Guide
The eight types of b-roll, sorted by what each one can show
Most lists of b-roll types sort by where the footage comes from, which tells you nothing at the moment you need it. This page sorts the eight kinds by what each one can show, because that is how you actually choose mid-edit: the sentence names something, and one type of shot shows it better than the other seven.
- Types of b-roll, each best at showing a different thing
- 8
- Types that cost nothing to make: screens and photos
- 2
- A finished 30 second video on Cutroom, batch plus export
- 110 CR
- A month on Lite: 1,250 credits, about 11 of those videos
- $19.99
The taxonomy: eight kinds, one line each
Sorting by source gives you two piles, footage you made and footage you found, and no help choosing between a close-up and a wide.
Sorting by what the shot can show gives you a working menu. When a sentence names a process, a place, a product or a number, one of these eight is the right reach.
- The cutaway: a second subject on screen while the voice keeps going. The umbrella term the other seven sit under.
- Process shots: hands doing the work, start to middle to done.
- Stock: someone else's footage of the general idea, searched from a library.
- Custom-filmed: your own clips of your specific thing, shot on a phone.
- Screen recordings: the software, the chart, the listing, captured on the device itself.
- Photos with motion: stills given a slow move so they hold a moving feed.
- Product close-ups: the thing itself, near enough to settle a doubt.
- Location and establishing shots: where this happens, in one wide frame.
What each type shows, and the sentence that calls for it
The type is chosen by the sentence underneath it, not by what happens to be in the folder.
| What it shows | The sentence that calls for it | |
|---|---|---|
| Process shot | How the work is done | Here is what we actually do |
| Product close-up | The thing, up close | Look at the stitching, the seal, the finish |
| Screen recording | The numbers or the interface | This is what the dashboard showed |
| Photo with motion | The past, or a frozen result | This is what it looked like before |
| Establishing shot | The place | At our workshop in Rotterdam |
| Stock | The generic version of an idea | Winter, traffic, a busy gym |
Process shots and product close-ups do the proving
These two carry more weight per second than anything else on the list, because they are evidence rather than illustration.
A process shot earns the slot when the claim is about how something is done. Cleaned by hand, checked twice, made fresh that morning. Ten seconds of the hands doing exactly that turns the sentence into something the viewer watched happen.
A product close-up earns the slot when the claim is about the thing itself. It needs a doubt to answer: the stitching, the seal, the weight of it in a hand. A close-up with no doubt behind it is decoration at short range.
Both are custom by definition. There is no stock clip of your process or your product, which is why these are the shots worth a filming habit.
This is the whole editor
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.
Stock and custom-filmed: the same slot, two different claims
Stock and custom footage compete for the same seconds, but they make different claims. A stock clip says this kind of thing exists. Your own clip says this specific thing is ours.
Stock is the right reach for the passing noun: three seconds of winter, a motorway, a crowded gym. Filming those yourself is effort spent proving something nobody doubted.
Custom is the right reach the moment the sentence is about you. Your premises, your product, your result. A library clip under those words is a stranger standing in for you, and viewers register it faster than they can say why.
The full trade-off, including cost and the hybrid workflow, is its own decision. The short version: both belong in most edits, in different slots.
Screen recordings and moving photos: the two nobody films
The screen recording is the most under-used type on the list. For anyone whose work happens on a screen, an advisor, a recruiter, a coach with a booking dashboard, it is footage of the actual work, it costs nothing to capture, and no competitor has the same one. Blur or crop every name before it goes anywhere.
Photos with motion cover what video cannot reach: the before photo, the old premises, the certificate, the plan on paper. Give every still a slow push or drift. A frame that does not move reads like the video stalled.
Between them, these two types can cover half the slots in a desk profession's video without a single stock search.
Establishing shots: five seconds of where, then move on
The establishing shot answers one question, where is this, and it answers it once. The second establishing shot in a short video is the edit clearing its throat.
It does not need a drone. A shopfront walked toward, a street sign, the view from the door. The point is orientation, not spectacle.
Use it early, keep it short, and never end on one. The last thing on screen should be the person or the thing, not the postcode.
Whichever type you pick, it has to land on the words
Choosing the type is half the decision. The other half is placement, and placement is where edits go wrong: the right shot in roughly the right area is still a miss.
Cutroom places b-roll on the exact words spoken. Upload one talking take, up to 3 minutes. It transcribes every word, drafts the cut, and covers the concrete phrases. Your own uploads, process shots, close-ups, screen recordings and photos included, are matched ahead of the stock libraries, and millions of free clips fill the gaps.
You direct on the transcript, never on a timeline. Highlight the phrase about the stitching and your close-up covers exactly those words. The finished 9:16 MP4 is back in about a minute.
A batch is 100 credits and export adds 20 credits per finished minute, so a 30 second video comes to about 110 credits. Three finished videos are free inside your first seven days, no card, on the 600 credits granted at signup, and they export with a Cutroom mark across the middle. Lite is $19.99 a month for 1,250 credits, about 11 of those, nothing on the picture, cancel in one click.
Any type of b-roll, same route to the words
One take in, the clips land on the phrases that name them, one 9:16 file out.
Upload one take
Up to 3 minutes of talking
Batch
100 credits: transcript, cut, b-roll search
Highlight a phrase
The shot covers those words
Export
20 credits per finished minute
Questions people ask
- Which type of b-roll is most useful for a talking head video?
- Process shots and product close-ups, because they prove rather than decorate. If the video is about desk work, the screen recording takes their place. Stock is the utility type: right for passing nouns, wrong for claims about you.
- Is a screen recording really b-roll?
- Yes. B-roll is any footage cut in while the voice continues, and a screen counts. Record at the device's native resolution, crop to the region that matters, and blur names before it leaves your machine.
- How many types should one video use?
- Two or three. Variety of type is not a goal in itself. The goal is that every covered phrase gets the type that shows it best, and most short videos only raise two or three kinds of doubt.
- Do photos count as a type of b-roll?
- With a move on them, yes. A still that clearly shows the subject can beat a vaguely related clip, and some subjects only exist as photos: the before state, the old shop, the certificate. The one rule is that it must never sit frozen on screen.
- Which of these types does Cutroom handle?
- It searches millions of free stock clips and photos inside the 100 credit batch, and it matches everything you upload first: your clips, screen recordings and stills. What it cannot do is film your process shots. That ten seconds of your hands stays your job.
Eight kinds of footage, one shared standard: the viewer should learn something the sentence alone could not carry. Pick the type by that, and the placing is a highlight, not an evening.