B-roll: what it is, with examples, and B-roll added to your clips
B-roll is the supporting footage cut in over the main shot: the place, the hands at work, the thing being talked about, while the speaker's voice carries on. In a talking video it shows what the words describe and hides the cuts. Burncaps adds it to clips for you: with Pro and its free 7-day trial, press Add B-roll on a clip and the editor lays stock shots from Pixabay over up to three moments where you name something a viewer can picture.
- Free, no sign-up
- B-roll on Pro clips
- Video never uploaded
Live preview, rendered on this page by the same engine that burns your video.
What B-roll is
Every edited video is built from two kinds of picture: the shot that carries the story, and the shots that support it. In a talking video the first is you, speaking; the second is everything the viewer sees while your voice carries on.
A-roll
The main footage: the person talking to camera, the interview, the presenter. The sound of the A-roll usually runs the whole way through, even while other pictures are on screen.
B-roll
The supporting footage laid over the A-roll or cut in between: the place, the object, the hands at work, a screen recording, an old photo. The viewer still hears the speaker, but sees what the words describe.
Cutaway
A shot that leaves the main action for a moment, to show something related or something happening at the same time, then cuts back. A B-roll shot in a talking video is a cutaway: a few seconds away, then back to the face.
Where the word comes from
Merriam-Webster defines B-roll as recorded video of subjects or places that supplies extra material for a film or television programme, and dates its first known use to 1983. The name comes from film and video editing, where an A-roll held the principal footage and a B-roll the extra material. It also lists the film sense of a cutaway: a shot that interrupts the main action to take up a related subject, or to show action going on at the same time. Sources: Merriam-Webster, B-roll and Merriam-Webster, cutaway, both read on 8 November 2026.
How editors use B-roll in a talking video
B-roll does three jobs in a video of someone talking. It shows the thing instead of asking the viewer to imagine it. It covers a cut, because a jump in the speaker's face is invisible when the picture has changed anyway. And it changes the rhythm, so a long stretch of one face gets a few seconds of something new.
| What the speaker says | B-roll that fits | Why |
|---|---|---|
| "I bake a loaf every Sunday morning" | Dough being kneaded on a floured worktop | Shows the activity the words name |
| "Most of us check our phones too often" | A hand scrolling a phone | An everyday object anyone can picture |
| "We moved to a big city last year" | A busy street at night | A kind of place works; a named one ("we moved to Leeds") needs your own footage, as stock would show the wrong street |
| "Our team meets every Monday" | People round a table with laptops | Covers a cut while the sentence carries on |
| "This is the trick I use", while holding it up | None | The camera already shows the real thing; a stock shot would hide it |
| The punchline, or the moment a story turns | None | The face carries it; a cutaway there takes the feeling away |
Where B-roll comes from
The best B-roll is often your own: a few seconds of the place, the object or your hands, filmed on the same day and in the same light as the main take. Screen recordings and old photos work for a story or a tutorial. Free stock libraries fill the rest; this page names only the one Burncaps uses, below. Burncaps does not host a library of its own to browse or download.
B-roll added to your clips, in Burncaps
Choose Clips, open a clip, and press Add B-roll under the Captions tab. Nothing is added until you press it, and these are the rules it follows, from its own code.
| What | How it works |
|---|---|
| Finding the moments | The clip's words, with their times, go to our server and on to our AI, which names up to three moments where you mention something a viewer can picture: a kind of place, an object, an activity, nature, the weather, a crowd |
| What it leaves alone | The AI is told never to cover the first 3 seconds (your hook) or the last 2, a punchline or a confession, a named person, brand or place, or a thing you are already showing the camera; when nothing fits, it adds nothing |
| The shots | Real stock video, found by a few plain search words from a fixed list of everyday words, never a name; each shot fills the screen for about two or three seconds while your voice and the captions carry on |
| How much of the clip | The moments it picks never cover more than two fifths of a clip, and leave you on screen between two shots |
| Your changes | Swap a shot for another one found, move it half a second earlier or later, remove one, or remove them all |
| The export | The exported MP4 draws the same shots under the captions, with your voice running through them |
Who gets it, and what leaves your device
B-roll is part of Pro and its free 7-day trial, no card. Without Pro or the trial, pressing Add B-roll shows the Pro offer, and once either is on, the press carries on by itself on that clip. When you press it, the clip's words with their times, the names you typed and the language go to our server and on to Claude (Anthropic); our server sends only the search words to Pixabay, and your browser fetches the shots you see from Pixabay's own server (cdn.pixabay.com). Your video and its sound are never sent anywhere for this, and with Keep everything on this device ticked, nothing is sent at all. Under the shots, the editor credits them with a link: Stock video from Pixabay. Privacy, B-roll has every detail.
What it does not do
No footage made by AI
The shots are real stock video. Our AI only reads your words and chooses where a shot goes and what to search for; it never generates a picture.
Clips only
B-roll goes on clips only. The whole video with captions never gets stock shots: it plays every second as you recorded it.
No library to browse
You cannot search for a shot yourself or upload your own B-roll. Each moment offers the shots found for it, and you swap between them or remove it.
How to add B-roll to a talking clip
- Drop the video. An MP4 or MOV of up to three hours and 10 GB, on a phone or a computer. It is read on your device and never uploaded.
- Choose Clips. Burncaps listens, then lists the best moments, ranked, each cut to 9:16 with the ums and long pauses taken out.
- Open a clip and press Add B-roll. The shots appear on the words they illustrate. Play the clip, then swap, move or remove any of them.
- Export. One 9:16 MP4 with the B-roll, the captions and an opening card, framed on whoever is talking.
What it costs
Free: 2 videos every 30 days, each with captions and up to 3 clips, no watermark, no sign-up. Then try Pro free for 7 days, no card. Pro is $29 a month for unlimited clips and captions; Starter is $9.98 a month or $49 once.
Questions, answered plainly
What is B-roll?
B-roll is supporting footage cut in over the main shot: the place, the hands at work, the thing being talked about, while the speaker's voice carries on underneath. Merriam-Webster defines it as recorded video of subjects or places that supplies extra material for a film or television programme, and dates the word to 1983.
What is the difference between A-roll and B-roll?
A-roll is the main footage, the shot that carries the story: in a talking video, the person speaking. B-roll is the supporting footage laid over it or cut in between. The names come from film and video editing, where the A-roll held the principal footage and the B-roll the extra material.
What is a cutaway shot?
A cutaway is a shot that leaves the main action for a moment, to show something related or something happening at the same time, and then cuts back. In a talking video, the cutaway is the B-roll shot: a few seconds of the thing being described, then back to the speaker's face.
What are good B-roll ideas for a talking video?
Shots of what the words describe: your hands doing the task, the place you are talking about, the tool or the dish, a screen recording of the steps, an old photo for a story. Shoot a few seconds of each, steady and in the same light as the main take, so the cut back to you feels natural.
Can Burncaps add B-roll to my clips?
Yes, with Pro and its free 7-day trial (no card): press Add B-roll on a clip. Our AI reads the clip's words and names up to three moments where you mention something a viewer can picture, and the editor lays a stock shot from Pixabay over each, about two or three seconds long, full screen, with your voice and captions carrying on. Swap a shot, move it half a second earlier or later, or remove it. It is real stock video chosen from your words, not footage made by AI.
Where can I find free B-roll footage?
Film your own on a phone: a few seconds of the place, the object or your hands is often the best B-roll there is. Free stock libraries such as Pixabay hold short clips you can search by word. In Burncaps, Add B-roll on Pro and its free 7-day trial searches Pixabay for you and places the shots on the words.
Burncaps facts, checked 8 November 2026
What it is: a browser tool that burns animated word-by-word captions into a talking video, or finds the best moments of a talk, podcast or interview and gives them back as ranked, captioned 9:16 clips.
Price: free for 2 videos every 30 days, each one recording with its captioned video and up to 3 clips, no mark and no sign-up; then the free 7-day Pro trial, no card (your email only); then Pro, $29 a month, gives unlimited clips and captioned videos, or Starter, $9.98 a month or $49 once, gives unlimited captioned videos. Starter paid once is not a subscription.
Privacy: the video never leaves your browser. The sound goes only to our speech service, on a phone unless you switch it off, on a computer only if you choose it. Because the video never reaches us, we cannot keep it or train AI on it, and we train no AI on anything you make.
Files: MP4 or MOV in, MP4 out. Captions on the whole video: up to ten minutes. Clips: up to three hours, on a phone or a computer. SRT, VTT, ASS and text files are free without limit for recordings up to ten minutes; a longer recording, up to three hours, gives its script and those files (the first ten minutes free, all of it as one of your free videos, in the trial or with Pro or Starter) and its clips (every one found and shown before you sign up; up to 3 from each free video exported free, every one in the trial or with Pro).
Clips: about one clip for every two minutes of talk, up to 30, ranked, the ones we would post first circled, each showing the words it opens and ends on and the reason it was chosen; each cut to 9:16 with ums and dead air removed, an opening card and captions, framed on whoever is talking. Every clip of the whole recording is found and shown, free and with no sign-up; each free video exports up to 3 of them, and the 7-day trial and Pro export every clip, unlimited.
Languages and styles: captions in the language spoken, twelve Indian languages heard on your device, translation into 59 languages, 60 caption styles.
After it listens: correct any word (one click changes it everywhere), add or cut words, one to six words at a time, position, size, text and highlight colours, and names this browser remembers, all free and without listening again.
Made by: Jordan Labs Ltd, UK company no. 17358646.
Against other tools: twelve AI clipping tools by what their free plans export.