B-Roll credits - best practices.

James Carpenter

James Carpenter

Well-known member
Any thoughts on the best way to credit a b-roll supplier for video housed on YouTube?

My comms guy wants a dedicated section of the video clip to contains credits, I want to simply put the credit in the text description of the YouTube clip.

Any thoughts, best practices etc would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
 
Personally, I think putting credits IN the video that is going to be hosted on YouTube is a complete waste of time. All credits should be in the text description.

I see this a lot with information being put in web videos that doesn't need to be in there (especially where text information is "held" for a specific amount of time, presumably to allow someone to write it down?(!))
 
the b-roll is donated to us, but most of the donors want credits, which is fine and understandable. my fight is that it really shouldn't have to go IN the video clip. it's not like you can download the video (without breaching YouTube legalities) and use it elsewhere.
 
I tend to do both. People will probably skip the credits, so it really doesn't do anything on web only distribution, but it makes people involved feel better. The text description accomplishes a lot more, especially when links are included. But neither of them hurt the final product. I do recommend that you have the embedded credits go by quickly, on slates rather than scrolled. Much easier to read and less intrusive than other options.
 
Good question, Noel.

Is this a documentary, where an on-screen credit superimposed as the image is playing is customary?

Or is it a a narrative story, where it wouldn't be normally seen? Plus there is the percentage of content, as Noel asked. A 3 second clip in a 1 hour play production would be unreasonable to see the credit cite while it played. Credit it at the end.

Plus, I wouldn't call it "b-roll" in the credits, LOL. Use "additional footage provided by..."
 
If you go with the in-description route (which I personally prefer) then make sure you throw in an annotation in the video at some point - it's easy to miss it unless you know where to look.

The same people who don't look at the credits in the description are the same people who will shut the video off when the credits start rolling.
 
josh-ozirigpro said:
If you go with the in-description route (which I personally prefer) then make sure you throw in an annotation in the video at some point
Click to expand...

Annotation like that is super annoying for the end user, unless the video is such that the majority of the audience would want to know who provided the B-roll.
 
This is more to keep the individuals who donated the media happy than it is for interest in who shot the b-roll.
I have been informed by those higher up than me that I must add credits at the end of the footage, period. Text descriptors in the description will not suffice.

Ah well, another good use of my time I guess.....
 
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