Just out of curiousity, how did you do that effect in the beginning, was it a special plug-in for your editing software (which do you use)? Just trying to find out the most I can about editing, etc!!

Frank not sure which project you are referring to as 4-5 are mentioned on thread...

if it's the project i listed .... we use Vegas ..
there are 2 effects used ..BOTH come from Vegas share VEGS ( free download sites)
a VEG is a file that Vegas creates that tells it what clips , fx, how it was edited etc. Vegas creates a separtate Veg for every project you save. many persons will create effects just using Vegas plugin's no outside media needed and they will post them to share with others - the 25 persons block was a VEG created by winrock productions.. i then used 4 of them to make the 100 person block ... it is created using 25 video tracks - every track uses track motion by zooming out of the frame and putting that frame very small inside the 720x480 frame. so you end up with 25 boxes inside the 720x480 frame.. 100 person is using the rendered 25 block 4 times ( then using track motion to place the 4 25person clips inside the 720x480 frame) ..

the MAGNIY glass effect Veg was created by Mary Waitrovich which took an HOUR to figure out how she did it ( even though i had her share VEG) so i'll quote her "this file uses a white solid color generated media with a circle cookie cutter filter applied " Video track 1 she uses a Vegas WHITE solid color generated media file -applys cookie cutter to it ( cuts the whole ) she then KEY frames for hole to move across frame ..
Video track 2 & 3 she uses the same clip on BOTH tracks in this case 25/100 person block ... Video track 2 she uses pan/crop to move in on the clip 50% ( makes it larger) and then moves/pans it across the frame ( should match key frames of track 1) ... she then uses Vegas compositing mode and creates a parent -child between Video track 1 & 2.
on the parent - child she uses a mask generator ( LUMINANCE).
viewing track 1 & 2 only you see a small circle with close up of persons -rest of frame is black ... when you add track 3 in it fills in the black with the 25/100 person block ( no effects) ...

Wow...thanks for the great explanation! I'll have to fool around with those features sometime.