B-roll from a sentence
Every talking-head video needs cutaways, and the cutaways are the footage nobody has: the city at dusk, the espresso pour, the hands typing, the road from above. Text to Video makes them to order at 16:9 for the timeline or 9:16 for the Short, with ambient sound if you want it.
Draft is the tier for b-roll: 1 credit per second at 720p, fast, and good enough under a voiceover. Write the shot the way an editor would brief it — subject, movement, light, lens — and keep each clip to one idea.
Starter prompt
“Timelapse of a city skyline from a rooftop as the sun sets and the lights come on, wide lens, warm grade”
What this solves
- Cutaways for a script you recorded at a desk
- Establishing shots of places you did not visit
- Texture shots — hands, rain, steam, traffic — on demand
- Vertical b-roll for the Short cut of the same video
The steps
Brief the shot: subject, movement, light, lens
Editor language — slow pan, shallow depth, golden hour — maps cleanly onto the render.
Text to VideoRender on Draft at 16:9
B-roll under a voiceover does not need Pro; Draft keeps a whole video's cutaways under 60 credits.
Text to VideoReframe the poster for a chapter thumbnail
The best frame of the b-roll doubles as a chapter card.
Reframe for PlatformQuestions
Does b-roll need sound?
Switch sound off if you are laying it under a voiceover; keep it on for ambient beds like rain or traffic that you might use.
How long should each clip be?
Four to six seconds. Cutaways are short; render more clips rather than longer ones.
Can I match my footage's look?
Describe the lens and grade — 35 mm, shallow depth, warm film grade — and keep the same words across all the b-roll for a video.
B-roll from a sentence
Open with these settings