Learning Terminology: What's the difference between Cutaway, B-roll, Overlay, Montages and Sequences?

If you’ve struggled to understand or use film terminologies like b-roll, overlay, cutaway, montage and sequence interchangeably - well, now’s a great time to learn what they actually mean.

Learning the right terms will help you plan and communicate your next shoot better!

Let’s check out the episode,

Like many terminologies, it’s very easy to use terms, but non-intentionally use the incorrect ones - pan, tilt - I’m looking at you.

So let’s get started.

Firstly….

Why should we consider putting footage over the top of us talking/presenting? Simple really, engagement. We want our viewers to stay tuned to what we’re talking about, and we’re simple beasts, we like seeing different images. So changing up what the viewer sees can help them stay tuned to your message. On the back end - it can really help your video not only look prettier but also help communicate our points better.

Now on with the terminology…

Overlay / B-Roll

These are common terminologies for footage that is placed over the top of other footage to help break up the video for the viewer. We have recognised that we need to break our video up, and we’ll use some overlay or b-roll footage to do so.

But we may be looking at some specific terms to help describe what we need. And typically, those terms fall to:

Cutaways

A cutaway is when we show footage that is directly related to what we’re talking about. Think about this as closeups of a product feature. We’re talking about how the non-slip handles are great, and the image of non-slip handles comes up - it helps the viewer understand the visual element of the communication.

Montage

A montage is a series of shots that help to show the essence of what happened over a period of time.

The shots are not driven by time - so sometimes we’ll show something shot later in the day, before something that happened earlier. A good example of when a montage gets used is an event highlight video. We see people at the event enjoying themselves, but the footage is not in chronological order, its just shots throughout the event to help communicate an emotion about the event.

Sequence

A sequence, on the other hand, is in chronological order, and it’s done so that the viewer can follow along. So mostly this would be used for instructional/demonstration videos. If the clips we shot weren’t used in order then we would lose track of what was happening, and we wouldn’t be able to follow along with the how-to.

Let’s wrap this up

There we go - some simple terminology that often gets mixed up, now clarified to help you communicate better. And like I’ve said so many times - the better we can communicate during our planning stages, the easier our shoots will go.

As ever, I hope you’ve enjoyed the episode. If you have any questions please feel free to get in touch.

Until next time,

Beard Out