You may have noticed there are a lot of talking heads on YouTube.
And as much as I love looking at my beautiful face—
Wow.
It can often be much more engaging to cut to something else.
Hi, I'm Craig Benzine. I have a YouTube channel called Wheezy Waiter
that's kind of a vlog/comedy/documentary channel
and along with my clones
I've been doing that since pretty much the beginning of this website.
Get out of here, clone! You're ruining it!
- This is my big break. - Sorry.
Anyway, in my videos, I try to make good use of B-roll.
What's B-roll, Craig?
That, right there. That actually is an example of B-roll.
B-roll is supplemental or alternative footage intercut with the main shot.
So if this were the main shot, this would be B-roll.
It's a bee rolling, you get it, it's funny, ha.
Basically, it's any text, images, or video
slapped on top of the main action of the video.
Why use B-roll, Craig?
It really depends on the kind of video you're making
whether or not you want to use B-roll.
Like, if I want to have a deep, intimate, emotional conversation about my beard
then I probably don't want to cut away to anything else.
But in a lot of situations, B-roll can be helpful.
Here's a list of ways.
1: It illustrates what you're saying.
This is really helpful in educational videos that use graphs and charts and such
Like, looking at this chart, I personally could not believe
that
But it can also be helpful in explaining the look of anything.
Like if I were trying to explain to you what an alpaca looks like
I could say, "like a camel but with bangs for days"
or I could just show you this.
It's also really helpful if you're doing a how-to video
like if I were showing you my new shoe-tying hack that I recently discovered.
I don't even need to explain it. You get it.
And it's really useful, you guys.
2: It breaks up the monotony.
Pretty simple.
It can get pretty boring just watching some dude jump-cutting all around a room.
Video is a visual medium.
Why not give people something better to look at?
Like, look at that. Ooh. Pretty.
3: It hides jump cuts.
Now, I know jump cuts are pretty much the standard style of vlog.
But believe it or not, there are people out there who don't like them.
I can't imagine why.
Throwing B-roll over your words makes them sound like 1 continuous statement.
Observe:
I can't imagine why.
I've been doing a lot of interviews lately on my channel
and when you do an interview
there's a lot of ums and ahs and awkward pauses
or you want to change the order of what they're saying
you just slap it all together and you throw B-roll over it
and it works beautifully. Observe:
Ah yes, good question. Thank you for asking.
B-roll is um, super useful because it uh —what does it—it avoids um, jump cuts.
I believe that's what they're called. Yeah.
Then cut it up.
B-roll is super useful because it avoids jump cuts.
Then put B-roll on it.
B-roll is super useful because it avoids jump cuts.
Documentary.
4: It enhances the impact of what you're saying.
Not only does it help explain what you say
but it can also make what you say more powerful.
Like, what if I said that again with B-roll?
It can also make what you say more powerful.
Sound helps as well.
If you want something to feel cute, show something cute.
Or dramatic, show something dramatic.
Or funny, show something funny.
Wait, that's just my face. Wait.
What are you saying, wait, wait, wait.
What about how to use B-roll, Craig?
Well first you need to decide what type of B-roll you want to use.
You can use video, or you can use still images.
You can add motion to still images or simply text as you say the words.
Huzzah, waddup dawg, bing pong boom, hachi machi.
And then you need to go out and find the B-roll that you need
more on that later
and then you need to decide how you want to display it.
Several ways.
1: Cut directly to it while people are saying stuff.
I use that one a lot.
2: Transition to it.
Ooh, whoa, that's a good one, sure.
3: A combo of the main shot and B-roll.
For instance, you could have it up here, in a little box next to your head
or transition it in somehow.
Ow! Okay, clone, I'm sorry I kicked you out of the video.
Could you please slide it in with a gentle hand?
I shouldn't have put a clone in charge of B-roll.
That's too gentle.
Or 4: You could make an entire video just narrating over B-roll.
You don't even have to buy a camera.
You don't even have to wear pants.
Good. Are we good?
Where do we get B-roll, Craig?
Well, you can shoot it yourself, animate it, or go find royalty-free stuff
and you can find that from websites that offer it for free
or sites you can pay.
I pay a website and it's been really helpful.
There's a lot of them out there.
There's Archive.org, Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, Pond5, Videoblocks
Take my videos bro—that's not one of them.
I'm gonna put a list in the doodly-doo.
So let's review. What is B-roll?
Supplemental or alternative footage intercut with the main shot.
Why use B-roll?
It illustrates what you're saying. It breaks up monotony.
It hides jump cuts. It enhances the impact of what you're saying.
How to use B-roll.
Cut directly to it, use fancy-dancy transitions
combo main shot/B-roll, or an entire video of B-roll.
Would that make it A-roll?
Too late now, we're going with it.
Where to get B-roll.
You can shoot it or animate it yourself, or download it from a free or paid site.
There you go. I don't know how to end this.
I'll use B-roll.
For more tips and advice
check out the Creators channel that this very video is on.
And for more of me, you can check out Wheezy Waiter.
Warning, there will be a lot of B-roll over there.