: recorded video of subjects or locations used to provide supplementary material for a film or television show
Zenovich casts video footage of Williams's manic stage persona, including plenty of B-roll from his various TV and film projects, against found audio interviews that reveal the comedian's quieter side.Julia Felsenthal
Goodman and Jacobson are both trained photographers, and often find themselves shooting the produce with one of Butters's two new digital cameras, one for still photography and one for B-roll, in the likely event that she decides to do a television show or a series of how-to DVDs.Dana Goodyear

Examples of B-roll in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The camera is focused on capturing the A-roll, the human elements of a video, while editing is focused on perfecting the B-roll, the voiceover, music, animations, etc. Quora, Forbes, 3 Oct. 2024 Drake has shared 100 gigabytes of data, including three new songs and tons of B-roll footage, on a website called 100 Gigs for Your Headtop. Nina Corcoran, Pitchfork, 6 Aug. 2024 Doug Emhoff appears in network B-roll as the pleasant-looking man dancing without rhythm at White House joyfests. Neal B. Freeman, National Review, 30 July 2024 The Haqqani video editors then splice the bloody footage with B-roll snatched from satellite channels and YouTube. Michael Semple, Foreign Affairs, 23 Sep. 2011 Even with a social media manager, the pressures of content creation clutter valuable brain space and twist every event into an opportunity for filming B-roll. Celia Ford, Vox, 5 June 2024 And not for nothing, Couples Therapy’s B-roll footage is some of the best portraiture of New York City ever put on TV. Savannah Salazar, Vulture, 31 May 2024 The film features ample B-roll from Willis’ homecoming visits in her later years, which included honors from the likes of the Motown Museum and Detroit Music Awards. Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press, 7 Apr. 2024 Videos and other content made by the visitors have come to serve as a kind of B-roll footage accompanying conversations about immigration on Fox News, Tucker Carlson’s online show and even for Mr. Trump himself. Ken Bensinger Federico Rios, New York Times, 20 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'B-roll.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

originally in opposition to an A-roll in film and video editing that contained the principal footage

First Known Use

1983, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of B-roll was in 1983

Dictionary Entries Near B-roll

Cite this Entry

“B-roll.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/B-roll. Accessed 21 Oct. 2024.

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