- So you've got your drone.
You've got your gimbal.
You've shot some awesome looking B roll,
but how do you edit
that into your projects?
In this video, we're gonna go through
how you take your B roll and add it,
mix it, combine it with your A roll
to be able to make better videos.
All right, guys, let's get into it.
So B roll is essentially all
the extra stuff that you add
onto your A roll.
And if you haven't seen my
breakdown of what A roll
versus B roll is,
I'll put a link down below
in the description to a video
that explains the beginnings
of what B roll is.
So once you've finished
shooting your B roll,
you want to incorporate into
your projects in a way where it
makes sense for the viewer.
You don't just want to randomly
cut to some cool B roll that
you shot when you're doing a
video that has nothing to do
with that B roll.
So I'm gonna go through
two projects in this video.
The first we're gonna do a
simple tutorial and I'll show
you just the basics of how you layer
on B roll onto your timeline.
And then we'll talk through a
little bit of a story driven
piece to show you how
you can use some more
of that fancy looking B roll,
the really fun stuff into a
story driven project as well.
So let's jump into Final Cut.
You don't have to use Final Cut,
but that's what I use
for all of my editing.
And I'm just gonna show
you how this B roll
works with your A roll.
So this is a project that I
did on the Rode Wireless Go.
I did 10 creative uses
on how you can use this
and 10 reasons why you would
get the Rode Wireless Go.
So when I shot this,
I shot a ton of different footage.
And you can see down here on the timeline,
this is my completed project,
and I'll walk you through kind
of all the different layers
and how they work and
interact with each other.
But first, before you even
get into the cutting process,
you really want to organize
your footage in a logical way
That makes it easy to find what you need.
So up here in my project,
I have different folders based
on the different components
of footage that I have.
So I have all of my A roll.
And when you look at my A roll,
this is my talking head bits.
This is where I'm
explaining what's going on.
So this right here is A roll.
So this would be in this A roll folder.
Now underneath the A
roll, I also have B roll.
This is all the footage
that is like we were saying,
the fun stuff.
So you could see,
these are like the swoop
pins of the Rode Wireless Go.
I have some just different
shots showing the functionality.
I have it on a camera
showing how it's connected.
And because I'm doing a
video about 10 creative uses,
I'm gonna have B roll for
each of those creative uses.
And that's one thing, when
you're shooting your B roll,
you need to think through what
is your A roll talking about?
So if you're doing a review,
if you're doing a tutorial,
think through all of the
components that are gonna be in
that reviewer tutorial,
and then what is footage
that's gonna show what
you're talking about,
because here we're talking about
what it is that we're doing.
But if I was talking about, say, you know,
a Sigma 85 millimeter lens,
which I have right here,
I would then go shoot B roll
of the Sigma 80 millimeter lens
to be using in the section
where I'm talking about this lens.
So underneath that,
I have my graphics and I used
a bunch of different graphics
in this video.
So I showed the different
accessories that come with it.
I showed the two different
colors of the Rode Wireless Go.
And then I have this motion
graphic from Pixel Film Studios,
which I'm gonna use to number
each of my creative uses.
I also have a folder for music.
These are all the different
music tracks that I might be
using in this project
and then sound effects.
And there are some sound
effects that I used.
So you always want to organize first,
whether you have 10 cameras
or you have one camera,
you still want to organize
based on A roll versus B roll.
And then after we get
through this example,
I want to show you a story driven piece,
and you'll see that I
layer things beyond this.
I do B roll, but then I
break it down by camera.
And if I do a multiple day shoot,
so say I'm doing two weeks
where I'm climbing in Ecuador,
it's a project I'm working on,
but I break it down by day.
And I also break it down by location.
So you can really use your
organization to help you find
where everything is.
And it makes the whole
editing process easier.
I'm gonna pause the video right here.
And I want to talk about today's sponsor,
which is Pixel Film studios.
And Pixel Film Studios
has launched the PFS app,
which is a brand new desktop application.
And on this app,
you get a ton of free
Final Cut Pro tutorials
so that you can really learn everything
that you need to know about Final Cut Pro.
Now what's also cool on this app is there
is a ton of discounts.
So you can take advantage of
the daily sales or earn points
with every purchase so that
you can use them towards money
off of future plugins.
Now what's also really cool is
that Pixel Film Studios also
gives away a bunch of free plugins.
So if you go into the
free product section,
you'll see there's a bunch of plugins
that you can download right now.
Now, if you already have
Pixel Film Studios plugins,
then there's a bunch of tools
here to be able to update
them, to download them, to
see all of your products.
So they give you all the tools you need to
work with Pixel Film Studios.
So guys, if you head
down to the description,
I'll put a link to where you can download
this app for your computer.
It's completely free and you
can start browsing around
and seeing what kind
of sales are going on.
And just add this as a
tool into your workflow.
to make your editing and
plugin use that much easier.
So the first step of my process is
I just lay all my A roll
down on the timeline.
So as you can see here,
I am talking directly
to the Rode Wireless Go.
It's not the best A roll
because I'm not looking
directly at camera.
This is because I'm
anticipating using B roll
over this section.
But what I want to do first
is just get my A roll down.
So the story, the main
aspects of the piece,
and if there's sections
where I know I'm gonna layer
on B roll and music and things like that,
you could see right here,
I have this darkened area.
So this is just a clip
that I've turned off.
You click V and it turns off in Final Cut.
And I know that that section
is gonna be an area where I
have B roll and music.
So I basically build this structure of my
A roll with these holes where
I'm gonna fill in B roll,
music and everything else.
Now the next step in the
process is add on your B roll.
So I have the shot of the Rode
Wireless Go sitting there.
And I have another one where
I want to add some text to the
left hand side.
And so in your editing software,
no matter what editing
software you're using,
you just put your B
role above you, A roll.
The way that editing softwares
work is it's layered.
So anything that goes
above the layer below
is going to take over the screen.
And so that's how you edit
your B roll onto your A roll.
You just put it right above it.
You don't have to take out the
A roll or anything like that,
just put it above it in your timeline,
and then you want to mute it
unless you need the audio from
your B roll, but most of the
time, if you're adding B roll,
it's just the visual component.
So you want to add the
visuals on top of your A roll.
Think of like an arrow
coming down this way.
Anything that arrow hits it's gonna see.
So here we have this A
roll of me and then boom,
there's the B roll above my A roll.
You could still see the A roll underneath,
and that's what I'm using for the audio,
but the B roll because it's
on top of it is gonna take
over the screen and become
the main visuals that you see.
And when I cut back away from my B roll,
you go into the arrow, go
back in, there's more B roll.
So on the simplest level,
you're basically just layering
footage on top of each other.
Your A roll's gonna be on the very bottom.
And then you add your B roll
components on top of that.
So here's my final intro
sequence that I created
for this video.
And you can see I've
added a lot more than just
these two B roll shots.
I have my A roll here.
I have these effects, which is a zoom in.
So it slowly zooms in, as I'm talking,
this is just a creative hack
for Final Cut Pro users.
Instead of having to go in and key frame,
you can use this plugin and
I'll link it down below in
the description that just
allows you to throw it on
and does a quick zoom.
It actually makes it a lot
easier to zoom in and out.
And then I've added a sound effect.
I've added music, and
the way that music works,
you're gonna layer it underneath.
But instead of taking over the audio,
music just combines together.
So when you layer music and
sound effects underneath your
A roll, essentially you're now blending
all of those together.
So you'd have your A roll audio.
Then you have your sound effects,
and then you have the music
and they all blend together
rather than one taking over the other.
The visuals will take over each other.
Anything that's on top is
gonna be on top of whatever's
underneath it, whereas with audio,
anything that's underneath
is just gonna blend together
and become all in the same audio track.
So I have my swoop into
the Rode Wireless Go,
I do another one of these zooms.
You could see that right here.
And because it's on top of my footage,
it's gonna affect anything underneath.
And then I had this other shot
where I wanted to add text on
the left hand side.
So to do this, I just worked in layers.
So I started with my footage
and then I added these two bars.
So I have a black bar and a white bar.
And you could see because
these are only the size that
they're only affecting
this part of the image.
So they're layered on top of this B roll.
And they're only a section of that B roll,
but because they're on top,
they now look like they're
all part of the same image.
You're basically combining layers.
So I did a white and a black,
and I changed my opacity of these.
So they're not a hundred
percent and you can use your
opacity in any editing software
and you can make it stronger
or less, and I use 70%.
So you could see a little
bit of the background,
basically you're layering
from the top to the bottom.
And if something is not completely solid,
you're gonna see what's underneath it.
You could see a little
bit of background there.
And then on top of these two
layers, I now added text.
And then I did a Chevron
transition to give you that swipe.
So you get this effect
of the bar swiping in
and the text coming down.
The text is another Pixel Film Studios
plugin that I used to bring
the text into the frame.
And I'll link down below in
the description to all of these
Pixel Film Studio plugins that
I use when I do my editing.
So by using this layering process,
you can build B roll
on top of your A roll,
but you can also build additional
components on top of that.
And this is where your creative
can run wild because you can
layer footage on top of footage.
You could layer graphics
on top of your footage,
but this whole process of just learning
how to layer all your
footage on top of each other,
gives you the creative freedom
to play with different looks
and create graphics and, you know,
layer footage on top of footage.
There's just a lot of ways that
you'll end up using this as
you're going through the editing process.
Oh yeah.
We have a little guest
that's gonna help edit
some B roll with us.
Okay, so let's pull up
a story-driven piece.
This is just a vlog that I did recently.
I did a whole video that breaks down
how does tell a story when vlogging,
and I just want to take this a
step further and show you how
to edit some of the B roll
in one of these story driven pieces.
Do you like vlogs?
Are you gonna be a little vlogger?
Alright.
Oh, she wants to play with my windscreen.
So let's just go into the
organization first and you can see
in this vlog, I broke it down by camera.
So I have my ZV1,
I have my voiceover, I have
my phone, I have my music,
my full frame and my Mavic Air 2.
So I'm using a bunch of different
cameras and then I'm also
using voiceover and some music.
So I wanted to put all those
in different folders to make it
really easy to edit, always
do the organization first.
Don't you think so?
Yeah.
So even with the story driven piece,
I go through the same process.
I lay down all my A roll and
then I leave gaps where I want
to do B roll sequences.
Then I have some more A roll.
And then I leave a gap.
And the whole idea is that I
want to cut the A roll first.
I really want to get the story
down before I start getting
into the fun, sexy B roll footage filming.
You want to see something kind of cool.
She's got monkeys on her toes.
So once the A roll is laid down,
then I go through and add
in the B roll sequences
that transition between
the A roll sections.
And then I also add in
the B roll that goes over
the A roll when I'm talking.
So right here,
you could see this is that A
roll clip that we were just
looking at and all of this
footage around it, before it,
above it and below it is all the B roll
and music that I use.
So because I'm going from
one scene to another,
I'm gonna be using B roll to transition.
So I don't need to layer this
over any arrow because I'm not
talking, it's a music section.
And if you're doing like a
transition or you just want to
have a sequence of B roll,
this is a great opportunity
to lay down some music and cut
to the beat of the music or cut in a way
that moves the story forward.
And you use music instead of
talking and voice and all of
that to go from one scene to the next.
But you can see-
So I'm gonna fade in the music slowly,
and I'm also gonna use some B roll,
and you can see that up here
to transition out of this
footage, to go to the next scene.
You can see Butler peak
off in the distance,
and it's a ways out there.
(mellow music)
I've just been, climbing-
Okay, she's leaving.
Say, bye.
Hi Jaylen.
So B roll becomes a great tool
to transition from one scene
to the next.
Now you would also use B roll
in a story driven piece to
show what you're talking about,
because you don't always want
to just have you on camera
talking through whatever
it is that you're doing.
You do want to actually show,
visual storytelling is a big thing.
This is a visual medium.
So use that to your advantage.
So I'm talking about the trail conditions.
That's why there's sections
that are washed out.
So this is a good opportunity
to show the trail.
So I cut in this B roll first
as a shot of just the sand
that I'm riding over.
Then it's a shot of these washed
out sections of the trail.
And third is a shot of
me actually going through
and carrying my bike through
this washed out section.
All things that I was
talking about in that A roll.
And then I visually show it
so that you get more of this
experience of what it's actually
like to go on the journey.
This trail is interesting.
It's like a mix of sand and rock,
and a bunch of areas are washed out.
So you have to carry
your bike here and there.
Man it is a climb.
There's not a whole lot of shade.
So it's just.
So there's my three B
roll shots that I used.
And again, I use the zoom out plugin.
That's just a quick, easy
way to make a zoom out.
It gives motion to footage that's stable.
When I'm shooting myself,
a lot of the times I'm
setting a camera on a tripod.
So I use the zoom in and
zoom outs to give you
that sense of motion.
Now, you're also gonna
see this base grade.
So a base grade is essentially
if I want to create color
grading, which I'll dive
deeper into another video,
but you can create adjustment layers,
whether you're in Final Cut Premiere,
anything and anything below
that is gonna be affected by
the color grade.
So as you can see,
this color grade is affecting
my A roll down here,
but it's not affecting
these three B roll shots.
And let me just show you
one more B roll section.
So again, when you do your B roll,
if you're doing B roll with music only,
then I suggest bringing the music up.
And if you're doing music
underneath your A roll,
you definitely want to bring
it down because you don't want
to have music competing with your audio.
If you have voiceover or you
have A roll of you talking on
camera and you have super loud music,
then people aren't gonna be
able to hear what's going on.
So you want to bring down
your music for the roll,
bring it up for the B roll and
a good way to use music with
B roll is cut to the beat.
So whether it's a four
count, an eight count,
find those moments in the
music where the music changes,
the beat changes,
and that's a great
opportunity to make a cut.
And it's gonna become more
impactful when you cut to the
beat of the music.
The whole way up, I
think I'm about halfway.
(mellow music)
So the train has been kind
of just winding through
this valley and it just hopped out.
And then when the B
roll's section is done,
have your music fade out, have
the music drop in some way.
If you do a hard cut with your music,
that's a good way to just jolt someone
out of the B roll scene.
You just got to be creative
and figure out what works best
for the content that you're creating.
So guys, if you want to learn more about
how to incorporate into your videos,
I have a whole playlist,
I'll link it down below
in the description,
how to shoot B roll.
What is B roll some B roll ideas,
because a lot of the
shots that you're seeing,
I've broken down into different
videos that explain like how
to actually get some of these shots.
And my goal with these videos
is to help you guys make
better videos and tell better stories,
whether you are doing
reviews and tutorials,
or you're doing story-driven
vlogs or documentary style
pieces, B roll is a huge component.
And I think there's a lot of
ways that you can incorporate
your B roll into your videos
to make your video stand out,
to make you stand out so
that you get more views,
subscribers, all the things that you know,
we all want on the platform.
And guys, if you want to learn more
about how to tell a story,
I did an entire masterclass
for free here on YouTube.
It's an hour long video that
goes through how to craft
a story in the context of a vlog.
And I'll link that down below
in the description as well.
And guys I'll link to the
playlist here that goes through
everything about B roll.
And I highly suggest you dig
through all of these videos,
because there's a ton of
information that's gonna help
you on your journey.
All right, guys, I'll see
you in the next video.
