B-Roll in your videos! We all need it!

You are at your client’s location. You are all set up. Lights! Camera! Action! Your client is happy. The shoot goes as planned.

You are coming back. You load your rushes into your NLE. You find that there are some gaps in the story and some moments that your interview footage is weak. But you smile. You take a sip of your coffee/ tea/ water (actually we have a blog post about it, you can check it out), and then you take a look at your b-roll folder. Because you knew beforehand what you were going to do and how. You had planned ahead.
You have already shot inserts, details, external shots, people smiling in the company, people waving a kid that looked at the sign of the company. All these and many more you can think of make up your b-roll, the shots that will help your edit really shine and look more professional and more enjoyable. No matter what you are creating your videos must be entertaining. If you were writing a book you would like it to be a page-turner! Same goes with your videos.

Even if all these are not enough you can use archival footage and stock footage. ArtGrid is our suggestion to go after!

All this extra footage will break up any monotony that might have occurred.

More importantly, you will cover any mistakes or weak spots within your own edit. Clients will be happy, you will be happy, and the audience will be happy. It’s a win-win situation.

So, the ball is in your court! Do you use b-roll in your clients’ work? Do you find it liberating? Do you find the majority artistic? Have you found yourselves shooting b-roll for the sake of the b-roll?