What B-roll should you film for a UGC video?

What counts as B-roll in a UGC video?

B-roll is any footage that plays while your voice carries on, showing the thing you're describing instead of your face saying it.

In a talking video, the main footage is you speaking to the lens. B-roll is everything cut over the top of it: a pour, a zip, a scroll, a close shot of a label. It gives the viewer something new to look at on each beat, and it lets an editor trim a fumbled word without a jump cut showing.

The habits that make your main takes look clean apply here too, so read how to film UGC on a phone so it looks good before you start, and keep the same light for every clip.

Which B-roll shots should be on every UGC shot list?

Plan four kinds of shot every time: the product, your hands with it, the setting, and your reaction.

Write these as a shot list on the same page as your script, so nothing depends on memory once the phone is in your hand. Working through the parts of a UGC video script in order is a simple way to make sure no part is left without a shot.

How do you tie B-roll to the lines in your script?

Go through the script line by line and write down the one shot that would prove or show what each line says.

A two-column script makes this easy: words on the left, picture on the right. If a line says the lid clicks shut, the shot is the lid clicking shut, filmed close enough to hear it. If a line says you keep it in your bag, the shot is your hand pulling it out of the bag. When you can't think of a shot for a line, that line may be too vague to keep.

Give the hook its own planned clip as well. Some edits open on B-roll instead of your face, and the ideas in UGC visual hooks work well as that opening shot.

How much extra B-roll should you film for the edit?

Film a few versions of every planned shot and a handful of unplanned ones, because footage you skipped can't be added later.

• Hold each clip a few seconds longer than you think you need, so the editor can choose where it starts and stops.
• Film the same action from two distances, one wide and one close, so there is a cut between them that looks deliberate.
• Start each clip still, then move, then end still, because clean starts and ends are easier to cut on.
• Keep the phone the same way up and the light the same for every clip, so they match when they sit side by side.
• Grab a couple of clips nobody asked for, like the product on a different surface, since revisions often need one more shot.

Ask the brand whether it wants the spare clips sent as raw files with the finished video. If it does, agree in writing what is included, the way what UGC deliverables include sets out.

What B-roll mistakes are worth checking for before you wrap?

Before you pack up, watch every clip back once and check for the faults that would force a reshoot.

• The label is backwards, blurred or half out of frame in the product shots.
• Your hands cover the part of the product the line is about.
• The background shows another brand's packaging, so move it out of shot.
• A clip is too short to use because you stopped recording the moment the action ended.
• One clip was filmed by the window and another under a ceiling light, so the colour jumps between them.

If the brand's notes ask for a different picture over a line, the planned clips and spares are what let you fix it without filming again. How to handle UGC revisions covers how to send that change back.