69 Charger Burnout

So I tested my GoProHD Hero again this week. This time i performed a burnout. Dirt, rubber, and dust was kicked all over the camera, but it performed great.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 63 - Final Decision

You know when we first started this web series we had no expectations. Sure, I hoped Ricki would go on to become a guide dog. Not only would it be cool to raise awareness of the process, but damn; talk about a cool Hollywood ending. This episode really sums up the reality of the guide dog raising world however. Unpredictable twists and turns in the story always result. We wanted Ricki to graduate as a guide dog, but at the same time we wouldn't mind her becoming "career changed" so we might be able to keep her. There is always a lot of ups and downs and it can be crazy.

Now we are faced with a whole new challenge. Ricki has made it clear she wants to keep working. She paces up and down the living room as soon as a day or two go by without her working, or training. If she didn't show this tendency perhaps we would think about keeping her. But we want to give Ricki every chance at doing a job because we feel this will give her a much more fulfilling life based on her personality. She is prepped for something other than guide dog work so lets see what happens.

The future is uncertain as I write this blog. The one thing we hope people have learned from the series is that becoming a guide dog is hard. We strived to raise awareness about this, and hope people have a larger appreciation for the "puppy raisers" involvement in the process too. At the end of the day, if we met these goals, then Ricki has done her job as far as this guy is concerned.

69 Dodge Charger Meets GoProHD

My two favorite things are filmmaking and muscle cars. This video is the first time I have ever made a piece showing the appreciation I have for my 69 Dodge Charger. I mounted my GoPro to 10 different locations all over the car a few days ago. When I went out to shoot it began to rain, but because I was using the GoPro, it didn't hold things up at all. I just shot in the rain. Why the hell not?

Specs:
Shot 1280x720P @ 60 Frames per second
Mpeg4 files converted to quicktime pro res 422 Using Mpeg Streamclip
Conformed frame rate for slow motion with Cinema Tools
Used the H.264 codec for compression for the web using Compressor
Edited the video with Final Cut Pro 4

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 62 - Ricki Point of View

Ricki continues to make baby steps in the right direction. I'm very proud of Ricki and Amie. The progress they have made is very significant. However, it might prove to fall short of what Guide Dogs requires. Ricki has a strong instinctive reaction to squirrels. Who can blame her? She is doing what most dogs would probably do in the same situation. We don't want to force the issue forever. It is up to Ricki to decide her fate. if she ultimately decides she doesn't want to do what it takes to be a guide dog, then that is what fate has decided. We hope that our fans will understand that either way Ricki has done a great job, and should be celebrated for her fantastic contributions to the guide dog community. She has helped bring all of us together, and for that we will always be forever grateful.

Stay tuned to see what happens!

GoProHD Durability Test

I have played with dozens of cameras over the years. I have worked with the Red camera and Varicam which costs thousands of dollars and are great professional cameras. I have also shot with consumer cameras like the Flipcam and various prosumer cameras over the years. But I have never worked with a camera that has more versatility than the GoProHD Hero.

The TV commercials and hype about this cameras are true. It is incredibly versatile, and can handle all kinds of weather conditions, humidity, and temperatures. I'm still experimenting with it because it is just sooooo much fun. What is most important to recognize about this camera is the quality. It shoots a compressed mp4 file, but once you uncompress the image to quicktime, it is absolutely fantastic for the price. I would gladly pay two or three times as much money for this camera.

So this week I wanted to test the durability of the GoProHD. This video was totally spontaneous, and I don't recommend people trying doing the same thing. This video is for demonstration purposes only; so please don't try this yourself.

GoProHD Slow Motion Test

I have been seeing GoPro commercials on television. I have also seen some of their cool viral videos on youtube. I just couldn't wait any longer and went out and got one for myself. My web series Growing Up Guide Pup requires that I put out a new episode every week, and I am always looking for new tools for my filmmaking bag of tricks. I'm always striving to make the show better and it's visual style is very important to me. The GoProHD Hero shoots 60 fps at 1280x720p. It also is designed for hardcore shooting, including underwater. Since we were planning on shooting our dogs in the pool, it seemed a perfect opportunity to put this thing to work. The workflow required a learning curve as well as the camera itself. It kinda reminded me of learning how to program my watch for the first time. Only two buttons on the body of the camera, and yet their is a ton of programmable functions on the camera.

I put the workflow specs below and the first video I did shooting slow motion.

Specs:
Shot 1280x720P @ 60 Frames per second
Mpeg4 files converted to quicktime pro res 422 Using Mpeg Streamclip
Conformed frame rate for slow motion with Cinema Tools
Used the H.264 codec for compression for the web using Compressor
Edited the video with Final Cut Pro 4

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 61 - Aqua Dogs

This week Ricki has made huge progress. She is able to walk alongside a group of pigeons without going crazy. She can handle looking at one or two at the same time with no problem especially. This is a dramatic change from how she reacted when she saw pigeons for the first time in Week 29. Seth and Bamboo demonstrated how it's done, while Ricki was totally crazy.

Ricki has also made big improvements with her squirrel distractions as well. She is able to walk by the toy squirrel without pulling on the leash and trying to chase it. However, if you squeek the toy or throw it in front of her, this is a different story. This is an area we are going to continue to work on by not jumping ahead of ourselves. We probably went a little too aggressive this week.

The last thing we wanted to show is that a working dog needs to have fun too. We took Ricki swimming with her mom Tulin again. I had fun playing with my new GOProHD Hero camera that can shoot underwater. The footage is totally cool. Check it out!