B-Roll for ADHD Business Owners: A Step-by-Step Filming Method

Tired of vague 'just film your morning routine' advice? Here is a prescriptive, step-by-step B-roll method designed for neurodivergent brains that need specifics, not prompts.

9/23/20263 min read

B-Roll for ADHD Business Owners:
A Step-by-Step Filming Method

If I see one more Reel telling business owners to “film your morning routine” as if that is a complete instruction, I am going to lose my shit.

“Just film yourself making a coffee.”

Okay. But. Where do I put the phone? How far away? Which camera? Do I talk? Do I look at the lens? Do I film the whole routine or just the interesting bits? What counts as interesting? How do I know if the light is right? What if my room is a cave? Do I film vertically or horizontally? How long should each clip be? What do I do with the footage afterwards?

‘Film yourself making a coffee’ answers exactly none of these questions. It is advice written by people who already know what good footage looks like, aimed at people who potentially do not. It assumes you can fill in the gaps. It assumes your brain does not immediately go blank when faced with an open-ended prompt.

If you are neurodivergent, open-ended prompts are not inspirational. They're why you have 47 half-finished clips on your phone and a voice note from your editor saying, “I don’t know wtf is going on here.”

I have seen enough timelines to spot a pattern. The footage isn't bad because you are bad at filming; it’s bad because nobody ever taught you what to do.

So I wrote a method. It is called ‘Cut on the Action B-Roll Method’. It is exactly as prescriptive as your brain needs it to be. No ~be natural~, just a list of shots you can ACTUALLY use.

Here’s how it works.

The Rule in Four Words

Cut on the action.

Film the same action from different angles, then cut on the movement. The movement hides the cut. It looks like one continuous moment even though you filmed it three times.

That is the whole trick. Everything else is just applying it.

Scenario: Desk Work

This is the easiest one and the one you will use most. Everyone who works from home has a desk, even if it is the kitchen table.

Before you start, turn off HDR on your iPhone. Film in 4K at 30fps. Use the back camera. Film vertically if your content is short-form.

Place your phone about 2-3 metres away for wide shots (we're aiming for the whole subject plus background/scene context), 1 metre away for medium shots (we’re aiming for the head and torso of your subject), and as close as possible, in focus, for close-up shots. If you are using natural light from a window, make sure it’s not directly behind you, or you will look like a silhouette. Clear the cereal bowl off the desk/kitchen table. You don't need to Marie Kondo the room; give yourself a clean patch.

Now film these five shots. Ten seconds each. Hold still for two seconds at the start and end of every clip. Do not speak unless you want the audio.

Shot 1: Wide
Walk to your desk. Sit down. Open your laptop. Hold still. Stop recording.

Shot 2: Medium
Side angle. Lower yourself into the chair. Reach for the laptop and open it. Hold still. Stop.

Shot 3: Close-up
Open the laptop again. Then fingers typing. Screen reflection, if you can catch it. Hold still. Stop.

Shot 4: Close-up
Your coffee cup or water bottle on the desk. Your hand reaching for it. Hold still. Stop.

Shot 5: Wide
Stand up. Walk away from the desk. Hold still. Stop.

That is five clips in under ten minutes of setup and filming. Your editor now has enough to build a sequence that looks intentional.

The cuts work like this: you cut from the wide shot to the medium shot, right as you start lowering into the chair. You cut from the medium to the close-up as your hand moves toward the laptop. The movement hides the edit. It just flows.

You don’t need to be a natural on camera. You don’t need to feel confident either. You need a list to follow.

Why This Matters

Most B-roll advice comes from people who think visually. They tell you to “capture the vibe” because they automatically translate it into specific shots. Your brain might not do that. Mine didn’t either. I needed the recipe, not a prompt.

When you send an editor footage that follows a method, two things happen. One, they can actually edit it without wanting to scream. Two, they can focus on making it good instead of spending two hours trying to salvage shaky, backlit, 60-second clips.

You are not trying to become a filmmaker. You are trying to give your editor puzzle pieces they can assemble. That is a completely different job, and one you can actually do.