B-roll is the footage that isn’t you talking or the main action: close-ups, details, hands at work, places and reactions. You cut to it to show what you’re describing, hide jump cuts, and keep the picture moving.

It’s also the footage creators most often forget to film. You get home, start editing, and realize you have three minutes of talking and nothing to show while you’re talking. Here’s how to never run out.

B-roll needs a job

Pretty B-roll that just fills time is wallpaper. Good B-roll shows something specific: the step you’re describing, the detail you mentioned, the reaction to what you said. Before you film any B-roll shot, ask: what does this show that words can’t?

Ten kinds of B-roll to plan for any topic

Whatever your video is about, you can almost always film these:

  1. Hands at work. The main action, from your own point of view.
  2. Detail close-ups. Textures, labels, the tiny thing that matters.
  3. The before. The problem, the mess, the raw ingredients.
  4. The after. The result, held long enough to enjoy.
  5. The place. A wide shot that shows where we are.
  6. The tools. Each one, picked up or set down.
  7. Steps in motion. Each step as it happens: pour, cut, press, stir, type.
  8. Reactions. A face, a taste, a laugh, a “huh.”
  9. Cutaways. Related shots that cover jump cuts: a clock, a window, a pet, a kettle.
  10. Movement. A slow push in, a reveal, something entering the frame.

Ideas by topic

Cooking and food

  • Steam rising against a dark background, lit from behind
  • Oil hitting a hot pan; the first sizzle
  • A knife through something crisp, filmed close and low
  • Pouring, stirring, the cheese pull, the first bite
  • The empty plate at the end

Fitness

  • Shoes being laced, a water bottle filled
  • Feet and hands placement, close up, for each move
  • A timer or rep counter on screen
  • Breath on a cold morning; a towel thrown down
  • The before-and-after of a stretch, filmed from the same spot

Beauty and skincare

  • Product textures on the back of a hand
  • Swatches in daylight, for true color
  • The lid coming off; the pump; the dropper
  • Half-face before and after, same light and angle (no filters on results)

Tech and gaming

  • Ports, buttons and connectors, close up
  • Hands on the keyboard or controller
  • Screen recordings of each step
  • Cables being tidied; the setup coming together
  • The device in use somewhere real, for scale

Home, crafts and DIY

  • Overhead shots of the layout before you start
  • Tools picked up in order
  • Stop-motion of a project building itself (phone locked overhead, one clip per change)
  • The mess, then the clean result from the same angle

Small business and office

  • Packing an order: tissue, tape, the label
  • The shop sign, the door opening, the lights coming on
  • Hands sketching, typing, writing notes
  • A customer’s (consented) reaction or review on screen
  • The product in use, not just on a shelf

Product videos

  • A slow turn on a turntable
  • The hero detail: the stitching, the button, the finish
  • The product dropped into a hand, in slow motion
  • Unboxing from above
  • Something familiar next to it for size

At home, with nothing special

  • Light through a window moving across a wall
  • A kettle boiling, a cup being filled
  • Keys, a notebook, a plant, a door closing
  • Your street at different times of day

Three openers made of B-roll

B-roll isn’t just for the middle. Three ways to open a video on objects:

  1. Zoom in on the world. Start wide on the table, then the object, then a frame-filling close-up of its best detail.
  2. Mystery texture. Start on an extreme close-up of something hard to identify (bubbling caramel, grip tape, wax), then widen to reveal what it is.
  3. Puzzle pieces. A quick run of four to six detail close-ups, then the whole thing in one shot. Viewers assemble it in their heads.

Three rules for usable B-roll

  • Hold every shot five seconds or more, still at the start and the end. You can always cut shorter; you can’t make a two-second clip longer.
  • Get three sizes of the important moments: wide, medium and close. That gives you options in the edit.
  • Film more than you think you need. B-roll is cheap to film and expensive to go back for.

Filming B-roll on your own

When you’re the only person there, film in two passes. First, the talking or main action with the phone on its stand. Then, right away, while the light and setup are exactly the same, do a B-roll pass: move the phone close, film your hands doing each step again, the key objects, a slow push toward the result and a wide of the space.

Because nothing changed between passes, it all cuts together. And hands-only shots are the easiest of all: nobody can tell you weren’t also talking.

Plan it as part of your shot list, not as an afterthought. In the Shot List & Storyboard tool you can add hands, detail and cutaway shots to each beat of your script, group them by setup, and it warns you when a talking video doesn’t have enough cutaways to cover it.

Build a library

Over time, collect reusable clips: your hands doing common things, your space at different times of day, close-ups of the objects you use most, outdoor shots of your area. Sort them into folders by type. When you need a shot fast, you already have it.

The free template pack includes a B-Roll Idea Bank, a fill-in sheet with these ten kinds of B-roll and space to plan your own shots for each video, plus a Batch Filming Day Planner for getting it all in one session.

Try it

Pick your next video. For each sentence of your script, write one B-roll shot that shows what you’re saying. Film the talking first, then a two-minute B-roll pass with the same setup. You’ll have twice as many choices in the edit, and a video that never sits still.