Can 'taget' things outside of a movie clip?

hi out there,

new to the forum and new to this flash thang - getting there but this one is buggin me. hope someone can help…

this is what i’m working on:
http://www.28design.co.uk/jake/flash/

dead simple ‘fade between pictures when buttons are clicked’ thing. i’ve uploaded the fla as well as the swf as it’s easier to look at than explain.

my problem is i cant seem to put the buttons outside of the fade move clip - and i need too! this is the code i’ve been using to dig through:

_root.images.newPic = “picOne”;

thing is, it seems to loose the variables. if i move the same button inside the movie clip and just have:

newPic = “picOne”;

all works cool??!

if anyone has the time to have a quick look, i’d greatly appreciate it.

cheers out there,

jake