Glossary · Storytelling
B-roll
B-roll is supporting footage that plays over or between the main material, showing the places, objects and actions the narration describes.
Why it matters
Without b-roll, a documentary is a voice over a few repeated pictures. B-roll gives the viewer something new to look at and shows what words can only tell.
The main material, often an interview or a presenter, is sometimes called A-roll. B-roll is everything cut in around it: a factory floor, a close-up of a signed contract, a street at night. It illustrates the story, adds texture and covers the joins in an edit.
Good b-roll is specific. A generic shot of a city tells the viewer little; a shot of the kind of building, tool or document being discussed tells them a lot. B-roll that doesn't match the words can quietly mislead.
B-roll may be filmed new, licensed, taken from archives, or created. When it is a re-creation or an illustration rather than a real record, a careful documentary doesn't present it as genuine footage of the event.
As the narrator says a young company spent its first year in a garage, the b-roll shows a cluttered workbench, a hand-written price list and a delivery van parked outside, drawn to fit the description rather than passed off as real photos.
Last reviewed 15 October 2026.