- So you've got your drone.
You've got your gimbal.
You've shot some awesome looking B roll,
but how do you edit that into your projects?
In this video, we're gonna go through
how you take your B roll and add it,
mix it, combine it with your A roll
to be able to make better videos.
All right, guys, let's get into it.
So B roll is essentially all the extra stuff that you add
onto your A roll.
And if you haven't seen my breakdown of what A roll
versus B roll is,
I'll put a link down below in the description to a video
that explains the beginnings of what B roll is.
So once you've finished shooting your B roll,
you want to incorporate into your projects in a way where it
makes sense for the viewer.
You don't just want to randomly cut to some cool B roll that
you shot when you're doing a video that has nothing to do
with that B roll.
So I'm gonna go through two projects in this video.
The first we're gonna do a simple tutorial and I'll show
you just the basics of how you layer
on B roll onto your timeline.
And then we'll talk through a little bit of a story driven
piece to show you how you can use some more
of that fancy looking B roll,
the really fun stuff into a story driven project as well.
So let's jump into Final Cut.
You don't have to use Final Cut,
but that's what I use for all of my editing.
And I'm just gonna show you how this B roll
works with your A roll.
So this is a project that I did on the Rode Wireless Go.
I did 10 creative uses on how you can use this
and 10 reasons why you would get the Rode Wireless Go.
So when I shot this,
I shot a ton of different footage.
And you can see down here on the timeline,
this is my completed project,
and I'll walk you through kind of all the different layers
and how they work and interact with each other.
But first, before you even get into the cutting process,
you really want to organize your footage in a logical way
That makes it easy to find what you need.
So up here in my project,
I have different folders based on the different components
of footage that I have.
So I have all of my A roll.
And when you look at my A roll,
this is my talking head bits.
This is where I'm explaining what's going on.
So this right here is A roll.
So this would be in this A roll folder.
Now underneath the A roll, I also have B roll.
This is all the footage that is like we were saying,
the fun stuff.
So you could see,
these are like the swoop pins of the Rode Wireless Go.
I have some just different shots showing the functionality.
I have it on a camera showing how it's connected.
And because I'm doing a video about 10 creative uses,
I'm gonna have B roll for each of those creative uses.
And that's one thing, when you're shooting your B roll,
you need to think through what is your A roll talking about?
So if you're doing a review, if you're doing a tutorial,
think through all of the components that are gonna be in
that reviewer tutorial, and then what is footage
that's gonna show what you're talking about,
because here we're talking about
what it is that we're doing.
But if I was talking about, say, you know,
a Sigma 85 millimeter lens, which I have right here,
I would then go shoot B roll of the Sigma 80 millimeter lens
to be using in the section
where I'm talking about this lens.
So underneath that,
I have my graphics and I used a bunch of different graphics
in this video.
So I showed the different accessories that come with it.
I showed the two different colors of the Rode Wireless Go.
And then I have this motion graphic from Pixel Film Studios,
which I'm gonna use to number each of my creative uses.
I also have a folder for music.
These are all the different music tracks that I might be
using in this project and then sound effects.
And there are some sound effects that I used.
So you always want to organize first,
whether you have 10 cameras or you have one camera,
you still want to organize based on A roll versus B roll.
And then after we get through this example,
I want to show you a story driven piece,
and you'll see that I layer things beyond this.
I do B roll, but then I break it down by camera.
And if I do a multiple day shoot,
so say I'm doing two weeks where I'm climbing in Ecuador,
it's a project I'm working on, but I break it down by day.
And I also break it down by location.
So you can really use your organization to help you find
where everything is.
And it makes the whole editing process easier.
I'm gonna pause the video right here.
And I want to talk about today's sponsor,
which is Pixel Film studios.
And Pixel Film Studios has launched the PFS app,
which is a brand new desktop application.
And on this app,
you get a ton of free Final Cut Pro tutorials
so that you can really learn everything
that you need to know about Final Cut Pro.
Now what's also cool on this app is there
is a ton of discounts.
So you can take advantage of the daily sales or earn points
with every purchase so that you can use them towards money
off of future plugins.
Now what's also really cool is that Pixel Film Studios also
gives away a bunch of free plugins.
So if you go into the free product section,
you'll see there's a bunch of plugins
that you can download right now.
Now, if you already have Pixel Film Studios plugins,
then there's a bunch of tools here to be able to update
them, to download them, to see all of your products.
So they give you all the tools you need to
work with Pixel Film Studios.
So guys, if you head down to the description,
I'll put a link to where you can download
this app for your computer.
It's completely free and you can start browsing around
and seeing what kind of sales are going on.
And just add this as a tool into your workflow.
to make your editing and plugin use that much easier.
So the first step of my process is
I just lay all my A roll down on the timeline.
So as you can see here,
I am talking directly to the Rode Wireless Go.
It's not the best A roll
because I'm not looking directly at camera.
This is because I'm anticipating using B roll
over this section.
But what I want to do first is just get my A roll down.
So the story, the main aspects of the piece,
and if there's sections where I know I'm gonna layer
on B roll and music and things like that,
you could see right here, I have this darkened area.
So this is just a clip that I've turned off.
You click V and it turns off in Final Cut.
And I know that that section is gonna be an area where I
have B roll and music.
So I basically build this structure of my
A roll with these holes where I'm gonna fill in B roll,
music and everything else.
Now the next step in the process is add on your B roll.
So I have the shot of the Rode Wireless Go sitting there.
And I have another one where I want to add some text to the
left hand side.
And so in your editing software,
no matter what editing software you're using,
you just put your B role above you, A roll.
The way that editing softwares work is it's layered.
So anything that goes above the layer below
is going to take over the screen.
And so that's how you edit your B roll onto your A roll.
You just put it right above it.
You don't have to take out the A roll or anything like that,
just put it above it in your timeline,
and then you want to mute it unless you need the audio from
your B roll, but most of the time, if you're adding B roll,
it's just the visual component.
So you want to add the visuals on top of your A roll.
Think of like an arrow coming down this way.
Anything that arrow hits it's gonna see.
So here we have this A roll of me and then boom,
there's the B roll above my A roll.
You could still see the A roll underneath,
and that's what I'm using for the audio,
but the B roll because it's on top of it is gonna take
over the screen and become the main visuals that you see.
And when I cut back away from my B roll,
you go into the arrow, go back in, there's more B roll.
So on the simplest level,
you're basically just layering footage on top of each other.
Your A roll's gonna be on the very bottom.
And then you add your B roll components on top of that.
So here's my final intro sequence that I created
for this video.
And you can see I've added a lot more than just
these two B roll shots.
I have my A roll here.
I have these effects, which is a zoom in.
So it slowly zooms in, as I'm talking,
this is just a creative hack for Final Cut Pro users.
Instead of having to go in and key frame,
you can use this plugin and I'll link it down below in
the description that just allows you to throw it on
and does a quick zoom.
It actually makes it a lot easier to zoom in and out.
And then I've added a sound effect.
I've added music, and the way that music works,
you're gonna layer it underneath.
But instead of taking over the audio,
music just combines together.
So when you layer music and sound effects underneath your
A roll, essentially you're now blending
all of those together.
So you'd have your A roll audio.
Then you have your sound effects,
and then you have the music and they all blend together
rather than one taking over the other.
The visuals will take over each other.
Anything that's on top is gonna be on top of whatever's
underneath it, whereas with audio,
anything that's underneath is just gonna blend together
and become all in the same audio track.
So I have my swoop into the Rode Wireless Go,
I do another one of these zooms.
You could see that right here.
And because it's on top of my footage,
it's gonna affect anything underneath.
And then I had this other shot where I wanted to add text on
the left hand side.
So to do this, I just worked in layers.
So I started with my footage
and then I added these two bars.
So I have a black bar and a white bar.
And you could see because these are only the size that
they're only affecting this part of the image.
So they're layered on top of this B roll.
And they're only a section of that B roll,
but because they're on top,
they now look like they're all part of the same image.
You're basically combining layers.
So I did a white and a black,
and I changed my opacity of these.
So they're not a hundred percent and you can use your
opacity in any editing software and you can make it stronger
or less, and I use 70%.
So you could see a little bit of the background,
basically you're layering from the top to the bottom.
And if something is not completely solid,
you're gonna see what's underneath it.
You could see a little bit of background there.
And then on top of these two layers, I now added text.
And then I did a Chevron transition to give you that swipe.
So you get this effect of the bar swiping in
and the text coming down.
The text is another Pixel Film Studios
plugin that I used to bring the text into the frame.
And I'll link down below in the description to all of these
Pixel Film Studio plugins that I use when I do my editing.
So by using this layering process,
you can build B roll on top of your A roll,
but you can also build additional components on top of that.
And this is where your creative can run wild because you can
layer footage on top of footage.
You could layer graphics on top of your footage,
but this whole process of just learning
how to layer all your footage on top of each other,
gives you the creative freedom to play with different looks
and create graphics and, you know,
layer footage on top of footage.
There's just a lot of ways that you'll end up using this as
you're going through the editing process.
Oh yeah.
We have a little guest
that's gonna help edit some B roll with us.
Okay, so let's pull up a story-driven piece.
This is just a vlog that I did recently.
I did a whole video that breaks down
how does tell a story when vlogging,
and I just want to take this a step further and show you how
to edit some of the B roll
in one of these story driven pieces.
Do you like vlogs?
Are you gonna be a little vlogger?
Alright.
Oh, she wants to play with my windscreen.
So let's just go into the organization first and you can see
in this vlog, I broke it down by camera.
So I have my ZV1,
I have my voiceover, I have my phone, I have my music,
my full frame and my Mavic Air 2.
So I'm using a bunch of different cameras and then I'm also
using voiceover and some music.
So I wanted to put all those in different folders to make it
really easy to edit, always do the organization first.
Don't you think so?
Yeah.
So even with the story driven piece,
I go through the same process.
I lay down all my A roll and then I leave gaps where I want
to do B roll sequences.
Then I have some more A roll.
And then I leave a gap.
And the whole idea is that I want to cut the A roll first.
I really want to get the story down before I start getting
into the fun, sexy B roll footage filming.
You want to see something kind of cool.
She's got monkeys on her toes.
So once the A roll is laid down,
then I go through and add in the B roll sequences
that transition between the A roll sections.
And then I also add in the B roll that goes over
the A roll when I'm talking.
So right here,
you could see this is that A roll clip that we were just
looking at and all of this footage around it, before it,
above it and below it is all the B roll
and music that I use.
So because I'm going from one scene to another,
I'm gonna be using B roll to transition.
So I don't need to layer this over any arrow because I'm not
talking, it's a music section.
And if you're doing like a transition or you just want to
have a sequence of B roll,
this is a great opportunity to lay down some music and cut
to the beat of the music or cut in a way
that moves the story forward.
And you use music instead of talking and voice and all of
that to go from one scene to the next.
But you can see-
So I'm gonna fade in the music slowly,
and I'm also gonna use some B roll,
and you can see that up here to transition out of this
footage, to go to the next scene.
You can see Butler peak off in the distance,
and it's a ways out there.
(mellow music)
I've just been, climbing-
Okay, she's leaving.
Say, bye.
Hi Jaylen.
So B roll becomes a great tool to transition from one scene
to the next.
Now you would also use B roll in a story driven piece to
show what you're talking about,
because you don't always want to just have you on camera
talking through whatever it is that you're doing.
You do want to actually show,
visual storytelling is a big thing.
This is a visual medium.
So use that to your advantage.
So I'm talking about the trail conditions.
That's why there's sections that are washed out.
So this is a good opportunity to show the trail.
So I cut in this B roll first as a shot of just the sand
that I'm riding over.
Then it's a shot of these washed out sections of the trail.
And third is a shot of me actually going through
and carrying my bike through this washed out section.
All things that I was talking about in that A roll.
And then I visually show it so that you get more of this
experience of what it's actually like to go on the journey.
This trail is interesting.
It's like a mix of sand and rock,
and a bunch of areas are washed out.
So you have to carry your bike here and there.
Man it is a climb.
There's not a whole lot of shade.
So it's just.
So there's my three B roll shots that I used.
And again, I use the zoom out plugin.
That's just a quick, easy way to make a zoom out.
It gives motion to footage that's stable.
When I'm shooting myself,
a lot of the times I'm setting a camera on a tripod.
So I use the zoom in and zoom outs to give you
that sense of motion.
Now, you're also gonna see this base grade.
So a base grade is essentially if I want to create color
grading, which I'll dive deeper into another video,
but you can create adjustment layers,
whether you're in Final Cut Premiere,
anything and anything below that is gonna be affected by
the color grade.
So as you can see,
this color grade is affecting my A roll down here,
but it's not affecting these three B roll shots.
And let me just show you one more B roll section.
So again, when you do your B roll,
if you're doing B roll with music only,
then I suggest bringing the music up.
And if you're doing music underneath your A roll,
you definitely want to bring it down because you don't want
to have music competing with your audio.
If you have voiceover or you have A roll of you talking on
camera and you have super loud music,
then people aren't gonna be able to hear what's going on.
So you want to bring down your music for the roll,
bring it up for the B roll and a good way to use music with
B roll is cut to the beat.
So whether it's a four count, an eight count,
find those moments in the music where the music changes,
the beat changes,
and that's a great opportunity to make a cut.
And it's gonna become more impactful when you cut to the
beat of the music.
The whole way up, I think I'm about halfway.
(mellow music)
So the train has been kind of just winding through
this valley and it just hopped out.
And then when the B roll's section is done,
have your music fade out, have the music drop in some way.
If you do a hard cut with your music,
that's a good way to just jolt someone
out of the B roll scene.
You just got to be creative and figure out what works best
for the content that you're creating.
So guys, if you want to learn more about
how to incorporate into your videos,
I have a whole playlist,
I'll link it down below in the description,
how to shoot B roll.
What is B roll some B roll ideas,
because a lot of the shots that you're seeing,
I've broken down into different videos that explain like how
to actually get some of these shots.
And my goal with these videos is to help you guys make
better videos and tell better stories,
whether you are doing reviews and tutorials,
or you're doing story-driven vlogs or documentary style
pieces, B roll is a huge component.
And I think there's a lot of ways that you can incorporate
your B roll into your videos to make your video stand out,
to make you stand out so that you get more views,
subscribers, all the things that you know,
we all want on the platform.
And guys, if you want to learn more
about how to tell a story,
I did an entire masterclass for free here on YouTube.
It's an hour long video that goes through how to craft
a story in the context of a vlog.
And I'll link that down below in the description as well.
And guys I'll link to the playlist here that goes through
everything about B roll.
And I highly suggest you dig through all of these videos,
because there's a ton of information that's gonna help
you on your journey.
All right, guys, I'll see you in the next video.