How to Enhance Property Videos with Split Screens

Ready to take your real estate videos to a more professional level? If you're comfortable with editing techniques, consider using a split screen effect in your next video.

Property videos are best kept brief to hold viewers' attention. Using a split screen is a great way to display more of a listing in less time, as seen in the video below. Real estate agent (and video DIY enthusiast) Candace Kuzmarski uses this technique to simultaneously show the front of rear of the exterior. Later, split screen is used to efficiently display local attractions.

This gorgeous property video's high point comes when employing a split screen in the bedroom. While panning across the room at a wide angle, Candace uses the right side of the screen to zoom in and showcase the lake view from the windows.

Note how she also uses the split to label that selling feature. Split screens are a great way to list the selling points of the room you're shooting in. Does the kitchen have granite countertops or new cabinets? List those features on one side of the screen! This is a simple way to let viewers know exactly what they're looking at.

Fortunately, adding a split screen is not difficult to do. Our friends at VScreen have broken down the process on iMovie to just a few easy steps:

1. Load the two clips into your iMovie project.
2. Go up to iMovie > Preferences and make sure "Show advanced tools" is checked off.
3. Take your first clip (your base clip) and drop it in your timeline
4. Drag your second clip over the first clip
5. When you see the little plus sign on your cursor appear, release your mouse button then select Side-by-Side.
6. You'll see your second clip appear ABOVE your first in the timeline and if you drag your playhead over that area you'll see the default effect.
7. By double-clicking on that clip you can adjust the way the clip transitions in and out

To see this edit in action and learn more about split screens, check out this video from VScreen: