Overlay blocks
Each block is a source plus a time window. Stack as many as the edit needs.
B-roll and zooms
Cover the frame where the words ask for a picture
A talking head holds attention for about twelve seconds. B-roll buys you the next twelve without cutting away from what is being said.
Open the editor โFour steps on the timeline
- 01
Find the moment
Scrub to the phrase that needs a picture. Cut markers from the scene graph show where the edit already breathes.
- 02
Add your clip
Pick a video or an image from your machine. It is inserted at the playhead as a new block on the b-roll track.
- 03
Set the interval
Drag the start and end. The clip is scaled to cover the frame, so vertical and horizontal sources both fill it.
- 04
Render the segment
Preview just that stretch instead of the whole video, then keep it or move it.
What the track gives you
Zooms
A separate list of zooms: scale and centre point over an interval, for pushing in on a reaction or a number.
Segment preview
Render a slice, not the whole file โ checking a five-second insert should not cost a full export.
Subtitles stay put
Captions and headlines keep their own layers and timings. B-roll goes underneath them, not over them.
Honest about what this is
The clips are yours. Nothing here searches a stock library or invents footage โ you bring the file, the editor places it and the renderer burns it in with ffmpeg.
That is a deliberate line. Auto-picked stock tends to produce the same three drone shots on every video, and it is the fastest way to make a channel look generic.
Where automation belongs is the boring part: timings, scaling, keeping the overlay clear of the subtitle band, and rendering only the piece you are looking at.
Zooms do half the work
A zoom is a scale and a centre point over an interval. Push in slightly on a reaction, hold, and let it out โ the frame changes without a cut, and the viewer reads it as emphasis rather than as editing.
On a static talking head this is the cheapest rhythm available. You have no second camera, but you do have pixels to spare: a shot framed with headroom survives a fifteen percent push with nothing to spare visually.
Zooms and b-roll solve the same problem from opposite ends. A zoom keeps the speaker and changes the framing; an overlay drops the speaker and shows the thing. Alternating them is what keeps a long stretch of one person talking watchable.
Both are stored as plain intervals on the edit, so nothing is baked until you export. Move a zoom, shorten an overlay, render the segment again โ the source video is never touched.
What people cover
Products and screens
Show the thing while you talk about it instead of describing it.
Proof
Charts, documents, before-and-after โ put the evidence on screen at the moment you claim it.
Long explanations
Break a two-minute stretch of talking head into something with visual rhythm.
Dead air
Cover a stumble or a cut with a still rather than a jump.
FAQ
No. You add your own video or image; the editor handles placement, scaling and rendering. We would rather ship a track you control than an automatic stock picker that makes every video look the same.
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