Need advice for unique editing requirement

[Eddie911]

I'm fairly new to video editing software. I've done a couple of iMovie and Pinnacle projects on my iPhone and iPad. But these projects are getting more complex, so I think I need to move to my Windows desktop for the next one.

The only projects I've done so far have been for film festivals -- specifically to produce a "trailer of trailers" video, lasting about 20 - 30 minutes. I take a set of trailers for the festival (professionally produced), and place them into the project, with simple transitions between them. Some of the films have no trailers, so I take the synopses, and create a scrolling text video, with some thematic music leading and trailing the videos and synopses. There are usually about 15-20 of these vids/synopses. The resultant video showcases all the films to be shown, and is played outside the screening room on a large screen, so attendees can preview what’s showing.

My idea for the next phase of production is to somehow show a menu or palette of one still for each of these vids, and animate a zoom-like transition into each video. Perhaps the small photo in the "grid" of vids could slide and enlarge as it fills the entire screen, and begins playing. Then, when it's done, it could slide back into its place on the grid, and the next one would slide and fill... Something like that -- I'm flexible to adapt to what may be available in the marketplace.

Has anyone seen an app that will let me manipulate videos like this? I don't have a huge budget, so something less than $200 would be awesome. Someday I envision an interactive display, so people could use a touch screen, and pick whichever trailer they’re interested in, and after a timeout of no activity it would continue playing the pre-recorded set of trailers. I guess it would have a menu so it could be interrupted. But that’s probably way off.

Thanks very much for any advice you may have.

Ed

[smrpix]

Any NLE can do this, even the inexpensive ones like Sony Vegas Movie Studio.

The best tool would probably be After Effects which has a 30 day free trial and can be "rented" for $20 a month. Keyframes can be manipulated, duplicated and cut and pasted easily. It also gives you very precise information as to where you are placing your images. It's the gold standard for this kind of effects work.

[Eddie911]

Thanks smrpix. I'm wondering... Could iMovie or Pinnacle do this too? I've used them and didn't see how I could do it. I'll give After Effects a go and see how I do.

[smrpix]

iMovie can't, because you need multiple layers. Pinnacle can -- but I wouldn't try it on a tablet!

You need a video layer for each of your insets plus at least one layer for the background.