How to put your b-roll below you instead of over you

Last updated 2026-09-10 · 8 min read

What is the short version?

Standard b-roll replaces you on screen. That is fine when the job is illustrating a fact, and expensive when the reason people are watching is you — every cutaway is a few seconds in which the person they came for has left the frame.

1. Go to Vizard Agent with your footage and the b-roll.
2. Say you want to stay on screen throughout.
3. Ask for the b-roll as one continuous reel below.

What do you need before you start?

Your talking-head footage and enough b-roll to run continuously. Vizard Agent builds the lower panel as a single reel, so it needs enough material to fill the time — gaps in a bottom panel are far more obvious than gaps between cutaways.

• Your footage. Framed with room to crop.
• The b-roll. Enough to run underneath throughout.
• Which panel is bigger. It sets the emphasis.
• Where the captions go. Usually in your panel.
• The format. This suits vertical particularly well.

What do you type into Vizard Agent?

Describe the layout to Vizard Agent rather than the effect. Asking for b-roll gets you cutaways by default, because cutaways are what b-roll normally means, so the split layout has to be requested as a layout in its own right.

Prompt

Variants worth knowing:

• "Underneath me, not cutting away." Names the layout.
• "One continuous reel." Not separate inserts.
• "Reframe each clip to the panel." Stops the letterboxing.

What does Vizard Agent actually do?

Here is the sequence Vizard Agent worked through on a real talking-head film that was rebuilt as a split layout. Most of the effort turns out to be framing, and it happens twice: once for you in the top panel and once for everything that runs below you.

1. Tests the top-panel framing with the caption zone in mind.
2. Checks where your face sits in that half.
3. Tries more than one framing for the top before choosing.
4. Reviews the b-roll clip by clip.
5. Reframes every clip to the bottom panel's shape.
6. Builds them into one continuous reel.
7. Renders the split version.
8. Checks the layout across the whole film, not one frame.
9. Adjusts either panel where the proportions look wrong.

Step five is the one that separates this from a template. A landscape b-roll clip dropped into a wide, short panel arrives with black above and below it, so every clip has to be recropped for that shape — which is a per-clip decision about what to keep, not a global setting.

Step one matters because your panel is smaller than you think. Framing yourself for a full screen and then cropping to the top half puts your head at the edge and leaves the captions nowhere to go, so the panel framing gets designed rather than inherited.

Step eight catches drift. A split layout that works on the opening frame can fail halfway through when you lean forward or the b-roll changes subject, so the whole film gets checked rather than a representative moment.

What does the result look like?

You, present for the entire video, with the illustration running beneath you rather than in place of you. The captions have space of their own, the bottom reel never goes black between clips, and nothing arrives letterboxed inside its own half of the screen.

Vizard Agent also tells you which b-roll clips it recropped and how, which matters when one of them turns out to be more important than it looked in the wide.

When does this not work well?

Two panels means everything is half the size. Detailed b-roll — a screen recording, a document, small text — becomes unreadable in a lower panel, and there are films where cutting away completely is simply the stronger choice.

• Detailed b-roll. Half a frame is not enough.
• Not enough material. The bottom panel cannot go empty.
• Landscape delivery. The layout suits vertical better.
• Moments that should be just you. A full frame carries more.
• Very short videos. The layout needs time to establish.

How do you fix a result that came back wrong?

Say which panel it is and what is wrong inside it. Because Vizard Agent framed the two panels separately from each other, a note about your own framing does not disturb the b-roll reel underneath, and a note about one clip does not move you.

• "I am too low in the frame." The top framing lifts.
• "That clip is letterboxed." It needs its own recrop.
• "The bottom is boring." More variety in the reel.
• "Make my panel bigger." The proportions shift.

How does Vizard Agent compare to doing it yourself?

By hand a split layout is a template with two boxes, and the clips get scaled to fit. The scaling is what produces the black bars and the awkward crops, and the fix is per clip, which is why most people give up and go back to cutaways.

Common questions

Why not just cut away? Because you disappear, and on a talking-head video you are the reason people watch.

Does the b-roll need sound? Usually not. Vizard Agent keeps your voice leading.

Which panel should be bigger? Whichever carries the point. Vizard Agent will show you both ways.

Where do the captions go? Usually in your panel. Vizard Agent frames you with room for them.

What if I run out of b-roll? Vizard Agent will say so; an empty bottom panel is worse than a cutaway.

Can it mix both approaches? Yes. Vizard Agent can go full-frame for some moments and split for others.

Will every clip be recropped? Yes. Vizard Agent treats each one as its own framing decision.

Does it work in landscape? It can, but the layout reads better in vertical.

What about screen recordings below? Often too detailed. Vizard Agent will warn you.

Can the panels swap? Yes, though Vizard Agent will note that switching often is distracting.

Will it check the whole video? Yes. Vizard Agent checks it throughout, because the layout can fail partway.

Does my original framing matter? A great deal. Leave headroom so Vizard Agent can crop to the panel.

Can I use my own layout? Yes. Give Vizard Agent the proportions you want.

Why do clips end up letterboxed? Because they were scaled into the panel rather than recropped for it.