B-Roll vs A-Roll
The best Behind the Scenes documentaries go out of their way to shoot and use on-set footage in an interesting way.
One way to establish the way I view the difference between B-Roll and A-Roll is to look at how they are approached in the edit room.
The traditional approach is to edit the “A-Roll” first (most commonly the interviews). Then once that has been edited, the editor will find supporting footage (referred to as B-Roll) to supplement what is being focussed on, or plug holes in the edit.
I find this to be quite a big missed opportunity, since it doesn’t really make much use of the format. You would probably get a similar experience by just reading the content in book form, with the interviews transcribed and a few photos to show what they’re talking about.
While this may be the best approach for some scenes, I like to try editing veritè scenes by first using the on-set footage to tell the story. Then, if there are any details or elements missing, I would try to find or film an interview to fill the gap. This essentially reverses the process to use the on set footage as “A-Roll” and the interviews a secondary addition.
Of course, a scene can only be edited that way if it was filmed intentionally. If you’re filming footage to be used as B-Roll, the types of shots you focus on will likely be quite different. B-Roll only needs to consist of a handful of shots which can be kept very brief, often without much emphasis on audio or being able to fit in sequence with other shots.
For A-Roll however, it is essential to build a scene visually, as well as capturing clear audio of any important dialogue.
Here are some of the key elements that can elevate the on-set footage from purely B-Roll, to something that offers more storytelling potential.
A wide variety of coverage.
When shooting scripted content, some people like to be more selective with their footage, opting to cover a whole scene from only one or two angles. While this can occasionally work in documentary, it’s hard to know how the scene is going to play out as you’re filming it, therefore it’s very important to give your editor options for different ways to pace and cut the footage. The usuals of wide, mid, close, cutaway shots, etc are usually quite helpful, though shouldn’t be treated as a rigid template.
On film sets, when scenes are covered in multiple takes, it can gives us a unique opportunity to get a wide variety of coverage of the same action. This can be incredibly helpful for offering the illusion of multi-camera coverage of a single event, even if you’re only filming one angle at a time.
Reaction shots
These are key in almost any scene containing dialogue. Without these, an editor will be stuck with either needing to let the full conversation play out between the entry and exit point of the scene, use jump cuts, or use cutaway shots which may be quite jarring.
A few reaction shots of different people listening while the main person is speaking feels a lot more natural most of the time, and allows you to showcase more genuine emotion in the characters who aren’t speaking, which can be key to adding subtext to certain scenes.
The trick if you’re only covering a scene with a single camera comes down to when you choose to film those reaction shots. You want to try to avoid missing a key line of dialogue being delivered by the speaker, but it can be hard to know when those will come. The more you edit these types of scenes, the more you’ll know what to listen out for as indicators of what parts of the conversation may be most useful. If the speaker goes on a side tangent that you know you probably won’t use, quickly make the best of the opportunity to hold on a shot of the listener for a solid amount of time. Allowing a good amount of time will make your editors job a lot easier. It’s a very frustrating experience when there is a great reaction shot that only lasts 3 seconds and doesn’t give you the options you need to cut the scene the smoothest way.
Audio
Audio is also a vital part of shooting veritè scenes. This is one area that makes B-Roll way easier to film since you only have to think about the visuals. However, if you want to offer the audience more than just a collection of nice shots, quality audio will make a big difference. At the very minimum, you’ll want a high quality shotgun mic on top of your camera. This will give you an audio source that follows the direction your camera is pointing. Then if you can, try to mic up as many of the key subjects as you can with lapel microphones. I’ll do a seperate post about lapel mics and all the considerations involved, but the biggest benefit they offer is the ability to get out of the way and capture things from a distance, while still getting clear audio.
By putting in the extra effort to film well crafted scenes on-set instead of just a collection of B-Roll, we will be in a much better position to offer audiences content that is more genuine and engaging.