Wednesday, September 8, 2004
Neil's Random Video Tip #1: Shoot Lots of B-Roll
Posted by Neil Enns in "THOUGHT" @ 11:00 AM
B-roll is an old TV term that covers all the background footage that you see in news stories while the news announcer is talking about the story. A great example of b-roll footage is at the US Census Bureau’s site. It’s just a bunch of random shots of census-related activities that can be used in news footage.
Why is this useful for home movies? When editing you’ll often find that you need a few seconds of something to fill a gap, or to cover for some goof in a shot. B-roll is the duct tape that can make everything fit together! If you’re on vacation, take a ton of 10-20 second shots of trees, flowers, buildings, cars, people, etc. from different angles at different zooms so you have a host of filler to pick from. My wife and I thought we went overboard when we shot b-roll in Hawaii, and now that we’re editing we’re kicking ourselves for not shooting more!
Why is this useful for home movies? When editing you’ll often find that you need a few seconds of something to fill a gap, or to cover for some goof in a shot. B-roll is the duct tape that can make everything fit together! If you’re on vacation, take a ton of 10-20 second shots of trees, flowers, buildings, cars, people, etc. from different angles at different zooms so you have a host of filler to pick from. My wife and I thought we went overboard when we shot b-roll in Hawaii, and now that we’re editing we’re kicking ourselves for not shooting more!
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