One of the largest differences between film and live theater is how a scene is set. Whether you’re reading Shakespeare or watching a ballet, the performance includes notes for the audience that give information about the time period, back story, characters, and plot right up until the moment the scene begins.
In film, you’re rarely handed a playbill. Instead, the scene is set using short clips that give us a look at the world our characters belong to. We see a closeup of a luxury car’s tire as it runs through a puddle, splashing the casually-dressed pedestrians and we get the feeling that the driver may be insensitive. A flyover shot of Manhattan. Closeup of people’s shoes on a crowded sidewalk. People in three-piece suits walking in and out of the New York Stock Exchange.
These clips are called “B-Roll” by folks in the biz
The thing about B-Roll footage is that it doesn’t move the story forward, it only sets the scene. We don’t know anything about the story until we actually see that luxury car pull up to the curb and a well-dressed person step out of it and walk into the Stock Exchange as the camera follows them inside. Until then, this might be a movie about anyone who could be walking about Lower Manhattan.
We can’t have a story without context. The job of playbills and B-Roll footage is to provide that context.
Lately I’ve been documenting my life via SnapChat Stories. Why? Because documenting my life forces me to look at the story I’m telling and ask if it’s any good. I want to live an incredible life, a life worth sharing stories about. And if others can watch, then perhaps they’ll be inspired to live incredible lives too.
This week what I’ve learned is that most of my day is filled with B-roll material.
I could catch clip after clip to show you what it’s like to be me. I could give context for my context. But catching the key moments in a way that actually moves the story forward? That’s the hard part.
I want a life that consists of more than B-roll moments. I want to do something, every day, to move the story forward.
Curious? Follow along via SnapChat:
