thanks for the advice zachm. it didn't work though.
i had to create nine different nested comps and place them on the video screen "footage A, footage B, footage C, etc." i then placed the same video file in each of the separate comps and moved the time slider around in each of them. that way the video would be different in each screen of the video wall.
what i tried to do before was take one nested comp and duplicate it 8 times. then place those comps in 3x3 to form the video wall. i wanted to just place the video in the nested comp and have each of the 9 screens play off the same video file, but at different times in the video. that way the video in each screen would be different. not 9 screens playing the same video.
i hope this makes sense. i'm much better at pictures than words.
if there is a way to do this i'd love to know. i just wanted to build a video wall template for work. that way we could input just one video file in one nested comp instead of place 9 video files in 9 nested comps.
all well.