Theo Brennan
Editor
What is A roll and B roll? A roll is the main footage that carries your story's sound, like you talking to camera, an interview or your voiceover. B roll is what you cut over it, like close-ups, places and archive clips. It shows what's being said and hides your cuts. Most videos mix both.
Note: How we researched this: we coded 15 top-ranking pages that define A-roll. We read 4 Reddit threads where creators labelled their own footage, and the narration of 6 faceless YouTube videos. Prices come from VidRush's own docs and pricing page.
What Is A Roll and B Roll? The Difference Explained
To tell A roll and B roll apart, label by sound. Whatever carries the story's audio is A-roll, whether that's you on camera, a voiceover or a spoken walkthrough. Everything shown over or between it is B-roll. Screen time doesn't change the label. 1of10's guide counts tutorial screen recordings as B-roll even when they fill 95% of the screen.
This is my working rule, not settled usage. One documentary editor tests it by muting a clip. If the story stops making sense, that clip was carrying it.
Format | A-roll (story audio) | B-roll over it | Common mislabel |
|---|---|---|---|
Talking head | You speaking to camera | Close-ups, screens, photos you cut to | "A-roll is only the shots of my face" |
Faceless voiceover | The narration track | Every picture on screen | "I have no A-roll" |
Screen-recording tutorial | Your spoken walkthrough | The screen capture, zooms, overlays | Calling the capture A-roll because it fills the screen |
Multi-cam podcast | Every angle of the people talking | Cutaways to objects, rooms, documents | Guest angle called B-roll, wide called C-roll |
Walk-and-talk vlog | The walking shot where you're speaking | Scenery and details with no speech | Calling the walking shot B-roll because it's outdoors |
Same rule, every format: A-roll is whatever carries the story's audio.
Why the usual definition leaves you stuck
Most definitions call A-roll "main footage" or "the person on camera". We coded 15 top-ranking definition pages. Nine call it generic main footage, three tie it to a talking head, and one rests it on what carries the story. None calls voiceover the A-roll. The sample leans toward software vendors, so read the split as rough.
14 of the 15 never mention a video with nobody on camera. One creator asked what goes on their A-roll when they don't show their face.
I label by sound because that's how a cut gets built. On the aviation channel I ran, the narration went down first. It set every edit point, while the pictures got swapped all week.
In short:
A-roll is whatever carries the story's sound, on camera or not.
B-roll is every picture you put over or between it.
In a faceless video, the voiceover is the A-roll.
B Roll Examples and What B Roll Is Used For
Common B roll examples are close-ups of hands and objects, wide shots of places, archive photos and people at work. B-roll shows what the speaker describes, proves claims and hides jump cuts.
To hide a jump cut, trim the stumble in the A-roll and cover the join with a cutaway. The voice keeps going underneath. In a faceless video, B-roll carries nearly every second of picture. VidRush builds those videos by laying real footage over the narration line by line.
Every clip needs a job
If you can't name the job a clip is doing, cut it. These are the five jobs I check for:
Show the thing being described.
Prove a claim with the real screen, document or chart.
Set the scene before the story moves.
Show a process, step by step.
Cover a cut in the A-roll.
Looking nice isn't on that list, because decoration reads as filler within seconds. It did on the stock-and-stills list channel I ran. One finance-channel editor saw the same: by his account, generic stock tired viewers and specific proof held them.
With no camera, B-roll is the whole picture, so every clip needs one of those jobs. That holds for faceless videos made with AI too.
Why it's called B-roll, and the words people mix up
The name comes from TV news shot on 16mm film from the 1950s to the 1970s. The sync-sound interview ran on Roll A and the silent cutaways on Roll B. The two were intercut on twin projectors (EBU technical notes).
Another word for B-roll is cutaway or cover footage. To The Cut separates them strictly. B-roll is footage, a cutaway is a move, and B-cam is a second camera on the speaker. Cinematic B-roll is ordinary B-roll shot in a polished style, with shallow focus and slow motion.
In short:
Common B-roll is close-ups, places, archive and people at work.
Every clip should show, prove, set the scene, show a process or cover a cut.
B-roll hides jump cuts by covering the join while the voice keeps playing.
How to Shoot B Roll and Mix It With A Roll
Shoot B roll in short, steady clips of 5 to 10 seconds, from a couple of angles, in good light. A phone is fine. Before you shoot or search, read your script and mark what the viewer could see. In the edit, lay each clip over the A-roll audio as the line names it.
Turn your script into a shot list
Build the A-roll first. Put your voiceover or talking-head cut on the bottom tracks and finish the story there.
Mark the script in two columns: what's said, and what to show. Highlight every person, place, object, action and figure. Think Media's beginner walkthrough uses this method.
Give each mark one of the five jobs above and a source: film it, stock, screen capture or chart, archive, or generated.
Lay clips on the track above with their sound muted. Start each one as the line names it. In CapCut or DaVinci Resolve, that's V2 over V1.
Return to the speaker, or hold one shot, for the key points.
What's said | What to show | Job | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
"figure salons" | Period photo of a women's figure salon | Set the scene | Archive |
"the vibrating belts" | Old film of a belt machine in use | Show | Archive or stock |
"bodybuilders lifted" | Old footage of lifters training | Show a process | Archive |
"Venice Beach" | Wide shot of the beach workout area | Set the scene | Stock or archive |
A figure later in the passage | A simple chart of the number | Prove | Make it yourself |
One line from Modern MBA's gym video, "figure salons for the vibrating belts and bodybuilders lifted in Venice Beach": four showable things, four shots to find.
That line isn't unusual. We read a one-minute passage from each of 6 faceless YouTube videos. Each named 7 to 15 showable things, with a median of 8.5. A named thing isn't a clip, so don't treat these counts as a cuts-per-minute target.
Where the clips come from, and what each costs you
Your phone, for anything you can reach and film yourself.
Free or paid stock libraries cost search time and tend to look generic.
Screen captures and charts are cheap, specific and the best proof you have.
Archive footage is credible and the slowest to find.
Generated clips suit things nobody filmed, and are wrong for anything you present as real.
Budget real time. By one agency's estimate, B-roll for a 10-minute video takes 2.5 to 5 hours by hand. Searching and auditioning clips eats 60 to 70% of that. It matches my nights in archive libraries for the aviation channel, and it's most of why a video edit can take 10 hours.
How much B-roll you need depends on the format, not a fixed ratio. A faceless video needs it for almost the whole runtime. A talking head needs it where a line names something showable. VidRush does the search and placement, and you swap whatever misses.
In short:
Shoot steady 5 to 10 second clips in good light, and a phone works.
Mark the script for showable things, then lay clips over the A-roll audio.
Expect hours of searching per video if you do it by hand.
How VidRush Adds B Roll to Your A Roll
Yes, a tool can add the B roll for you. Upload a 6-minute to 2-hour recording through VidRush talking-head editing. It cuts dead air and filler, picks B-roll from real footage and adds captions. The finished widescreen edit is about 90% as long as the recording. I work at VidRush, and this is the step I'd hand over first, because it takes the most hours and the least craft.
What you hand it
A script in English, German or Spanish, narrated by a voice you pick.
Your own voiceover, as an MP3 or WAV of 6 to 60 minutes.
A single-speaker English recording to camera.
No camera and no wish to use your voice: an AI avatar presenter, still in beta.
What comes back, and what you still do
VidRush reads the narration for the same showable moments you'd mark by hand. It matches them against licensed stock, public-domain archives and web footage. You see the estimated credits before anything is spent. Most videos finish within an hour, as a 1080p MP4 with captions and music in a timeline editor.
Your job becomes watching the cut and swapping clips that miss, usually the too-literal ones. The file is flattened, with no XML or EDL, so full colour grading means importing it into Premiere or DaVinci Resolve.
Speech-cleanup editors trim your recording but leave the cutaways to you. Prompt-to-video generators don't take your recording at all. An AI avatar as your A roll can stand in if you'd rather not appear. Our talking-head AI video editor guide compares the options.
Cost and limits
Starter is $99 a month for 2,000 credits, roughly $18 to $22 per finished 10-minute video (VidRush pricing). There's no free plan or trial. Set that against an evening of searching per video, or what you'd pay an editor.
VidRush won't take multi-speaker podcasts, screen-recording tutorials, Shorts, anything under 6 minutes, vlogs, gaming or non-English talking heads. Do those by hand in CapCut or DaVinci Resolve. Platform rules on stock and AI footage live on our policy page.
What I'd do: make one video by hand so you know what a good cut needs. Then paste your next script into VidRush, or upload the voiceover or recording. Watch the B-roll it lays over it, and swap whatever misses.
In short:
Upload a script, voiceover or recording, and VidRush adds B-roll and captions.
Starter is $99 a month, roughly $18 to $22 per 10-minute video.
You still review the cut and swap clips that miss.
Frequently asked questions
What does roll of 35 mean?
It usually means a roll of 35mm film, the standard width for stills and cinema cameras. It has nothing to do with A-roll or B-roll.
What does B roll mean on Instagram?
On Instagram and TikTok, a "B-roll reel" is a short looping clip, like a desk setup or a walk, with text or a voiceover on top. Often there's no A-roll at all, because the caption carries the message.
Can I use stock footage as B roll on YouTube?
Yes. Stock is where most faceless B-roll comes from. It works best mixed with a few specific clips you made yourself, like a chart or a screen capture.
