> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.premierecopilot.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Auto B-Roll
> Transcribes your timeline and places your own b-roll where it illustrates what is being said.
Auto B-Roll listens to your edit, looks at every b-roll clip in a folder of your project, and places them on a track above your timeline — wherever the visuals illustrate what's being said.
It uses **your own footage**. Nothing is generated, nothing is downloaded from a stock library.
Works in **Premiere Pro** and **DaVinci Resolve**.
## Quick Start
Put the clips you want available into a project bin. Only bins that actually contain video show up in the picker.
Open the **Tools Menu** and select **Auto B-Roll**.
Choose it in the dropdown — the field pulses green until you do, because nothing can run without it.
**B-roll / min** decides how much b-roll lands on your edit.
e.g. *"only nature shots, keep it subtle"*.
Click **Add Auto B-Roll** and let it work through its four steps.
Your timeline must be under **2 hours** — it gets transcribed, and beyond that the audio export becomes unreliable.
## Settings
| Setting | Range | What it does |
| ----------------- | ------------------ | ----------------------------- |
| **Mode** | Project / Timeline | Where your b-roll comes from. |
| **Model** | 4 models | Which AI does the matching. |
| **B-roll folder** | your project bins | The pool of clips it can use. |
| **B-roll / min** | 1–60 | Density target. |
| **Brief** | free text | Creative direction. |
### Mode
Pick a project bin full of b-roll. The clips are **added on a new track above your edit**. This is the mode to use.
Your b-roll already sits on a video track and gets **moved** to the spots where it fits. Coming soon — currently locked.
### Model
| Model | Best for |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Gemini Flash 3.7** | Ultra-fast matching. The default, and fine for most edits. |
| **Gemini 3.1 Pro** | Long timelines, where consistency across the whole edit matters. |
| **Sonnet 5** | Balanced reasoning — better judgement on subtle or abstract lines. |
| **Claude Opus 5** | Highest precision. Use it when the matches really have to land. |
Start on Flash. If the placements feel random or literal-minded, move up to Sonnet 5 or Opus before blaming the footage — the model does the interpreting.
### B-roll / min
The target is your **timeline duration × this rate**, with a small tolerance. Density is treated as the priority: the AI aims to hit that count rather than holding out for a perfect visual every time.
* **2–4** — occasional punctuation. Interviews, corporate, talking-head where the face carries the video.
* **5–10** — the standard illustrated-video rhythm. **Start around 8.**
* **12+** — dense, fast-cut, montage-heavy. Needs a large, varied b-roll pool to avoid repetition.
Density above what your folder can support forces repetition. A rate of 15/min on a 10-minute timeline asks for \~150 placements — with 20 clips available, you'll see each one many times.
## How it matches
The run goes through four visible steps: **transcribe the timeline → read and analyze your b-roll → AI matching → place the clips.**
What matters for your results:
* **Matching is thematic, not literal.** A clip qualifies if it's figurative, evocative or simply related in mood, setting or subject. A city at dusk over a line about ambition is considered a good match, not a mistake.
* **Repetition is minimised, not banned.** Clips that haven't been used yet are strongly preferred; a clip comes back only when nothing fresh fits.
* **Several clips can stack on one long passage**, up to a small maximum — never on a short one.
* **Placements never overlap.** A clip that would run into the next one is shortened, not dropped.
* **A clip is never stretched beyond its own length.** Short source clips produce short placements.
Your b-roll only needs to be described **once**. Clips already analysed in a previous run are recognised, so re-running — or running on another sequence in the same project — is faster.
## Writing a Good Brief
The brief steers the creative direction. It's optional, and short is better.
### What works
* **Restrict the pool:** *"Only nature and landscape shots — skip anything with people."*
* **Set the tone:** *"Keep it subtle and atmospheric."* / *"Punchy, energetic, on-the-nose."*
* **Guide the interpretation:** *"Favour metaphorical matches over literal ones."* / *"Stay literal — show exactly what I'm talking about."*
* **Protect passages:** *"No b-roll over the intro or the call to action."*
* **Give context:** *"This is a product demo — prefer the office and workshop shots for the process parts."*
### What doesn't work
* **How much b-roll to place** — that's the B-roll / min setting.
* **Timecodes or exact placements** — *"put the drone shot at 2:15"*. The AI picks the moments; do a specific placement by hand.
* **Naming a file** — it works from what the clips *look like*, not from filenames.
* **Effects, transitions or speed** — placement only. No fades, no scaling, no reframing.
* **Asking for footage you don't have** — it can only use what's in the folder you picked.
### Recommended pattern
> *"\[What to include or exclude]. \[Tone]. \[How literal to be]. \[What to leave alone]."*
**Example:**
> *"Only exterior and nature shots, no faces. Calm and atmospheric. Prefer evocative matches over literal ones. Leave the first 20 seconds clean."*
If the results feel repetitive, the fix is usually **more clips in the folder** or **a lower density** — rarely a longer brief.
## Presets
The preset bar saves your whole configuration — mode, folder, track, density, model and brief. Build one per format so a recurring series is a two-click job.
## After the run
The b-roll lands on a track above your edit as ordinary clips: move, trim, replace or delete anything you disagree with. The underlying edit is untouched.
Review it as a pass, not clip by clip: play the timeline once and only stop on placements that actively distract. Auto B-Roll is there to give you a full first layer to prune, which is far faster than building one from scratch.
## Common Pitfalls
* **No folder selected** → the Start button stays disabled and the picker pulses. It's the only blocker you can clear yourself.
* **Empty bins don't appear** in the picker — only bins containing video are listed.
* **Timeline over 2 hours** → refused before anything runs.
* **A tiny b-roll folder with a high density** → heavy repetition. Add clips or lower the rate.
* **Very short source clips** produce very short placements — that's the source length, not a bug.
* **Touching the timeline while it's placing** → let the progress modal finish; it's writing to your sequence.
* **Music or noisy audio under the voice** hurts the transcription, and a weak transcript means weak matches.
**Recommended workflow:** a well-stocked, varied bin → Gemini Flash → 8 b-roll/min → a one-line brief → run → prune in one playback pass. Move to a stronger model only if the matching disappoints.