Regardless of what you think b-roll is or how you might use it in your productions, b-roll has become a hot topic lately. It’s something that just about anybody who shoots video needs to incorporate if they want their work to stand out. And while exactly what b-roll is and how it should be used are discussions for another day, how you shoot it is relevant to all potential definitions.

It’s easy to get lazy with b-roll, especially if you just see it as a way to break up boring monotonous shots or a transition between sequences. But even then, it needs to tell a story or expand on what we’re hearing and seeing in other shots. And it’s easy to shoot it badly. In this video, filmmaker Thomas Alex Norman shows us how we can adjust our shooting techniques to make the best b-roll we can.

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