When watching a news story, you probably don’t think too much about the B-roll involved but, B-roll has a very powerful part to play in any news story…
What is B-roll?
Often considered a production or video editor’s best friend, B-roll is the section that adds colour to a broadcast segment – not only does B-roll help by filling gaps and setting the scene, but it’s also a great way to make smooth transitions between shots. It acts in the same way images do to a news story.
- B-roll is short clips of footage added into a story to add context
- It helps to demonstrate the PR story through cutaways from A-roll
- If sourced outside of the broadcaster, it is often copyright and cost-free to make your footage and story more appealing than other stories, helping you to clinch that all-important coverage.
Examples of B-roll:
- Pans of the location
- Interviewees entering and leaving the area
- Drone footage
- Employees working at a desk or in the background
- Time lapse of the crew setting up the shot
As implied by its name, B-roll may seem a less important component of a story than its A-roll co-star, however, it has the potential to make a good story great as it acts as the enhancement for the principal shots.
B-roll – Making or breaking broadcast PR
B-roll can be used to add depth and context to the story. For example, when we secured the BBC to film at the RNLI’s ‘Float to Live’ event at Sky Pool, and at Ferne Animal Sanctuary during their urgent appeal, we got front-row seats to watch the BBC collect their footage, which included B-roll.
- The cameraman shot various B-roll clips including demonstrations of Float from the RNLI lifeguards in the pool and general shots of the location, since Float was being demonstrated 115ft up in a glass pool next to the US embassy.
- When the BBC visited Ferne Animal Sanctuary, their B-roll shots included the animals – whether they were eating, having a check-up with the vet or simply enjoying the countryside and their surroundings.
- These B-roll clips helped set the scene of the story, adding context and depth which adds intrigue to the interviews.
B-roll is not redundant after its use in one story either. It is also useful in follow-up media pieces, other relevant stories or stories in the same location, so getting decent footage is priceless. A good bit of B-roll can be the making of many broadcast PR stories!
You’ll need to strike a balance between getting a quality B-roll and enough of it while remembering it doesn’t make up the content, it provides context, padding out the narrative of a story. So, although it is often shot under time pressures, it is important to collect enough of a high standard to make it worth your while and produce a better story.
In many modern newsrooms, resources are being stretched – there are now smaller departments and smaller budgets with more often than not, tight deadlines. However, the demand for strong video content hasn’t gone away. Video is often easier to digest, and with the rise of social media consumers engage much more with well-curated and executed video content. Newsrooms are under pressure to deliver recent and exciting footage while brands are fighting for airtime – enter B-roll, the tool to provide you with a fresh and exciting perspective. As we know, PR is all about making the media’s life as easy as possible, so if you can hand them a perfectly shot piece of footage with a great B-roll they can pop on the news agenda and not have to spend any time editing, you’re onto a winner.
For more advice on what makes a great broadcast story, check out Episode 4 from Season 3 of our podcast, Revitalise & Grow, featuring special guest, former BBC broadcast journalist, Emma Britton.
If you would like help in creating a mega broadcast PR story and getting the best B-roll possible, please get in touch today to discuss how we can help.