I’ve talked a bit about the importance of b-roll. And in an ideal world, there is the time and the opportunity to film b-roll so that your video producer has choices when he/she is trying to edit your video together.
But you know what? If getting b-roll is not possible, no need to fret. I’m biased, of course, because I always feel that good video b-roll makes a video worth watching. However, not all is lost if you don’t have that at your disposal.
For example, a recent client wanted a series of videos on a subject related to toxic chemical remediation within buildings. For logistical reasons, we were not able to get a lot of footage of guys in full body suits removing toxic substances.
So what was the solution?
Brevity. We hacked the video down to the bare bones to keep the talking head(s) to a minimum. We threw in a few funky transitions to jazz it up a little, we tossed in some animated text, and we dropped in a bit of music. It helps, too, that Sean is obviously comfortable on camera.
Okay, so it won’t win any awards for filmmaking, but they got their marketing message across and demonstrated their expertise.