Neil's Random Video Tip #1: Shoot Lots of B-Roll

[Neil Enns]

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 <a href="http://www.census.gov/pubinfo/www/video/videomovs/brollA.html">US Census Bureau’s site</a>. It’s just a bunch of random shots of census-related activities that can be used in news footage.<br /><br />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!

[Kevin & Beth Remhof]

Good tip! I guess we never really think about that when filming. We're big amusement park buffs and take a lot of park footage. The big things we always miss are signs for rides. When transitioning from coaster to coaster, a sign can make all the difference.

I like the idea of getting trees, plans, and other "filler" material. Since you are shooting on the same day, you'll get the same light and overall feel in your B-roll footage.

[Neil Enns]

Coaster signs are a great idea. Let's go everyone, post your ideas on what else would make for good filler footage!

Here are some that we did:

* Feet walking
* Water passing by the side of the boat when we were on a tour
* Pan across the ocean
* Pan across grass
* Sunset/sky/clouds
* Our rental car
* All sorts of shots of the interior of our condo (pictures, food in the fridge, plates, etc) (we did an MTV Cribs style video of where we stayed)
* Road signs
* Words we wrote in the sand and then had wash away

Neil

[mcsouth]

I realize that this tip was meant primarily for digital video, but I see the application for photography in general.

About a year ago, I made a slide show of photos of my then-Cub Scout den, showing all of the activities and events that we had participated in over the years. In a lot of cases, my transitions were a bit rough from one event or activity to another, because I didn't always have this 'filler footage'.

Great tip - keep them coming!