Best way to stack video on Timeline: A-Roll/B-Roll

will-3 wrote on 4/18/2008, 4:02 AM
What do you guys do... Three options below... Which is better, faster, etc ??

Option-1:
- Put A-Roll (Talking Head) on top timeline
- Put B-Roll (Images) on the timeline below the A-Roll
- Then "Split" the A-Roll video when you want the B-Roll to show
- If so how do you manage transistions with the A-Roll & B-Roll on seperte timelines?

Option-2:
- Put B-Roll (Images) on top time line in places where you want them to show
- Put A-Roll (Talking head) on timeline below B-Roll and don't Split it... just let the B-Roll "Block" the view of the A-Roll when you want.
- If so how do you manage transistions back & forth?

Option-3:
- Put the A-Roll (Talking Head) and the B-Roll (Images) on the same timeline... by "Splitting" the A-Roll and inserting the B-Roll.
- Now you can easily manage transistions by overlapping the A & B roll segments.

Thanks for any comments.

Comments

rs170a wrote on 4/18/2008, 4:15 AM
Option 4:
Drop A-roll & then B-roll on the same timeline.
B-roll automatically overlaps A-roll as a cut.
Add transitions to B-roll in/out points as desired.

Mike
marks27 wrote on 4/18/2008, 4:39 AM
I would go with option-1:

By doing this, you can cut the *exact* clips you want on the main video, leave flexibility with how exactly you fill in the gaps.

I am a big fan of using available tracks. Nothing wrong with goin g5 tracks deep (B-, C-, D- E-rolll). When you can slide video events underneath the gap, well, why not?

Use your tracks,

marks
baysidebas wrote on 4/18/2008, 7:37 AM
With Vegas 8, the easy way out is to use the multicamera function. Then it really doesn't matter how you stack your clips. The preview window is split, showing each of your tracks, and a single button press selects which one is output. Before V8, and before Excalibur, I did it exactly as you suggest, and it took 10 times as long to do the same type of edit as I achieve now with multicam.
kkolbo wrote on 4/18/2008, 2:31 PM
I teach taking one track and cutting the a-roll on it. Edit the dialog etc on that track until it sound right. Then I have a track above it that I slap B-Roll on to cover the edits or add interest. The key for me is that the A-roll (interview etc) is one a track and edited to perfection. Then I just use the B-roll above to cover it up.

Keith
kkolbo wrote on 4/18/2008, 3:05 PM
The demonstration of how I lay it out is at .


Keith
rmack350 wrote on 4/18/2008, 4:26 PM
Try this. Create just one video track. Right click on the track control area and select Expand Track Layers. Play with Vegas like that for a while since this mode does what you're thinking of. It might also give you a better idea of what Vegas is doing.

Rob
kkolbo wrote on 4/18/2008, 5:45 PM
rmack,

If you check out my demo, you will see why that won't do what he wants. It works onl;y if you have a single continuous A-Roll. There is a demo of the expanded track layers at
rmack350 wrote on 4/18/2008, 9:37 PM
You are right, I was in a hurry and skimmed the post.

(...time passes, rob reads again and watches Keith's tutorial...)

Keith, you're reading in more about Will's intent than I can see in his post. He doesn't seem to be asking how to cover up a cut in dialog. Of course if he were then your tutorial would be spot-on, but he seems to just be describing three ways to try to do A/B editing. I think what he's getting at is how to work quickly, in a near-automated fashion. More of a workflow question.

Generally, if the piece is driven by interview monolog, I cut for audio pretty much as you're showing and then use another track for inserts to cover the cuts if I need to. Again, just as you showed. But different types of pieces lend themselves to different workflows.

It is possible to cut inserts directly into a track without breaking the audio but Vegas is a little clumsy at this, especially without real three point editing and insert/overwrite modes. I'd do it the way you're showing.

Rob