What if I have no original footage for a point?

A diagram, licensed stock or a clearly illustrative AI visual can work, or no B-roll at all. What never works is fake material presented as real.

What B-roll fits software videos?

Focused screen recordings cropped to the relevant area, annotated screenshots and simple process diagrams.

What B-roll fits personal stories?

Real photographs, real locations and real objects. The emotional weight usually belongs on the speaker, not on generic imagery.

Can stock footage illustrate a customer result?

It can illustrate the topic, never prove the result. Presenting stock or synthetic people as your actual customer is fabrication.

How do I choose between several B-roll ideas?

Pick the visual that supports the exact sentence most clearly and that you can use accurately and legally. Function decides, not looks.

B-roll examples for short-form video

Q: What are good B-roll examples for short-form video?

Product close-ups, screen recordings, real process footage, screenshots, diagrams, location shots, verified results, before-and-after comparisons and relevant visual metaphors.

Useful B-roll for short-form video comes down to a small set of moves: product close-ups, screen recordings, real process footage, screenshots, diagrams, location shots, verified results, before-and-after comparisons and honest visual metaphors. The best choice always depends on what the speaker is saying and what the viewer needs to see.

The method behind every example below: start with the sentence, then decide what, if anything, the viewer should see. Do not choose B-roll because it looks active; choose it because it explains, demonstrates, proves, contextualises or meaningfully transitions the message.

Product and software

"The captions follow your brand's colours." Show a focused screen recording of exactly that setting changing, cropped to the panel. Function: demonstrate. Source: screen recording.
"The new mount fits any tripod." Show the thread in close-up while it is being attached. Function: demonstrate. Source: original footage.
"The old flow took six steps; now it takes two." Show both flows side by side, or a before-and-after of the same screen. Function: compare. Source: screen recordings.
"Upload your takes and the edit comes back finished." Show a four-step diagram: footage, edit, review, export. Function: explain. Source: diagram.

Expert and educational

"Speed and pacing are not the same thing." Show a two-column graphic naming both. Function: explain. Source: diagram.
"Retention drops when the first sentence stalls." Show a verified chart from a real, named source. Function: evidence. Note: do not use an unrelated stock graph or an invented curve; a plausible-looking chart is a claim.
"Most creators record more than they publish." Show a folder of twelve takes next to one exported file. Function: illustrate the gap. Source: original screenshot.

Founder and personal stories

"We started in a spare room in Utrecht." Show the real room, or the real photo from that year. Function: context. Source: original material.
"This was our first prototype." Show the actual object. Function: evidence.
"That call changed everything for me." Show nothing. Keep the speaker on screen; do not cover the emotional core with generic sad imagery. Function: preserve accountability and expression. Source: no B-roll.

Process, problem and solution

"Twelve takes went in; one video came out." Show the progression: twelve files, five selected scenes, one complete edit. Function: demonstrate the process.
"The bottleneck is never the recording; it's the edit." Show a simple pipeline graphic with one stage highlighted. Function: explain. Source: diagram.
"Feedback used to get lost between versions." Show the real old folder chaos next to the current organised view. Function: compare, honestly.

Customer cases and UGC

"Their team ships three shorts a week now." Show approved footage of that team, or their approved dashboard. Function: evidence. Note: approval first, anonymise what is not yours to show, and never use a synthetic person implied to be the real client.
"You can hear the difference outside." Show the actual street test with its real audio. Function: demonstrate.
"I record five hooks before picking one." Show the behind-the-scenes of those five attempts. Function: context, and it humanises the work.

Transitions and abstractions

"Meanwhile, back at the venue…" A real establishing shot of the venue earns its place; a random skyline does not.
"Every take is a branch you could have picked." A branching diagram, or a clearly illustrative AI visual. Abstract concepts are where generated imagery works, precisely because nothing real is being claimed.

What not to use

Synthetic customers presented as real. Generated dashboards presented as working product. AI-generated historical or news footage presented as documentation. Stock results presented as your results. Unlicensed anything. The rule that filters all of it: the visual must not create a stronger factual claim than the narration supports.

Where ReadyForm fits

ReadyForm places this kind of supporting material while it makes the complete edit from your takes: stock found for the sentence being spoken, plus your own Library uploads (the product shots, the screenshots, the real prototype photo), timed to the words. Whether a visual is original, stock or graphical, the review stays yours per scene. See how the edit is made or the AI B-roll feature.