On Sat, 04 Dec 1999 15:36:49 GMT, "Johan Stäck" wrote:

>Being a beginner with premiere, I need some advice...
>
>I want to make a short video of a quartet of singers.
>I have made a number of takes of the group as they sing in sync to a
>prerecorded sound-track.
>One of the takes always shows the whole group. Other takes focuses on
>soloists
>and/or changes the camera angle.
>
>I now want to place the alternate takes on the timeline and change between
>them using some different transitions.
>
>The idea is of course to give the impression of a multi-camera production,
>Is there an easy or preferable way to do this?

I do this all too often...;-)
Put your base track (one that is complete from one end to
the other) on V1A. Place the alternates on V2, V3, etc.,
using their audio tracks to help synch. the tracks (both
visual and audible cues are useful when using the audio
tracks for synching - with the video also being useful).
You can add more video and audio tracks using the menu
available near the upper right of the timeline window.
With this, you can also rename tracks to reduce confusion
(I rename A2 as A1B, A3 as A2, etc., so the audio track
names correspond with the video track names - and
sometimes I just give everything my own names, like
"VX-1000", "EZ30U", "front cam", etc.). When you have
the tracks all laid out in synch., you can switch
between video tracks using the "rubber bands" (with the
tracks opened with the triangular "spinner" at the left
of the track) to see where you want to make transitions
between tracks (it is a good idea to use the audio
"rubber bands" to silence the audio from all but the
main audio track while doing the video part of the
edit). If you are using cross-dissolves, use the "rubber
bands" on the open video tracks (you can make better
"shapped" dissolves by using multiple straight-line
sections with the rubber band instead of a single ramped
line). If you want to use another transition, drop
the clip to the V1B line. All this is much easier if you
have continuous tracks from all the takes - then you
need only synch. each take once.
Um, have fun! ;-)