if this is correct, but this, this is what I do Usually, like let's say, for example, I'm talking and then I go, and then I will put the B roll, kind of like in the middle of the word I don't know if that's actually correct. No, yeah, yeah. So then it's a continuous word and then it feels more smoother Then it going Like a hard pause jump.
Speaker 3:yes, yeah, okay no, and that's a good point, is like placing the b-roll seems simple in thought and it can be, but it's also super strategic, and how you do it and how the listener hears it, um, it's also subjective, you know. You might think, oh, I don't see anything wrong with it, and another person can go oh my gosh, I can't believe you put that b-roll clip there.
Speaker 4:It's all about just like. As long as like, it makes sense to be there. You know, it doesn't. You know, if they're saying the word, then that's when the B-roll should appear. They shouldn't like, you shouldn't talk about a cow and then show a cow like right afterwards.
Speaker 3:Right. I think it's also important that, like B-roll can change. You see, this in reality shows all the time can change. You see, this in reality shows all the time you can totally change the story. You could be saying one thing and with no B-roll you're like, yeah, that means this, and then you know you say something else and you place certain B-roll over it and it can change the meeting. A good example is like we had a client that was speaking about you know how he came from like a lesser situation. He like worked really hard to come into his money and he was super humble and we had mistakenly just in our editing process put like a video of him in a really nice suit with like a Rolex watch and it was like that just makes him sound super, not yeah.
Speaker 1:It's not relatable. Yeah, that's not humble at all, so B-roll can add irony.
Speaker 3:Yes, okay.
Speaker 1:Intentionally or otherwise.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So you have to be careful about, like, what you're placing where and how that maybe changes the message or the tone. For sure, yeah, cool guys. What else about?
Speaker 4:bro, do we need to know? Koko, you're the one that's done this. Uh, you, you're the newest to it. What is your, what was your experience then, when you, and as you, as you, venture into video editing?
Speaker 2:I, I think it changed everything like, uh, rightfully so. Um, now I I see like the necessity for it and the necessity for it for, like, even my friends so a lot of my friends are artists or dancers, or I mean, the dancers are artists as well. But, um, like, whenever they have event, I'm like, oh, if you need anybody to take videos, like a, and I know how to do it properly now, or I know how to make it a little bit more engaging.
Speaker 3:Yeah, make it a little bit more engaging, yeah.
Speaker 1:There's the idea that experience will tell you, when you're out throwing a role together, to know I need more of this. I need B role? Well, I'm here because you can't go back and get it later. Need b-roll? Well, I'm here because you can't go back and get it later. Uh, eventually you you kind of can, especially if you know what your topic is and how it's trending you can decide that you need a shot of your car driving by the cows in the field because you know you're going to I almost said talk to a cow, talk about a cow. Boom, there's your b-roll. You don't have to interview the cow, you just need a picture of them. You're moving. There's a little more to it than just, oh, look a cow. They're not that animated.
Speaker 4:They're not, and we really talk a lot about cows in this one. We do not have a cow podcast, and we're not trying to promote cows. But one thing I wanted to mention, though, is, uh, when I started doing video editing, uh, when I, every time I watch tv, now like I watch it with a different sense because, like you're like, you're like, oh, I know how they put that together. Do you guys do that now? Have you, have you ever watched tv?
Speaker 2:and you're like, oh, I know, like I know how, the, how they I don't think I do that for tv, but I do that for like socials. Like whenever I I scroll on social media, I go oh, wow, wow, like I see how they took that shot, especially now, like because I'm looking more into lighting and stuff this is a completely different conversation but I'm like, oh, wow, I see how like they did a key light on that part and they have background lights on here and like where they positioned things in their shots.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, it is like that when you're watching completely ruined.
Speaker 1:Your enjoyment of media hasn't it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but it's like you see a tv show and you see like somebody, like they. They show the front of like a like an apartment, and then you walk into the apartment and it's like giant and you're like that is not what that apartment looks like inside. There's no way. It's epic. I have to watch tv with you yeah yeah, no, it's.
Speaker 3:It's like. All of my friends are like, how do you even enjoy movies anymore? Because I'm like, oh, no that, but you know, like whatever little thing, you're just like.
Speaker 4:That's not realistic.
Speaker 3:I'll never see it, that's I won't watch trailers for that reason really, because I'm like I will kind of kind of how you see media on social media differently. I'm like, oh, I can see how they're going to cut this together to hide the story in a strategic way. So it's still not a spoiler or like I know what they, what I would put in there to make it sound engaging and what's probably a big plot point.
Speaker 4:So I don't watch them for movies I like I know and you're like, and that's all the action in the movie. Yeah, and that's it those are the three jokes in the explosion, that's all you've seen the movie yep, so use b-roll, that's kind of my ending point yeah, and apparently go hang out with cows more yeah, we like cows. And then, yeah, b-roll, it makes everything better. There you go it does guys?
Speaker 1:I'm sure we'll revisit this topic at some point, or maybe we'll go right into everything else coco mentioned, since we do have them trapped. Yeah, but for now that is this episode of autofocus. Thanks for being here see ya thanks.