… for Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Tip #875: The Slip Tool Simplifies B-roll

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

The Slip tool makes selecting the best B-roll fast and easy.

B-roll, which are images that reinforce what the speaker is talking about, are essential to most documentary and feature films. While the person on-camera describes a situation, B-roll shows what they are talking about.

Becasue each B-roll image needs to fit within the very specific time when the speaker is talking about it, our challenge is to quickly find the best possible section of each B-roll shot.

That’s where the Slip tool can help.

• Select the Slip tool from the Tool palette (Shortcut: Y). The Slip tool allows you to change the content of a shot, without altering its duration or position.
• Click in the middle of a B-roll clip in the timeline and drag.

As you drag (see screen shot), the Program monitor shows:

• Last frame of the preceding shot (top left)
• First frame of the following shot (top right)
• First frame, and timecode, of the slipped clip (left)
• Last frame, and timecode, of the slipped clip (right)

I use this tool all the time to get the best possible section of my B-roll to fit in the time that I have.