Growing Up Guide Pup Now a Charity Organization

My wife and I are the creators of Growing Up Guide Pup. We have been hard at work trying to figure out how to come up with the means to bring the series back. After our first season we were able to find a fiscal sponsor so people who donated to us could get a tax deduction and we were hopeful that we would qualify for some of the various grants out there. We hired two different grant writers to help us find grants that we might qualify for and who had the knowledge to help us submit for them. Unfortunately we have been turned down for every grant that we have applied for.

We have come to find that were were not eligible for many of the grants because we were fiscally sponsored. After going back and forth over the last year or so we have decided to apply to become a non-profit. We have great news. Today we got our determination letter from the IRS. We are super excited to announce that we received an acceptance letter and our application has been approved! Growing Up Guide Pup is now officially a public charity 501(c)3 organization. We still have so much to do to get fully set up, but we are ready to make a fresh start and get back to work. We will be continuing to apply for grants, and we are in the process of planning a few fund raisers where anybody can donate to help our mission. The funds we raise will be going towards:

* new editing equipment, computer and software
* filming equipment, new lenses for our camera and recording media
* redoing our website and being able to hire someone to admin it,
* purchasing more royalty free music (unfortunately a lot of our previously bought royalty free music is no longer royalty free),
* designing and purchasing new graphics for the introduction and body of the show
* copy writing fees (unfortunately in this day and age this is a necessity)
* we are looking to hire someone to help with keeping our blog updated along with other social media duties,
* hiring another camera person for our next season to be able to get more footage of what goes into raising a puppy, including more home life with both Matt and I
* travel costs, we really want to show other raisers and service dog teams and sometimes that might require us to travel out of the area
* puppy care including veterinary costs, food, new toys and equipment.
* a puppy raising scholarship - we know first hand that raising a puppy costs money, Some people might have the time needed to raise a puppy but not the extra funds in their budget to make it happen. Depending on how much we raise we hope to be able to pay for the costs of raising a puppy for people who can't afford it.

As you can see we have lots of ideas how we can improve our show even more and hopefully draw more people in to watch and educate them not only what puppy raisers do but also how these puppies go on to change the lives of those who receive them. The more people know about service dogs the more they will be accepted in society. We have a few other changes in the works and hope to be able to announce those after the new year. If things go well a new puppy will arrive in the spring. From there we could have our next doggy for Growing Up Guide Pup. Thanks to all for the continued support and Happy Holidays!

***Secret to Great Acting - DIY***

This sample video from our series can help any aspiring actor to learn philosophy, improvisation, marial arts acting, realistic dialogue delivery, and dancing. Check it out!
Email luciousshowcase@gmail.com for more information. Call (650) 555-1548 to order the complete video set today.

Directed By and Starring: Lucious
Shot and Produced by: Chappy
Cut by: Lucious and Chappy



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Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 56 - Off Duty Ricki

This week we won Outstanding Reality Series at LAWEBFEST. It felt really good to get recognition from the filmmaking community for our endeavors . It was also nice to see that our uninspiring viewership doesn't reflect it's content. LAWEBFEST is the only film festival in the world for web shows currently so we feel like mavericks exploring a new world. Our format is one of a kind, and I'm so proud that we make the show format easy to follow for the visually impaired. It's very descriptive and we don't take for granted anything that is going on. We describe everything. Big thanks to everyone for supporting our series and keep watching because it could get interesting from here.

Low Budget Film Lighting

I few of my producer friends over the last six months have been asking me if I could come up with a way to do lighting on a low budget. My answer was to go to home depot and buy some work lights. This was a test and I didn't know what the results were going to be until after the edit. Well after it is all said and done my thoughts are i'm going to keep them in my filmmaking bag of tricks. They really do work. All one has to do is get a little more creative in figuring out a way to mount them. Also keep in mind that the 500 watt lights get pretty hot. One of my fans sent me a message that the 1,000 watt lights even have a fire warning on them with most manufactures. So I would really be careful with all of these lights. Keep a fire extinguisher close by and treat this process with respect. So anyway, have fun and here is my latest episode.



Here is my guerilla unplugged video showing the lights in action.
The artist is Mckenna Faith
Song is "He Doesn't Even Know It Yet"

Flip Cam Contest

I acquired a ton of equipment on a recent project. I don't need all of this stuff and thought why not give some of it away to my viewers. I like helping aspiring video creators, and low budget filmmakers. This has kinds become my new angle with my videos that come out every week.

If you interested in this contest. Hit me up on youtube with a comment on the video below and don't forget to subscribe.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 49 - Giants Fan Fest

Amie and I are big Giants fans. Since they won the world series, it only made sense to attend fan fest for this weeks episode. We decided to take the train to the park so we could add some training for Ricki into the mix. She has been on the train a few times, but never with this many people. The ride there was really packed, and almost completely full with fellow Giants fans. Ricki did a great job this week on the train, and she did an even better job at the ball park. We were very impressed with her ability to stay calm despite her being surrounded by wall to wall people. The attendance was crazy. The doors for general admission opened at 11:00am, and by 11:10am they were already telling people on KNBR to stay home because it filled up so quickly. I heard that more than 50,000 people attended which is funny because the park doesn't even sit that many people. Another job well done by Ricki and I can't wait to see where are adventures take us next.

Growing Up guide Pup - Week 48 - Seth and Bamboo

This week was very difficult for us. We battled back and forth on what we should do. Would talking about this publicly be a good idea? We contacted Seth's parents as well as got advice from my family about if doing a video tribute for Seth would be a tasteful thing to do. We got overwhelming support that we should move forward with the idea. We thought it would be appropriate to do a hike at Mt Tam. Seth had expressed on a few occasions, and even left a comment on our youtube page about how awesome it would be. We really enjoyed celebrating his life in our own special way and it really helped us feel better doing the walk.

We were shocked when we found out Seth had passed away last week. Seth was so supportive of what we were doing and really helped validate our series. His opinion meant a lot to us, and he always chimed in. He participated on all of our videos on youtube leaving funny, and quirky comments. He also was a regular participant on our facebook fan page. He was known to help with great info, and even answered questions from time to time. We had big plans for the future, and his continual involvement in the show was something we had discussed a lot. We were deeply affected by his untimely passing, and will forever be inspired to continue raising awareness about guide dogs in his honor.

Seth was a super star in our guide dog world. It will be difficult without him, but we must push on. We know this is what he would have wanted for us.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 44 - Airplane

It took us a long time to get Ricki ready for travel. Amie felt Ricki was not ready when we traveled back in May of this year, but now she seemed ready. All sorts of things have to be in order before we consider flying with a pup. Our dog has to have awesome relieving habits, our dog has to be calm, our dog has to be able to handle curve balls that we can't anticipate, and our dog has to reach a level of maturity that gives us confidence that the adventure will work out. Ricki performed beyond our expectations. Even though the weather was bad both days we flew , Ricki handled it great. In the video we mention the delay on the air flight home. Well we also had a delay in the terminal leaving to Santa Ana. So between both flights, Ricki had an additional 3 hours to deal with on top of the the normal routine traveling stuff. Great job Ricki and here is our latest.

Growing Up Guide Pup - Week 40 - Squirrel Distractions

Amie nailed it on the head when we shot the main this week. We have 4-6 more months before Ricki will either go back to school for formal training or not. We are doing what we can to prepare her, but right now it's a guess with whether or not she will be ready. Guide Dogs For the Blind will ultimately make that determination, and also decide whether she will go back for training at all. We think she has a good chance because she has that quality inside of her that aims to please. That is something you cannot teach a dog. They either have a personality like that, or they don't. Eli doesn't have that quality. He wants to do what he wants when he wants and he doesn't care if he is pleasing us. In fact, he enjoys doing just the opposite so he can get a rise out of us.

Our new episode was shot at central park in San Mateo. It is a great place for training. We wanted to take Ricki to the Japanese
Garden over there, but they were closing the doors right when we arrived. Maybe we will show it in a future episode. Thanks to everyone for your continual support.

Growing Up Guide Pup- Week 9 - Puppy Vaccines

This week shot back to normal after we returned our first guide dog puppy Macklin to his partner. Jeannie was really happy to see Macklin and vice versa. If you like the show, I encourage you to please get involved on youtube. Although we appreciate people watching anywhere they can, we really like to interact with our audience and appreciate comments and questions in the section below our videos. The best place for that interaction is on youtube itself.

If you have any questions or would like to message me directly. Here is my email: moparlee2002@yahoo.com

Learn how to make a Guerilla Dolly

I've been contemplating this idea for awhile now. Finally my buddy Darren and i just said screw it and thought we would see what would happen. I must say I was pretty pleased with the results.

I went down to the hardware store, and searched the aisles looking for something that might work as a low budget dolly. When i got to the rain gutter section, a lightbulb went off in my head. The results are pretty amazing when you consider that i spent $12.57 and used ordinary items in my garage to help put it together.

Parts list:
1) Plastic Rain gutter (came in 10 foot section)
2) Rain gutter screen that needs to be cut to around 12".
3) bungee cords
4) lubricant of some kind that doesn't eat plastic
5) soft cushion like a bean bag or folded up towel
6) some heavy sandbags or pillow cases full of rocks

Last you will need a flat service that is fairly level.

Enjoy and if you like this blog and my videos please subscribe, follow, rate, comment, etc,etc.

Make a Guerilla Dolly from Matt Chapman on Vimeo.

Make a quick change battery brick

All you need is two things.

1) Two camcorder batteries
2) Gaff tape

I can't think of a better tip for every person who shoots video or does photography. Simple and incredibly effective. This tip could really save the day in an event where your battery dies and you need to continue the shot as quickly as possible. Even fumbling around in your pockets to get a new battery could waste valuable time.

Here is the video I made as a demonstration.

Guerilla Battery Brick How-To from Matt Chapman on Vimeo.