Need help with cropping feature (v.1.5)

[funkadunk]

For my video class this year, I'll be doing some video montages. To effectively do that, I need to learn how to crop. My big major dislike with Premiere is that after cropping a video, it does not leave a blank background, but leaves a black one instead. So, even if I layer my cropped video over another video, the video clip behind it won't show.

For a project I did last year, I tried to split two separate clips in half and layer them over each other so it looked as if my friend was meeting himself. But, each time I did it, I had to turn down the opacity of the layered clip and turn up the brightness and contrast on each so they would match each other well. In the end, the video looked all washed out, but a cool effect nonetheless.

 

[Akribie]

Investigate the garbage matte effects for simple part-screen overlays.

You can also do split screen using a stopped wipe (or some other) transition.

For more adventurous mixing, look at Track Mattes or Image Mattes.

 

[funkadunk]

The stopped wipe worked perfectly for the split screen. But, I'd still like to know how to utilize the crop feature better. I guess the real way to solve this is to find out why it crops with black instead of making the area cropped out transparent so it can show through images. Hope you guys know what I'm talking about. Any and all help is appreciated.

 

[Akribie]

I am not sure that you have fully explored the crop effect.

If you apply it to a single clip on the timeline, the cropped areas are black because you 'see through' to nothing (black) behind.

Apply the crop effect to the upper of two clips, and the cropped area reveals the underlying clip - ie the cropped area has a transparent alpha channel.