In one example, a system comprises a hardware processor that is configured to: receive a request to modify a video content item containing a plurality of media elements; present a user interface that includes a video track representation of the video content item and a layered representation of the plurality of media elements, wherein each media element is represented by a media overlay element positioned proximal to the video track representation, wherein at least one media overlay element overlaps at least another media overlap element to provide a compact representation of the plurality of media elements; and in response to receiving a selected time position within the video track representation, update the layered representation within the user interface to present an expanded overlay list that includes media overlay elements corresponding to the subset of the plurality of media elements that occur at the selected time position.