The Glade 4.0

So I'm a complete newb to video editing. I took a stab at windows live movie maker, but after some poking around, I found that it doesn't have a feature I'm interested in. Namely video-in-video (or picture in picture using video?)... i'm not even sure what the effect would be called?

I don't mind spending a little money on something that does what I need it to, I'm just not having any luck finding the right software.

It needs to run in Windows 7, so I'm guessing that eliminated iMovie?

Not looking to do anything professional, just want to show multiple angles at the same time...

Suggestions?

Ugh, gosh. I haven't edited on a Windows box in so long I don't even know where to start.

I don't know about Windows Movie Maker, but in a professional program like FCP or Adobe Premiere, it's not really an "effect" per se; basically, you just overlay the second video onto the first in the timeline (each level of video has its own level in the timeline, not unlike layers in Photoshop), then shrink it down to the desired size, leaving the main video behind it.

Does Movie Maker have anything like that (layers of videos stacked on top of each other)? It's gotten bloated and unwieldy (that it to say, it's an Adobe product), but if you're interested in spending a bit of money I'd suggest a copy of Adobe Premiere...Essentials, I think? Elements? Whatever their cheaper, prosumer-grade cutdown of Premiere is called. It should be more than enough.

Conversely, go buy a Mac Mini and a copy of Final Cut Pro (again, the prosumer cutdown, can't remember what it's called) to really kick it into high gear. And then when the full version of the new Final Cut Pro X comes out this summer, pick that up off of the App Store (only $300 then!).

Based on observational evidence from being online too much, I'm pretty sure it's far better to have a Mac to do video editing, like FarSky recommends. Otherwise it's like asking how to play Windows games on Linux . Well not so much but you know what I mean.

Movie Maker doesn't have anything like that. Especially since they added to to the 'Live' suite. It's just a very simple (free) video editing tool for people to edit and publish home videos. It doesn't have any sophisticated editing options.

The older versions (pre-live integration) had some xml transition effects that could be used to layer video in video, but I'm not going to go dig up old copies of the software and then dig through message boards looking for just the right plugin or whatever.

I'm not going to buy another computer to do some simple video editing. Especially one that I'm pre-disposed to despise....

I'm pretty sure there is an adobe package that will do what I want. I tried looking at their website today, and was completely overwhelmed with too many choices. I tried using their feature compare tool, but I couldn't figure which ones, if any did the video in video thing (I'm not even sure if that's what its called - which is part of my problem.. i'm not sure what I'm searching for)....

Thanks for the suggestions....

So, it looks like after doing some more digging, that Adobe Premier Elements 9 does what I want it to, and it's drag an drop. And for not much more money, I could buy it as a suite with photoshop elements included.

The other option I found is Sony Vegas. Not much chance I'd go that route. I would sooner buy a Mac :p~~

Yeah, stay away from Vegas. Pain in the ***.

I don't know the user interface of Premiere Elements (I last used a Premiere product for video editing in...2008, I think?), but you should be able to muck around with it and get the basics.

With what kind of camera are you recording your footage, btw?

Hrm.. I don't know the exact model. It's a Canon HD Vixia.. about 2-3 years old. It records to DV and is kind of a pain in the ***.

Funny you should ask though, as I'm about to shopping for a new one.

Suggestions?

NinjaEdit:
I also have one of these I received as a gift.

http://gopro.com/cameras/hd-hero-naked-camera/



I'm not sure how well suited to the task it is, but I may give it a try once I get some software to play around with.... I suspect it's too much of a wide-angle view for what I'm doing.

Something else I'm going to try, is using my Nexus S camera mounted to the headstock of the guitar (there's a app for that :p) as one of the video sources. This is something I haven't played around with either...