#MediaMonday: B-Roll and Sandwiches

Good Morning Everyone,

"I think that I got too much B-Roll..." said no one, ever, in the history of broadcast journalism. 

I don't know about any of you, but I have always found it difficult to effectively explain the importance of B-roll to beginning journalism students. A few years ago, however, I started putting B-roll in terms that I will now embarrassingly share with you and hope you can find some use for it as well. 

So the topic of today's strategy is: Sandwiching B-roll

Consequently, my Introductory Media class typically falls during a lunch block. Since food is universal and I want to shamelessly exploit the fact that most of my kids are hungry all of the time, I started describing the concept of B-roll in sandwich termso. Oddly, the students bought into it and even as advanced journalism students, they still use the terms.

So here is how I describe it:

First, students should shoot all B-roll like they are making a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. 

A PB&J is composed of three main components: Peanut Butter, Jelly and Bread. While each of these components are unique on their own, they are magic together. Every time a student thinks about a PB&J, they are imagining the completed sandwich, ready to consume. 

This is how they need to see shooting B-roll!

When a students goes out into the world to shoot B-roll, I always teach them to get a wide, a medium and a tight of everything (which is the way Dave Davis taught me to shoot). However, when kids get out into the field, they panic and start spraying B-roll around the place like a cornered kid in a water gun fight. They get everything and nothing at the same time because they cannot sequence their erratic shots back together in the editor. Instead of teaching a B-roll shot as one shot, what if we taught it as a collection of three: a wide, medium and tight? In sandwich terms, teach students to "assemble the B-roll sandwich" in the field before moving on. To give the greatest opportunities for engaging, dynamic sequences in the editor, a videographer must shoot sequences of everything. So when a kid is shooting in the field, they need to ask themselves, "Did I get a PB&J?". Trust me, it works. 

Second, students should leave on the crust while shooting their B-roll sandwiches.

We've all known that person; you may be that person. It's that one guy who never liked crust on their sandwiches and who's mother cut if off prior to packing it into their lunchbox. 

This is also how we need to be shooting B-roll!

You see, your video editing software is a picky little kid who needs the crust cut off. When we press record on out cameras, we shake the camera. Sometimes, weird stuff happens in a b-roll shot. If you didn't shoot long enough B-roll, you will have to include those mistakes. I always instruct new videographers to shoot individual b-roll shots for 8-10 seconds, so that they can "cut off the crust" at the beginning and the ending of the clip and just use the middle 3-5 seconds of the clip (which is the best part). 

I know this is odd, but the method works. It puts our expectations for best-practices into manageable terms that are easy to remember while in the field. 

Try it sometime and see how the kids react to it. Do not be surprised, however, when a kid comes up to you and starts talking to you about "the crust". 

Talk to you soon,

Josh Cantrell