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You keep asking how to do something that is impractical. That’s why we keep offering altgernatives.

Blue/Green-screening is a very “touchy” thing (designed for one kind of purpose) and is simply not suited for shiny or clear objects.

Luminance Key (where anything at or near “Black” drops out like in blue-screen) is a good alternative.

EXCEPT…

The shiny jewelry will have lots of black and near-black reflections (and “clear” sections) that will drop-out as well, so you’re still stuck.

Sorry, but “keying out” live jewelry is just not practical.

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[Timothy Gunn] “If I acquire a deck for the bigger tapes, will I need to do any kind of weird set-up in FCP? Do I just treat this as I would miniDV footage and use a regular capture setting? “

For instance, a Sony DSR11 (very low-cost, highly reliable deck) is a full-size-tape-capable DV deck and it just connects via FireWire and works with exactly the same settings as a miniDV SP camcorder connected to FCP… no special settings needed.

There are many full-size-tape-capable DV FW decks from Sony that have a FW connector… they will all work for you with DV SP or DVCAM tapes.

The camcorder used to shoot the tapes MAY have a FW connector on it. If so you might be able to use it for capture if its available.

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You need to amplify the audio up to “speaker-level” before you can send it to the phone line.

So, first connect the audio source to a small amplifier and send the amplifier’s speaker output into the phone jack.

OR just put the audio on an audio cassette tape (or MD, etc.) and play that on a portable tape player (or MD deck, etc.) that has a headphone (or external speaker) output jack. Send the headphone output into the phone jack.

You would connect your output cable’s two wires: one to the RED wire, and one to the GREEN wire of the phone jack.

NOTE: When you connect to the phone line this way the phone system will “see” a “phone-off-hook” condition, so you can’t “leave” it connected except during the time you are playing the audio.

To “Check” it:
1. Pick up a phone that is connected to the same line as the jack you are going to “feed”.
2. Push any dial button on that phone (except “0”) to clear the dial tone.
3. Connect the audio output to the phone jack, play the audio, and adjust the volume level.
4. Unplug the audio connection from the phone jack.

To “Record” it:
1. Get the phone system ready to record.
2. Connect the audio output to the phone jack, play the audio, and record it to the phone system.
3. Stop the phone system recording.
4. Unplug the audio connection from the phone jack.
5. Check the playback from the phone system.

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[chrisusvi] “What is the bottom line? Go with a black background and get the best still shot with the jewelry as best as possible? I would really like it to sparkle, but it seems to be quite frustrating to get the best sparkle. “

The sparkle comes from light reflecting off the facets of the jewels.

Use the black background (Flat or Velvet Cloth), light the jewels for best look and then…
HAND-MOVE a single (or more) ADDITIONAL light(s) around in the air focused on the jewels as you watch the monitor for the best “moving sparkles”.

Alternate method is to set up your jewels and background all on a “display turntable” (they are found at supply houses for retailers).
They turn very slowly (1 to 3 RPM) and, if you carefully set the jewels in the exact center of the rotation, you can get very nice “sparkles” as they turn in the light.

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DVCAM and Standard DV SP are virtually IDENTICAL formats (DV25) and transfer via FireWire the same way.

FCP treats these formats exactly the same, so no problem with it at all.

And virtually ANY Sony or Panasonic deck or camcorder (even the home video models) will play DVCAM tapes perfectly (the DVCAM tape-motion is faster than DV SP, but these units adapt their speed to match).

The thing you WILL need, if these tapes are the large size (and not just mini-DVCAM), is a deck or camcorder that can hold full-size tapes and has FireWire control.
I’m guessing that the “extra long” you refer to means they are using the large-size tapes that can record for about 3 hours per tape.

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Give much more info about what this will be used for.

Will it STAY CONNECTED all the time, or will someone just need to plug it in WHILE it is played and then UNPLUG it as soon as the audio playback is finished?

What is the USE of this… info-on-hold? transfer of a news story?

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You really should NOT use the computer’s audio to monitor when capturing, it has been shown to add audible Clicks to the captured audio. The proper procedure is to use the audio from the deck (as you have it now).

The audio is, by default, MUTED to the Mac’s speaker output during Log and Capture.

You should normally monitor the audio directly from the camcorder or deck you are using to capture.

However, there is a way you can turn ON the Mac’s speaker if you really WANT to:

Final Cut Pro (menu) > Audio/Video Settings… > Capture Presets (tab)

“Duplicate” the Capture Preset you are now using, when the window opens rename it (I added “MacAudioOn” to the file name).

Click open the “Advanced” button in the Audio section and turn speakers to “ON during Capture.”
The Mac speakers/audio-out will now play Audio during the preview in the Log and Capture window.

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Ohhhh…
I thought you actually WANTED to SPLIT the screen between TWO LOCATIONS (say one actor seated in a living room, the other in a train-station).

If you just want a “left-right” split of two actors in the SAME ROOM (a single locked-down wide-shot)…

Everything I described earlier remains the same (but you don’t need to bother with the “two-camera, two-takes” technique).

Have one actor “live-freeze” during the other actor’s “aside(s) to the audience” and then, in post, create the “real” DIGITAL freeze-frame and cut it in over the “live” frame, but crop it to half-screen (or so).

At the point of the “UN-freeze” just cut (or quick-dissolve) the cropped freeze off the screen (the “frozen” actor will “break” from his “live-freeze” into action at that point and it should match very well.

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Getting (allowing?) the actors to perform well is a director’s primary concern.

The best way for actors to perform well is to let them actually “interact”.
To do this “live”, shoot with two cameras at once in the studio and let them interact across the set.

If you’re on two sets at different locations, and/or you don’t HAVE two cameras…

Have the “lead” actor fully perform an ENTIRE take (“freeze-pauses” and all) with “actor two” (or YOU) quietly reading “actor two’s” part so the “lead” can hear and react with the proper pace and style.
Shoot until you get a great COMPLETE “take”.
Then, for actor “two”… playback (softly), on-set, the audio of the TAPE of the “lead” actor’s “good take” and have “actor two” act/react to that recording.
After a few tries, you should have two perfectly-timed takes from both actors.
You can then just match them up and effect-in the split-screen.

>>Here’s the FREEZE-FRAME “trick”:
Any time that an actor will be in an “edited” FREEZE-FRAME just have that actor actually HOLD POSITION (“live-freeze”) during those times.
This way you won’t need to contend with “bad timings” with the actors trying to “guess-match” reacting to each other in totally isolated takes.

Then, in your EDIT, you can digitally create a “real” FREEZE-FRAME of the (already motionless) actor… and when you UN-FREEZE that actor (just cut or quick-dissovle back to moving video from the freeze), it will match very well.

If you have some additional BACKGROUND ACTION (fish-tank, clock pendulum, oscillating fan, etc.) in the same scene as the actors… when you make your FREEZE, then UN-FREEZE it, it will be more “dramatic”.

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[Jay Knobbe] “Could do the thing in chronological order but seems kind of ho-hum.”

Well there’s always a NEW way to create… that’s why music videos are so highly regarded as “art”.
(sarcasm HERE)

You might want to “have some fun” with the “intro” to the piece and maybe “set something up” to “pay-off” later at the conclusion or wrap-up section, but the basic STORY is usually best told in an “as-it-happened” order, otherwise the “technique” could easily overtake and muddle the actual events and create unnecessary confusion.

But don’t let a traditionalist like me talk you out of creating an “MTV Rockin’ Hook-up Party” with non-sequitur editing and “incomplete, emotion-free” sequences that are “all about the MUSIC”!!
After all, it might just IMPROVE the lackluster real-life emotions of the actual event. (sarcasm HERE!)

I’m REALLY thinking that many a daughter (especially in later years) just might LIKE to review the “ho-hum” version of her “chronological” once-in-a-lifetime event… carefully recreated by her dad.