The Julia Ruth House

We had an exciting shoot with the Julia Ruth House. Which is  an adult day care home that specializes in assisting elderly folks with their daily activities. We were on-location in Westwood for a day long shoot interviews staff and guests. We’re producing and excited promo video for their website.

The Julia Ruth House was founded by Julia and Herbert Irvine in memory of their parents, Thomas and Ruth Irvine and Charles and Julia O’Malia. With help from their family, Julia and Herb assisted their parents in overcoming many of the obstacles they faced during their senior years. Through this experience, the Irvine’s understood the need for a home-based day care center for adults who are in need of some daily support, but who do not require a nursing home. Born of this realization, The Julia Ruth House is the first home-based Adult Day Care Center in a residential setting in Massachusetts. McElroy Films highly recommends The Julia Ruth House. This is a great place to have your loved ones cared for.

To find out more information visit there website www.thejuliaruthhouse.com.

Photos courtesy of Herb Irvine.

New Team Member at McElroy Films

We’re excited to announce another team member has joined McElroy Films. Evan T. Perry will be working as our staff editor working along side our two producers and three videographers. Evan has been diligently working behind the scenes handling day to day editing. Evan Perry is a Leominster native and has a lot of experience and knowledge to bring to the table.

Evan’s Bio:

Recently graduated Magna Cum Laude from highly esteemed Fitchburg State College Communications program, Evan T. Perry has found a place on the McElroy team as an editor of wedding and corporate videos.

Through out his college career, Evan was known to be a dependable, hard-working producer, writer, and editor. Two of his collections of short stories have won the Louis P. Shepherd Award for Creative Writing and were published in the Fitchburg State annual literary publication, ROUTE 2 (Volumes 1 &2). His schooling concluded with a five-month internship with the internationally known Redtree Productions head-quartered in Boston, MA. Redtree is behind most of the Ocean Spray, McDonalds, Royal Caribbean, and ‘Truth’ Anti-Smoking commercial campaigns among others.

Evan’s artistic talents do not end with editing and writing. He once served as a parish organist in Leominster, MA and has played piano and clarinet since second grade culminating his musical talents as the Drum Major of the Leominster Blue Devil Marching Band in ‘03 and ‘04. He also enjoys drawing and constructing off-beat 3D greeting cards for friends and family out of found materials. However, one of his favorite activities is playing ice hockey (Goalie) whether it be in area men’s leagues or a year-round pick-up game bright and early every Saturday morning.

Evan plans to someday have at least one of his feature film scripts produced and to keep making short films, writing, and playing hockey ‘til he croaks!

Boston Brightcove User Group

McElroy Films just got back from it’s first Boston Brightcove User Group Meeting in Cambridge, MA. Tonight’s topic was  ”New Enhancements in Transcoding”

We enjoyed excellent presentations about the new enhancements with transcoding and video optimization. Basically really boring stuff unless you’re a geek like us! We had numerous conversations with the Brightcove support team about future updates and releases that will enhance the user and client experience. Topics ranged from correct aspect ratio for videos, enhancements in analytics for mobile videos, paywalls & Brightcove videos and much more. Some exciting news about mobile video publishing in the near future too.

For those who don’t know who Brightcove is.. they’re basically the Cadillac of Online Video Content Management Systems. Click here to learn more information about Brightcove.

Top 10 Canon 7D Accessories for Videography

Shooting weddings & corporate videos with the Canon 7D has been one of the funnest aspects of running a video production company. Just our Wedding division alone has booked over 35 weddings for 2010 and we’re steadily filling up the calendar for 2011 and even 2012. Last fall I made the decision to adopt Video SLR technology that others told me would be a bad move. I was hearing it from all angles. “Don’t buy that camera, wait until the bugs are fixed”.. “I would never adopt new technology like that.” Good thing I didn’t listen to those guys. We’re slowly seeing an increase of clients that specifically request our company because of the look and feel we can deliver.

Below you’ll find a list of some of the Top 10 canon 7D accessories we have found useful for our company. This in no way is supposed to be a comprehensive list. Just some of the new tools we’re using. We’re also not paid to advertise for these companies.. Although we’re all ears if the right offer comes along.

First, you’ll need the actual camera body itself. The prices are dropping recently and you can probably pick one up for about $1500-$1600

Top 10 Canon 7D Accessories for Videography

1. You’re going to need some lenses. Start with one of the most popular lens, we shoot with the 17-55mm 2.8 IS for most of the work we do. Even though it’s not an L series lens we like the fact it has image stabilization and most EOS L series lenses don’t have IS until you step up to the telephotos.

2. Another great lens is the 70-200 L f4 IS or the 70-200 L 2.8. Obviously the 2.8 is more expensive however the f4 has served us just fine. Unless your using it in doors you can get away with the 4 instead of the 2.8.

3. Once you have all your lenses and body, you’ll need to be able to mount it on a tripod. Red Rock Micro offers a number of DSLR rig kits. You can even build your own. You’ll need a base plate with rods. We’ve had good luck with our set up.

4. Your rig is still not complete because you’ll need some sort of focus assist. A good place to start would be to get a follow focus system. Again, Red Rock Micro offers a great option if you’re looking to save some money. Their follow focus version 2 is great and is reasonable priced for the quality and build of it.

5. You’ll still need more focus assistance while shooting with the Canon 7D because of the small screen. You can either go with a Zacuto viewfinder or you can go for a full blown LCD. We suggest both given your shooting conditions. The viewfinder for the 7D is very good and the magnification helps greatly.

6. If you want to do it right, go with the LCD. Marshall offers a great option. The Marshall V LCD651ST is one of the best HD LCDs on the market and as of today’s pricing they just lowered it from $1,695 to $1,394.95. Can’t beat that!

7. Almost done. Your rig is just about there. Once you have all this sweet gear you’ll need media to record to. We suggest getting at least 16GB CF cards with a minimum of 60mb/s. You’ll Probably need about 4-8 of these bad boys.

8. You’ll need a professional source of audio because the canon 7D has auto levels which means it’s not that great for audio and will clip your audio. Get a H4n zoom recorder for all your audio needs it comes with two XLR inputs for wire/wireless mics.

9. Speaking of wireless mics you’ll need a pair of Sennheiser mics. I suggest getting two because you never know when you could need both.

10. You’ll need reference audio as well. We suggest the Rode video mic with a 3.5m mini plug for the Canon 7D. It records fantastic audio which is great for reference and if you’re lucky you might be able to use if for some natural audio in your project.. that’s if the auto levels don’t ruin it first.

11. I know this is a top 10 list. However, you’ll probably need some other basics such as additional batteries, cables, cards, headphones, on-board lighting and such. Stay tuned for an updated list.

This is just a handful of useful pieces of equipment we use. Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions.

Nashua Chamber of Commerce

McElroy Films LLC is excited to be apart of the Nashua Chamber of Commerce. We have been apart of the success of many business and non-profits in the Nashua area.

Nashua is one of two offices McElroy Films has. Our remote office handles all our day to day operations and sales. While our Boston office handles video production and post production work.

About the Nashua Chamber

The Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce has been around for about 80 year. They have been committed to building a strong community. As part of this mission the organization has created Leadership Greater Nashua, a program of the chamber that is committed to building social capital in the Southern New Hampshire community.

Click here to learn more about the chamber.

McElroy Films is excited to be apart of a wonderful group of professionals and grow our business in Southern New Hampshire.