Merging two clips into one; what Mac programs can do this?

[bigben33]

Hey, so I'm doing this project for my English class where I want to show how people "go through the motions in life" without actually being conscious of their actions (it's complicated - won't get into it). Anyways, I was thinking of a setup where I'm sitting down on a chair, still, while saying my thoughts in one video. The second video is set up from the same perspective, but I'm not sitting there, and it just becomes a sped up video of people walking by. Ultimately, I want to have one video where I'm sitting there talking while there's sped up people in the background. How can I accomplish this? I'm on Mountain Lion by the way, so my options are probably limited (however - I do have Wine if needed). Thanks!

[switon]

Hi bigben33,

I'm not sure exactly how you want to accomplish your concept, but let's say you use some video camera (Bloggie, DSLR, iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, MBP iSight, etc.) to record video clips. You could, with a background blue or green screen, record one clip of yourself sitting in the chair and record a second clip of the chair by itself. Record a third clip with people walking in the foreground/background around the chair and in front of the blue/green screen. iMovie (the cheapest way, but you could also use Final Cut Pro X) would then allow you to add any background to these video clips that you want, say a burbling stream or the Eiffel Tower with passing clouds. And viola, you have your concept video. (iMovie, QuickTime, and Final Cut Pro all allow you to concatenate video clips - QT the least powerful, iMovie allows blue screen and audio replacements, and FCP is the most full featured.)

Of course, instead of using a blue/green screen, if you can find the background that you wish to use then you just record all three clips in front of the background and concatenate the clips in QT, iMovie, or FCP.

Switon