LOL... Fair enough!
#4 can actually be done entirely in Vegas.
If it'd benefit I could try to slap a quick vid together (provided I can find a decent PC ScreenCapper... as I've heard FRAPS sucks...) of how I did my 'flashback effect'... It's really just comprised of a full-white image scaled to full screen and the opacity goes from 0%-100% in 3 frames and back down to 0% 2 frames later.
Nonetheless, between the two (unchanged) #2 is the clear winner in my books.