I am about to go crazy. I'm pretty sure that Simon and I are both trying to
do the same thing. Some of these replies are helpful. Unfortunately,
they're all workarounds. They don't get me past the same, maddening issue:
inserting photos or video can only be done by splitting the video. From what
I can tell, I can't COVER video.
Let me describe my situation. I don't know how similar it is to Simon's.
I work at an elementary school. We do an in-house newscast. I want to
interview a teacher on camera. After I shoot the interview, I want to shoot
video of kids working and learning in that teacher's classroom. In the news
business, they'd call this video B-roll. Digital photographs could also be
taken.
When editing together the newscast, I want to show and listen to the teacher
being interviewed. However, I don't want to watch the teacher for the entire
length of the 60-second interview. That would get boring. Instead, I'd like
to lay B-roll video OVER the teacher's interview, so that I see shots from
the classroom but still HEAR the teacher. Then, after a bunch of shots from
the classroom, we go back to video of the teacher and the interview. The
video and audio should still be in sync.
Now, I've totally figured out how to put the audio down on the Audio/Music
track. I've figured out how to split the tracks (though not with great
precision). And I've even figured out that if I stick in 5.17 seconds of
classroom video, I have to cut 5.17 seconds of the interview video. (This is
a very imprecise task as well, especially is my mouse hand is a little
shaky). Then if I want to put in another 3.42 second clip, I shakily cut
another 3.42 seconds of the interview. Then if I stick in ANOTHER 6.42
seconds of B-roll I have to, once again, cut another... JEEZ, WHAT A PAIN!
As you can see, I'm really frustrated and sick of this. I'm having to work
too darn hard just to lay some stupid video on top of my interview. Laying
video on top of video seems like such a small request. I just want to cover
it. Not the audio. Just the video. SURELY there's an easier way. There
HAS to be a way to simply lay video (or still photos) on top of my timeline
without splitting and seperating what's already there.
I hope you can help. I hope there's an easier way.
Very, very very, very frustrated,
Charles