Using Your B-Roll
As stated earlier, B-roll is extremely important when it comes to editing. Extra footage that you shot can serve two purposes:
• B-Roll helps tell the story and adds meaning to the sequence of shots. For instance, if you’re shooting a guitar player who’s talking about his Les Paul, it’s a lot more interesting if you switch to a close-up shot of the instrument so we can see what he’s talking about rather than maintaining a “talking-head” shot of the guitar player. The shot of the guitar would be considered B-roll.
• It provides a means to cover up audio and visual edits by using the “cutaway” technique. Let’s say that the guitar player is discussing how he came to possess his beloved guitar and the dialog went something like this: “It all started when I purchased a, ah (2 second pause), 1970 Chevy convertible to, um, drive to Los Angeles.” In order to make the dialog flow better and keep the story moving, you’d want to edit out the 2 second pause and any “ah’s,” “um’s,” sniffs and coughs. While the dialog suddenly sounds better, you’re left with a picture that’s full of jump cuts, which look pretty bad and unprofessional. If you plug in some B-roll of a Chevy convertible over the edits, you maintain the smooth dialog and eliminate the jump cuts.
Don’t treat your B-roll as some secondary footage that’s not pertinent to the story. Not only can it save some of your edits, the more B-roll you use, the more interesting your cut will become.
These tips only scratch the surface of a very deep subject. For more detail, check out The Musician’s Video Handbook.
BOBBY OWSINSKI is the author of 18 books on recording, music, the music business and social media, including The Musician’s Video Handbook. He also co-produced the Desert Island Music and Guitar Universe television shows. You can read excerpts from his books at http://bobbyowsinski.com and follow his popular production blog at http://bobbyowsinski.blogspot.com and music business blog at http://music3point0.blogspot.com.
