A.4 Strategy 3: A-Roll/B-Roll
A. Strategy 3: A-Roll + B-Roll
B. Visuals
When filming for news story, the person behind the camera gets both a-roll and b-roll footage. Both are needed to tell a news story!
A-Roll
- Shows the main footage and shows the central focus
B-Roll
- Footage that supports the a-roll and helps tell the story
All visuals are important because they help to tell the story.
Example: A reporter is interviewing a school bus driver about school buses being overcrowded. Instead of just showing the interview with the bus driver (a-roll) the story shows footage of students riding 3 to a seat (b-roll). Now the viewers aren’t just hearing about how there is a problem – they are seeing it with their own eyes!
C. You be the Editor!
Ramy is part of a team of people who works on a news story. Another person on the team is an editor. You are going to play the role of the editor – editors add b-roll.
Directions:
- Re-watch the news story below.
- Identify the b-roll in this news story.
- Brainstorm 2 other ways you could add b-roll to make this news story even stronger.
- Write your ideas in your Mission Log.