- What's up, everybody? Peter McKinnon here and
today, (clapping) hmmm, we're talkin' about B-roll. What it is, what it ain't. How you can use it to make your footage, your films, and your videos,
VLOGs, whatever, way better. And now that I think about it, I should have probably cut
some B-roll over that intro. So maybe we should redo that? What's up, guys? Peter McKinnon here and
today, we're talkin' about B-roll, what it
is, and how you can use it to make your footage
and your videos better. (rock and roll background music) What is B-roll? B-roll is alternative,
or supplemental footage that you can use to cut
on top of your main angle. So if this frame was my main angle, I could use B-roll to overlay and cut on top of this shot, anything I want, to make something more
interesting, to tell a point, to bring you in a direction that I wanna bring you into, or simply to just cover up the fact
that this is my face rambling for the next 10 minutes. Because let's be honest,
I tend to do that. So to start, as an example,
I'm gonna use the VLOG. A lot of VLOGs I start
with a cinematic sort of intro, using B-roll shots to kind of tell the mood, portray how I'm feeling that day, where I am,
what the weather's like, and it kind of sets the
tone for the episode. So let's say I'm gonna go do
a photo shoot in a forest. We're gonna start the VLOG off in my car, but I'm not gonna use any B-roll. This is what that would look like. Choo! What's goin' on everybody? We are outside a really
cool forest right now that has some awesome light. So we're gonna pack up our gear, and we're gonna go inside and shoot, let off some smoke, get some cool B-roll, and yeah, we're gonna
go do that right now. Okay, so that was fun. We are freezing. We're gonna get back in the car now and go do something else 'cause
it is way too cold outside. The wind is just killi... Okay, pretty boring. Not much substance, not much to look at. It wasn't very much fun to watch. Yeah, just not feelin' it at all. Let's see what that looks
like again using B-roll. Choo! What's goin' on everybody? We are outside a really
cool forest right now that has some awesome light. So we're gonna pack up our gear and we're gonna go inside and shoot, let off some smoke, get some cool B-roll, and yeah, we're gonna
go do that right now. (dramatic offbeat background music) Okay, that looks a lot better. The problem is, I only shot B-roll of us. Me taking pictures, my
friend taking pictures. You don't really know where we are, what we're taking pictures of, what we're doing at all. I didn't really give
you enough information. So that's when we gotta shoot B-roll with the environment
that we're in as well. Cut those two together,
it's gonna look like this. (dramatic offbeat background music) (uplifting offbeat background music) So now, we've got something. Now you can see that we're
taking pictures of this forest. You can see what we're looking
at when you see footage of us looking at
something, which just helps fill in the blanks. It helps fill in the gaps and it gives you a more whole experience. How do we take even more B-roll footage? Well, you can use drone footage,
you can use your iPhone. Anything goes at all. So let's see what some drone
footage would look like. ♫ It's like a dance ♫ The way that you ♫ Shake your head in full denial ♫ Love the truth ♫ Didn't get a chance ♫ To say it loud - It looks pretty good but
because this is a VLOG, I wanna shot footage of
me using the drone as well because I'm trying to
tell a story of my day. I'm trying to tell a
story of this photo shoot. So if it's only shots of the footage, if it's only shots from a drone, I'm not really giving
you the full picture. So, let's take a look at the drone shots with me operating the drone. ♫ It's like a dance the way that you ♫ Shake your head in full denial ♫ Of the truth ♫ Didn't get a chance ♫ To say it loud ♫ Your secrets catch you
pushing down this vow ♫ When he was knocking on your door ♫ Nobody got in ♫ Yeah when you're screaming for a hand ♫ Nobody's listening - Now we've got the B-roll of us shooting, we've got the B-roll of our environment, we've got the B-roll of the drone, we got the B-roll of me using the drone. So, how else can we
make some cool footage? Well sometimes, you
just gotta do cool sh-- that looks awesome on camera. So for us, we used some smoke grenades. These thing are awesome. You've probably seen them before. I've used them in many
photographs on my Instagram. I'm sure you've seen other
Instagramers using them. They are all the rage. If you're gonna use
them, don't do it inside or in an area that's gonna
get you into trouble. Be smart about it but I'll
drop a couple links below on where you can pick
them up for yourself. So, what do they do and why do I use them? They do, they just billow smoke, they just billow colored smoke and what's the purpose of them? They look dope, that is it. If you're not into that
kinda thing, skip forward. No hard feelings. I'm into that. Pop a flare, billows a
bunch of colored smoke, looks badass, yes please, I'll take five. So let's see some footage of this smoke and what that looks like. (offbeat music) So there's not really much context there. This guy's just playing with smoke and it, alright cool, yeah it looks cool but it's completely useless
because we didn't show the whole picture. 'Cause we gotta smash
together these shots of us shooting, the drone, me
using the drone, the smoke, the whole mood, the environment, you gotta use these pieces
to complete the meal. Right, it's like throwing all
this stuff into one big soup to finish off the dish so that everyone can jump in and enjoy it. Really weird analogy and
I think it makes sense, but now something to keep in mind is, I shoot my B-roll, a lot of
it at 120 frames a second. Now, why do I do this? Because I feel that it
inherently makes your footage look more cinematic when it's slowed down. Do you have to do that? Absolutely not. There's still great B-roll
and everything to be shot at 24 frames a second
or 30 frames a second. I don't really like 30, I
feel it looks a little weird. I don't know why, it just
makes me feel like ugh, creepy inside. So if you're gonna shoot
24 frames a second, that's perfectly fine. That would definitely give
off a whole different vibe. The slow down of the frame
just inherently makes it feel and look more cinematic, my opinion. Now, what you're saying,
I don't have an expensive, fancy camera that can
do 120 frames a second. Well, if you have an
iPhone, the seven plus does 120 frames a second. It does 240 frames a
second and it shoots in 4K. I know the Pixel phone has a ridiculous image stabilization. I saw a shot from my
friend the other day of him literally one handed
driving down a driveway holding his phone out and it looks like he flew a drone, it's insane. So, phone's have come a long way. Don't underestimate them. Now when you combo a 4K smartphone with image stabilization and throw it into a DJI Osmo, you basically got yourself a 4K steady cam rig right there that you can bust out at anytime
to shoot incredible B-roll. I use mine, I throw it in the backseat, I throw it in the camera bag. Any time that I am
somewhere where I'm like, "Woah, this looks so good." I put my phone on it, I run
around for like 20 minutes, my wife's sittin' there waiting for me. This is not a sponsored
post, I was not paid to say that by DJI, I just
think it's a great product. I get the B-roll because here's the thing. Just because you're not shooting a project doesn't mean that you're
not going to need that or could use it down the road. It's important and sometimes,
it's really, really helpful to actually shoot a ton
of B-roll throughout different trips, throughout your day, throughout the months
because you can backlog that into an archive and then if
you're shooting something or you're running into a
problem and you're editing and you can say, "Do I have any, "I have like 20 minutes
of B-roll that I shot "when we were going for
that walk in that forest "'cause I had the Osmo in the car "or I just stopped at a traffic light "and filmed the clouds for two minutes "'cause they looked insane that day." That's a really good pro
tip for something that you guys can do to just
make your stuff better and make sure that you
have enough material. You can never shoot too much. The worst thing is when you get back and you're starting to
edit and you realize, "I've got a 10 minute clip
of this guy in his kitchen "talking about B-roll, but I only have "like two minutes of actual
B-roll to cut on top." That's the worst scenario to be in. I would rather be like,
"I've got a 10 minute clip "of this guy talking and
I have like 15 minutes "of awesome B-roll footage "and I'm not even sure what not to use "because I love all of it." That's where we wanna be. That's the sweet spot. So, all in all now, when we
take everything that we've shot and we mash it into one final piece, using the footage at the
beginning of me saying we're gonna go on a shoot and then, using all of that B-roll
to right at the end, you're gonna get a way
more whole experience of our experience on this photo shoot. That would look something like this. Choo. What's going on everybody? We are outside a really
cool forest right now that has some awesome light. So we're gonna pack up
our gear and we're gonna go inside and shoot. Let off some smoke, get some cool B-roll and yeah, we're gonna
go do that right now. (upbeat background music) Okay, so that was fun. We are freezing. We're gonna get back in the car now and go do something else. So that's it guys. That is the crash course in B-roll. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you got something out of it and I hope that you start
to use some of these tips and tricks to start
applying these concepts to your own films and VLOGs and projects. Remember, it's the details that matter. When we add all the
different layers of details, that just gives us a more rich experience as a viewer and as a
filmmaker when we're trying to tell our stories across the world. So, that was a nice deep exit. I think I will leave it there. Thanks so much for watching. Hit that like button,
subscribe if you aren't already and I will see you in the next video. Woo, I'm already excited for it and I haven't even done it yet. (upbeat techno music) ♫ Don't be afraid, wont' let you fall girl
