B-roll
Also known as: B roll, cutaways, supplementary footage
Supporting shots around the main action, such as landscapes, gear, faces and travel moments, used to give a video context, a sense of place and pacing.
Updated
What it means
B-roll is the footage that is not the main event but makes the main event make sense. In an action or travel video, the A-roll is the riding, the jump or the dive itself. B-roll is everything around it: the van pulling into the parking lot, boots being strapped in, a wide shot of the mountain, a slow pass over the reef, a friend's face after a crash.
The term comes from film editing, where a second roll of footage was cut in alongside the main one. Today it simply means cutaways. In a highlight reel, B-roll gives viewers a sense of place and a breather between peaks, which makes the big moments hit harder.
How it works in practice
Good B-roll is planned. Before you ride, film a handful of deliberate shots of 5 to 10 seconds each: the location wide, close-ups of gear, the group getting ready, the light at the end of the day. A drone reveal shot or orbit makes strong B-roll, and so does a camera on a small tripod while people walk through the frame.
In the edit, B-roll opens the video to set the scene, sits between action sequences to reset the pace, and covers moments with talking or ambient sound. Shooting some of it at 60 fps or higher gives you the option of gentle slow motion, which suits establishing shots.
What to watch out for
The most common mistake is not shooting any. Action-camera users tend to film only the riding, then discover in the edit that every shot looks the same and nothing shows where they were. Ten minutes of deliberate B-roll per day fixes most of that.
The opposite problem is B-roll without a purpose: long shaky pans and random shots of the ground that drag the pace down. Keep each cutaway short, steady and clearly about something. Phone clips filmed upright are another trap, because they do not fit a horizontal edit; shoot cutaways in the same aspect ratio as the rest of the footage.
How RawClip handles it
Add your B-roll to the RawClip upload together with the action clips, whether it comes from a phone, a drone or an action camera. The AI looks at faces and motion as well as peak action, so strong scenic and people shots give it more to choose from. Film phone clips horizontally, since RawClip does not output vertical video.