What Does “b-roll” Mean?
*In case you were wondering, “B-Roll” is an editing term. Here’s the story of it’s origination, according to John Premack:
“The term actually was born well before the ENG era, when us creative dinosaurs who were shooting film wanted to cover a jump cut in a sound-on-film interview. Since audio was an integral part of the film (recorded optically 26 frames ahead of the corresponding picture) there was no way to splice in a cutaway without interrupting the audio.
The solution was to prepare a second reel of film, mostly black leader, containing several seconds of the desired cutaway. Both reels were threaded into projectors in master control and started at the same time (simul-rolled). The TD would watch for the cutaway shot to appear on the monitor, “take” the second projector, and then wait until the splice in the interview has passed through the other projector gate before switching back. This second reel was referred to as the “B” roll. Once editors and directors got the hang of this radical innovation (remember – this was all done live) we began to do more than cover jumpcuts. B-roll was soon routinely used to break the monotony of lengthy talking heads. Eventually reporters’ voice-over tracks were even recorded on short ends of film so that they could be spliced into the A-roll between the sound-on-film bites.
So, like Paul Harvey says – . . . and now you know the rest of the story.”
On the other hand, early in my career I had a small production company and we shot a lot of industrial films. Once edited, we cut the original 16mm to match the cuts on the edited print. To avoid seeing the splices in the prints, we did A & B rolls, splicing alternate neg and black leader, what then was called checkerboard splicing. To me that was always the “b roll” part, what you describe has always been “cut aways” to me.
I recently graduated with a degree in journalism and a minor in broadcasting. At my internship one of the bosses was referring to b-roll, and I had no clue what he was talking about. My teachers called the segments “cut aways.” The process is a lot different now that everything is computers and digital but the old terms have stuck.
The b-roll procedure you described would only work in a shop with lots of time and people or if you were editing a feature film. In the News Department I worked in, the reporter tracks were cut on audio carts and rolled by the director. The b-roll was on a separate reel, but only rolled when the shot was needed. The projector would automatically be stopped by a magnetic strip attached to the countdown leader for the next b-roll shot.
This did not help me. AT ALL.
I am new to film production but it seems to me the term B Roll is coming full circle (almost) in the digital age. I’ve heard B Roll used synonomously as “protection or cover” shots but using the same production camera. The purpose though is exactly as described, to get material that can be spliced into the film. Basically, get a “roll” of extra material to make the editors work easier.