What Is B-Roll in Video? Meaning and Screen-Recording Examples
B-roll is the extra footage you cut to over your main shot. See what counts as B-roll in a screen recording or demo, how to script it, and how to add it.
In video, B-roll is the secondary footage you cut to while the main story keeps going. The main footage, usually a person talking or the narration that carries the explanation, is called A-roll. B-roll shows the viewer what you're describing, hides edits and changes the pace.
In a screen video, the roles depend on what carries the story. If you're on camera explaining something, your screen recording is the B-roll. If a narrated screen walkthrough carries the video, the B-roll is everything you cut to from it: a close-up from a second take, the mobile app, a diagram, the finished result.
What B-roll means in video: A-roll vs B-roll
The terms come from film and tape editing, where editors worked with two rolls of footage, A and B, and cut or dissolved between them. Today they describe a role, not a reel.
| A-roll | B-roll | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | The main footage that carries the message | Supporting footage that illustrates or covers it |
| Typical content | Talking head, interview, narrated walkthrough | Cutaways, close-ups, product shots, stills, establishing shots |
| Audio | Usually the audio you hear throughout | Often muted or quiet so the A-roll narration continues |
| If you removed it | The video stops making sense | The video still makes sense, but it's flatter and harder to follow |
The B-roll meaning in one line: footage that wouldn't make sense on its own but makes the A-roll easier to watch.
B-roll does four jobs:
- Shows what you're talking about. "Reports export as a PDF" is clearer if the viewer sees the PDF.
- Hides cuts. When you remove a stumble from a talking-head shot, the jump is visible. Cutting to B-roll over the edit hides it.
- Changes pace. A face or a single screen held for minutes gets tiring. A short cutaway resets attention.
- Adds context. A quick shot of where the product is used, or the result it produces, explains things the narration doesn't need to say.
For more on the A-roll side, see our guide to talking head videos.
B-roll in screen recordings
Screen videos come in two main shapes, and B-roll works differently in each.
When you're on camera (talking head as A-roll)
You speak to the camera, and the screen recording supports what you say. Here the screen footage is the B-roll. You cut to it when you start showing something and cut back to your face for the intro, the transitions between topics and the wrap-up.
This is the shape of most course videos, feature announcements and founder-led demos.
When the screen walkthrough is the A-roll
You narrate over your screen, maybe with a small webcam bubble in the corner. The walkthrough carries the story, so B-roll is anything you cut to from it. In a software demo, that can be:
| You're saying | B-roll that fits |
|---|---|
| "Pick one of the templates" | A tighter, slower take of the template gallery recorded separately |
| "It works on your phone too" | A clip of the mobile app, recorded with the iPhone's own screen recording |
| "Your customer gets this email" | A short recording of the email arriving in an inbox |
| "Setup takes a few clicks" | A sped-up recording of the full setup |
| "Here's how the data flows" | A still diagram or chart |
| "And this is the finished page" | The live result in a browser, scrolled slowly |
| Opening line about the problem | Your landing page, or the messy "before" state |
None of these replace the walkthrough. They break it up and show things the main take couldn't show cleanly.
Picture-in-picture (webcam over screen) is related but different: both shots are on screen at once instead of one replacing the other. Our explainer on picture-in-picture video covers it.
Planning B-roll in your script
B-roll you plan before recording is easy to capture. B-roll you think of during editing usually means setting up your demo all over again.
Mark it in the script. Classic video scripts use two columns, one for what's said and one for what's shown. For screen videos a simpler format works: write the narration as normal and drop a marker where a cutaway goes, with a short note about the shot.
Once you connect your first data source, the dashboard fills in on its own. [B-ROLL] dashboard loading, close-up, 4 s
You can share any chart with your team. [B-ROLL] share sheet, then the chart in Slack
[PAUSE] That's the whole setup.
If you read from the teleprompter in Screen Bolt, you can use the same markers. Open it with the Script button or Record ▸ Teleprompter (⇧⌘T, Shift-Command-T), then insert markers from the Cues menu: [PAUSE], [CUT], [B-ROLL], [SLOW] and [EMPHASIS]. Each shows as a colored chip in the script, and [B-ROLL] is blue. The markers are reminders for you while you read; the teleprompter window itself isn't captured in the recording. Your shot notes show in the teleprompter too, so keep them to a few words. A [B-ROLL] marker tells you two useful things while you're reading:
- This line will be covered, so a small stumble in your face shot there doesn't matter.
- Leave a beat. A short pause before and after gives you a clean place to cut.
Turn the markers into a shot list. When the script is done, list every [B-ROLL] with what to capture, roughly how long it runs, and the source (a separate screen take, a phone clip, a screenshot). Capture it right after the main take, while your demo account, windows and data are still set up.
For complete scripts with cue markers, see our teleprompter script examples and the explainer video script template.
Adding B-roll clips to the timeline
How you add B-roll depends on whether your narration needs to keep playing under it.
Switch between your face and your screen (narration continues)
When you record your screen and webcam together, you already have A-roll and B-roll in one take, with one continuous voice track. In Screen Bolt's editor, the Webcam panel has Fullscreen Moments, where the camera takes over the whole canvas for a range:
- Press I to set an In point where your face should go full screen.
- Press O to set the Out point where the screen should come back.
- In the Webcam panel, under Fullscreen Moments, click Add from Marked Range.
For a quick fixed-length switch, right-click the webcam track and choose Add at Playhead (3s) or Add at Playhead (5s) instead.
Outside those ranges, the screen fills the frame with your camera in its corner. Because it's all one recording, your voice runs straight through every switch. If you also recorded a second camera (for example an iPhone over Continuity Camera pointed at a physical product), it can take over the canvas the same way, which gives you a second angle without a separate take. Our guides to switching between webcam and screen and recording with two cameras go through this step by step.
Insert a separate B-roll clip (a cutaway in sequence)
For B-roll from another take or another device:
- Move the playhead to where the B-roll should go.
- Press S (or click Split at playhead) to split the clip.
- Drag the B-roll video file from Finder onto the clip track. It's inserted as a new clip before or after the clip under the pointer.
- Drag the new clip's edge handles to trim it.
- Drag the clip along the clip track if you need to move it.
To take a clip out again, right-click it and choose Delete Clip. Know what this does: the inserted clip plays in sequence, so the main take stops at the split and picks up again after the B-roll ends. It's a true cutaway, not footage laid over continuing narration. Write the script so the cutaway lands on a natural pause rather than mid-sentence, and preview the join before you export.
Add stills as overlays (narration continues)
Screenshots, diagrams and charts work well as B-roll and can sit on top of the recording while the audio keeps going:
- Move the playhead to where the still should appear.
- Open the Media panel and click Import Media.
- Click the image's thumbnail to insert it at the playhead. It becomes a 5-second image overlay.
- In the Effects panel, under Image Overlay, set Size (5% to 150%), Position and Duration.
The overlay's Opacity setting isn't applied in exports, so keep stills fully opaque and control them with size and position. The full set of clip and overlay controls is in the editing docs and the effects docs.
Limits to know before you rely on it
- Video on overlay tracks doesn't export. A video dropped on an overlay track shows as picture-in-picture in the preview but isn't rendered in the exported file. Put video B-roll on the main clip track.
- Dropped-in clips have no cursor data. Auto zoom and cursor effects only apply to recordings made in Screen Bolt. If a B-roll take needs zooms or a sped-up look, record it in Screen Bolt as its own project, finish and export it there, then drop the exported file into your main project.
- Speed up B-roll with the whole-video speed, not a ramp. In that separate project, the speed menu (it shows "1x") sets the speed for the whole video and is applied to the export, so a setup clip set to 2x exports at 2x. Speed ramps on an In/Out range play in the editor preview but don't export.
- Free-version watermarks stack. Free exports are capped at 3 minutes and 720p and carry a watermark, so a B-roll clip exported in the free version brings its watermark into the main video.
Common mistakes
B-roll that doesn't match the words. Generic footage that only loosely relates to the narration feels like filler. Good B-roll shows exactly what the sentence describes.
Covering the moment the viewer needs. Don't cut away during the click or setting you're teaching. Put B-roll around the instruction, not on top of it.
Wrong length. A cutaway that's gone before the viewer registers it is noise, and one held long after the sentence ends stalls the video. Let it run about as long as the line it illustrates.
Mismatched framing. A B-roll take recorded at a different window size looks out of place next to the main take. Record it from the same window or display, at the same size and in the same app state.
Unprepared extra takes. Quick B-roll takes often skip the cleanup you did for the main one: notifications, real customer emails, open tabs. Run the same pre-recording checklist for every take.
Planning B-roll after the fact. If the script has no B-roll markers, you'll find the gaps during editing and have to rebuild the demo to film them. Mark them first and capture them in the same session.
FAQ
Is a screen recording A-roll or B-roll? It depends on the video. If you're talking to camera and cutting to your screen, the screen is B-roll. If a narrated walkthrough carries the video, the screen recording is the A-roll.
Does every screen video need B-roll? No. A short bug report or a two-minute walkthrough can be one clean take. B-roll matters most in longer videos, on-camera presentations and polished demos, where pacing and covering edits matter.
What's the difference between B-roll and a cutaway? A cutaway is one use of B-roll: a brief shot you cut to and then return from. B-roll is the broader term for all supporting footage, including stills and establishing shots.
If you're writing the script now, start with our product demo video script template and add a [B-ROLL] marker wherever a sentence describes something the main take can't show clearly. Screen Bolt has a free version you can use to try this workflow; its exports are limited to 3 minutes at 720p with a watermark.