Commission Documentary Unit 3: A Roll vs B Roll

A Roll Vs B Roll.

When shooting our documentary, we need to make sure we shoot A ROLL and B ROLL. Shooting both of these will allow the edit to be smoother and easier to edit as we will have B roll to cut to to support someone talking about something specific in an interview. It will also allow us to cut to B roll footage if there is a really wrong jump cut. 

What is A Roll and B Roll?

A roll: This is our primary footage that we will use. For example it could be someone being interviewed. We use this as the main footage and when editing we add cut aways and B roll footage on top.

B roll: This is secondary footage used to support interview or narration for example a man could be talking about playing football in an interview - this is A ROLL. We would then cut to a shot of him kicking around a football, or a cut away of his feet moving around - this is B Roll. B Roll can also be used to cover errors such as jump cuts or if the interview is too long and it needs cutting down.

A roll is melody, B roll is harmony.

When editing, you generally go back and forth between a roll and B roll to create a continuous interesting documentary instead of a few shots of a static interview.