Section 8.8. Overlaying Video over Sound


8.8. Overlaying Video over Sound

One of the most popular editing techniquesboth with editors and audiencesis the video overlay. (On the Internet, you may hear this technique called an insert edit, but that actually has nothing to do with pasting video over audio.)

As shown in Figure 8-12, a video overlay is where the video cuts away to a new picture, but you continue to hear the audio from the original clip.

Figure 1-12. When you overlay video over sound, you can illustrate what the speaker is saying without losing her train of voice.


Suppose, for example, that you've got footage of an old man describing his first love. As he gets to the part where he describes meeting her, you want to cut to a closeup of her portrait on his mantelpiece.

8.8.1. The "Extract Audio in Paste Over" Checkbox

It's a piece of cake to paste a piece of video without disturbing the original audio track. First, though, choose iMovie Preferences, click General, and make sure "Extract audio when using 'Paste Over at Playhead" is selected.

If this checkbox is turned on, you'll paste only the video, preserving whatever audio is already on your audio tracks. If the checkbox is turned off, you'll wipe out both the audio and the video in the spot where you paste.

Close the Preferences window. You're now ready to paste over.

8.8.2. Performing the Overlay

To perform the video overlay, follow these steps:

  1. Select the footage you want to paste.

    If it's a complete clip, just highlight its icon on the Clips pane or in the Movie Track. If it's a portion of a clip, use the crop markers to specify the part you want, as described on page 131.

  2. Cut or copy the selected footage.

    Use the Edit Cut or Edit Copy commands.

    Now you have to make an important decision. You're about to paste some copied video over some existing video. But how much of it do you want to paste? You can either "paste to fit" so that the pasted video begins and ends at precise frames , filling a hole in the existing footage of a particular length; or you can paste it all, without worrying about where the end of the pasted material falls . In this second scenario, you don't want to have to specify a cutoff point (where the existing video cuts in again).

    These two cases are illustrated in Figure 8-13.

  3. If you want to paste the entire copied chunk , position the Playhead in the Timeline Viewer exactly where you want the insert to appear. Then choose Advanced Paste Over at Playhead (or press Shift- -V).

    The video you've pasted wipes out whatever was already there, even if it replaces multiple clips (or parts of clips). If the "Extract audio when using 'Paste Over at Playhead'" checkbox is turned on, as described above, your edit is complete. You've got a cutaway to new video as the original audio track continues.

    GEM IN THE ROUGH
    The Invisible Audio "Shelf"

    When you're editing video, the Clips pane provides a handy temporary working space where you can set aside clips that you haven't yet placed into the movie. If you've ever worked with a page-layout program like InDesign, you're already familiar with this " pasteboard " effect.

    Unfortunately, iMovie doesn't come with any pane or pasteboard where you can temporarily park audio clips.

    If you think it might be handy to have such a workspace as you manipulate your audio clips, the solution is simple: Drag them, or paste them, far off to the right of the Timeline Viewer, beyond the right edge of your video. Then, just drag them back into place when you're ready for them. (Just don't leave any stray audio clips there by accident . You'll look pretty silly when your movie premieres at Cannes.)


  4. If you want to paste to fit, highlight the portion of the movie that you want the pasted video to replace. Then choose Advanced Paste Over at Playhead.

    To select the region that your paste will replace, you can use any of the techniques described in Chapter 4. If you want to knock out only a portion of a single clip, for example, click the clip in the Movie Track and then use the Scrubber bar crop handles to isolate the section that will be replaced (Figure 8-13, bottom). If you want to paste into a segment that spans multiple clips (or parts of clips), choose Edit Select None, and then use the cropping handles on the entire Scrubber bar map of your movie.

    When you paste, one of three things may happen. If the pasted material is precisely the same length as the region you've highlighted, greatthe pasted chunk drops perfectly into the hole. If the pasted material is longer than the highlighted region, however, iMovie chops off the pasted portion, using as much of the first portion as possible to fit the area you've designated. And if the pasted material is too short to fill the reserved space, iMovie creates a "black" clip (see page 140) to fill the remaining highlighted area.

Figure 1-13. Suppose you've just copied a five second chunk of video.
Top: In some cases, you might want to paste the entire clip, letting it overwrite the existing Timeline Viewer video for five seconds, as shown here before and after.
Bottom: At other times, you might want the pasted video to pour into the Timeline Viewer so that it fills a particular gap, like the three-second selection shown here. The trick is to highlight the portion of the Scrubber bar you want to fill before you paste.
In that case, you'll paste over only three seconds, no matter how much footage is on the Clipboard.




iMovie HD & iDVD 5. The Missing Manual
iMovie HD & iDVD 5: The Missing Manual
ISBN: 0596100337
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 209
Authors: David Pogue

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