B-Roll
Also known as: B-Reel
What Is B-Roll?
B-roll is footage cut in over the main footage of a film or video, to show what someone is talking about, set the place or cover an edit. The main footage, called the A-roll, is usually an interview, dialogue or narration with its sound, and that sound keeps playing while the B-roll is on screen. Cutting to B-roll while the speaker’s sound carries on is an L cut.
The name is usually traced to A and B roll printing of 16mm film, where shots alternated between two rolls so the splices would not show, and TV news later used it for the silent supporting shots cut in over an interview. The comparison shows the same interview with one cut in it, first on its own and then with a cutaway on the track above.
What Kinds of Shots Count as B-Roll?
Anything that isn’t the main footage can serve as B-roll. The same crew might film it after the interview, a second unit might shoot it on a drama, or an editor can license it from a stock library or pull it from an archive.
| What it shows | Typical use | |
|---|---|---|
| Establishing shot | The outside of a building or a wide view of the location | Opens a scene, as sitcoms do with exteriors filmed away from the soundstage |
| Cutaway | Something else in the scene, such as a name plate or trophies on a shelf | Covers a cut in an interview answer |
| Insert or close-up | A detail such as hands at work or a product in use | Shows the exact thing the speaker describes |
| Reaction shot | The interviewer listening or nodding, often filmed after the interview | Masks edits in news interviews, where it is called a noddy |
| Stock footage | Licensed clips from a library | Places and events the crew couldn't film |
| Archival footage | Older news, film or home video | Historical context |
| Stills, animation and graphics | Photos, charts and animated titles | Facts and figures with no footage to show them |
Why Do Editors Cut to B-Roll?
Editors reach for B-roll when an interview alone can’t carry the piece, either because a cut needs hiding or because viewers need to see what they hear about.
It hides a cut in an answer
Removing a stumble or a long pause from an interview leaves a visible jump cut in the picture. A cutaway hides it. Cutting to another shot for a few seconds also lets an editor keep a strong answer that has a flaw in the middle.
It shows what the speaker describes
When someone talks about a workshop, a product or a place, a shot of that thing explains more than the words can. The International Journalists’ Network advises picking shots that make the speaker’s point visible over generic shots of objects in the room.
It sets the place and breaks up long takes
An establishing shot tells viewers where the story is before anyone speaks. Later in a piece, a few shots of something other than a face break up a long monologue that would otherwise sit on one framing.
How Do You Shoot B-Roll for an Interview?
The easiest B-roll to cut in is footage that matches the interview, filmed while the crew is still on location.
-
Shoot it right after the interview
Documentary and news crews often film B-roll straight after the main interview, at the same location. Note the things the subject mentions while they talk and film those, and, as Videomaker advises, keep the same camera, settings and support so the shots match.
-
Get wide, medium and close shots
Cover each subject from more than one distance so the editor can build a short sequence. News training teaches a five-shot sequence for people at work: tight shots of the hands and then the face, a medium shot, a shot over the shoulder and one from another angle.
-
Hold each shot for about 10 seconds
Journalism courses teach a steady hold of 10 seconds, or 10 to 15 in some, even when the edit only uses five of them. That leaves several seconds to spare in every shot.
Where Does B-Roll Come From, and What Can You Use?
Most productions mix their own footage with clips from elsewhere, and each source comes with conditions that decide where a clip can appear.
A stock clip comes with a license, not ownership
Stock libraries sell the right to use a clip, not the file itself. A royalty-free license is paid once and lets you reuse the clip across projects within its terms, while a rights-managed license is priced for one use, place and period and covers only that.
Ads need releases that news use does not
Editorial use covers news, documentaries and textbooks, while commercial use sells a product or promotes a company. Clips showing recognizable people, buildings, artworks, logos or trademarks need model or property releases for commercial use, and clips marked editorial-only usually lack them.
YouTube wants realistic AI footage of real places labeled
As of October 2026, YouTube asks creators to disclose realistic content made or meaningfully changed with AI. Its own example is a generated clip of a Maui surfer for a travel promotion, while color filters, an extended backdrop or upscaling need no label.
When Should You Use Which Kind of B-Roll?
Start from the job the shot has to do. In a software company’s onboarding video, the founder explains a new feature, and at the words “drag the file onto the canvas” the editor cuts to a screen recording of that exact step.
| Use | Why | |
|---|---|---|
| A cut in an interview answer shows as a jump | A cutaway or reaction shot over the cut | Viewers never see the speaker jump between two takes |
| The speaker describes a product, place or task | An insert of that exact thing | Viewers see the detail the speaker points to, such as a button or a tool |
| A new scene or location starts | An establishing shot | It marks the move to a new place without a line of dialogue |
| One person talks for a long stretch | Shots of them doing the work they describe | The shots back up what they say with what they do |
| You have no footage of the subject | Stock or archival clips licensed for your use | An ad needs commercial rights and releases, while news can use editorial clips |
| The shot you need was never filmed | AI-generated footage, labeled where required | It fills a gap that filming cannot, and the label keeps viewers from taking it for real footage |
How B-Roll Works in CE.SDK
B-roll goes on the same timeline tracks as everything else your users edit in a CE.SDK video. Which step matters depends on whether they are setting up the interview, cutting shots in over it or looking for shots to use.
Keep the speaker on the background track
When users edit an interview, a presenter or a voice-over video, that footage belongs on the background track. The background track sets the video’s length and its clips play one after another, so the speaker’s footage defines the timeline that every cutaway is placed against. Cutaways on overlay tracks leave that length alone.
Cut the B-roll in as an overlay
When a shot should cover part of the speaker’s clip, your users add it and choose Set as Overlay from the clip’s menu on web, or move it to an overlay from the inspector bar on iOS and Android. Overlay clips sit freely in time, so the shot can be lined up over the cut and trimmed to length. Muting it, or turning its volume down, keeps the speaker’s voice in front.
Give users B-roll to cut in
When users don’t film their own footage, connect a stock video provider through a custom asset source, so its clips appear in the editor under the license you hold with that provider. Template clips can be placeholders that users replace with their own footage. On web, a missing shot can be generated from a prompt with AI text to video and the model you choose, then labeled where a platform requires it.
FAQs
A-roll is the primary footage, the part that carries the story and its sound, such as a person speaking or a scene with dialogue. B-roll is everything cut in over it or between it, from establishing shots to stock clips. You hear the term A-roll less often than you used to, though journalism guides and editing tutorials still pair the two.
Editors cutting 16mm film split the camera negative across two rolls in a checkerboard pattern, so shots alternated between them and opaque black leader filled one roll wherever the other carried picture. The lab printed roll A onto fresh stock, rewound and printed roll B onto the same stock, which put every splice on black where it could not show. TV news stations, until about the mid-1970s, ran the interview and the silent supporting shots from two projectors and switched between them.
Usually very little. Editors tend to drop a B-roll clip's own sound or keep it very low under the interview, a voice-over or music. Some pieces run almost entirely on B-roll and music, wedding videos being a common example.
Not in itself. Reaction shots of the interviewer, often filmed after the interview, are standard practice in news for hiding edits in an answer. The trouble starts when the shot suggests something that didn't happen: in 2007 the BBC admitted that Alan Yentob had been filmed nodding for interviews on Imagine that he had not conducted himself. Five News then banned such shots, and Newsnight limited them.
Partly. YouTube, TikTok and Meta read C2PA metadata, the provenance record some AI tools attach to a file, and can label those uploads automatically, which TikTok started doing in May 2024. On YouTube, a creator can't remove a label that came from C2PA metadata. Metadata can be stripped from a file, though, so the platforms still expect creators to disclose realistic AI footage themselves.
Links
Documentation and references for this concept.
Video Editor SDK
Give your users a multi-track timeline for cutting B-roll into their videos.
Join and Arrange Video Clips
Organize clips on tracks with time offsets, including an overlay track.
Adjust Audio Volume
Mute a clip or lower its volume so the main audio stays in front.
Related Terms
Timeline
The time-based editing interface in CE.SDK's video editor where users sequence, trim, and synchronize all media elements…
Video Composition
A CE.SDK scene configured for video output, built on the same scene/block architecture as design compositions, with the …
Video Editor
A CE.SDK Starter Kit for timeline-based video creation and editing, surfacing clip trimming, splitting, reordering, and …
Placeholder
A design block configured as an interactive drop-zone where Adopter-role users can swap out content (an image, video, or…