Disclaimer: These interviews are not associated with A-M-V.org or its administration. The Lip Flapper is not actually live from France. We don't actually make that much money. ;_____;
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Description
Welcome to the Lip Flapper! Each week, we delve deep into the community and get a look into both individual members as well as group discussions on various issues that surround our hobby.
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This Week in "The Lip Flapper"
Comic courtesy of Summer, AKA GuntherAMVs.
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Interview Spotlight
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Interview
Before saying anything : sorry in advance for the potential English mistakesQ: Thanks for joining me today! Care to take a moment to introduce yourself and let us know a little bit about yourself?
OK. Well, I'm MimS which actually means Music in my Soul. I'm 21, my real name is Karim, I live near Paris (10 minutes with a bike).
Currently studying mathematics in order to teach them, kinda hard, already lost a year and currently losing another one hm...
I love music above anything, any genre of music, I just can't spend a day without listening some of it and I'm also a bit harsh about people's taste when it comes to it (like I always say that the major part of editors need to receive music education /o/). FYI : Nneka > all
I also love Football (Soccer) and Basketball.
And last but not least : vs fight video games FTW (particularly Blazblue CSE and SF x tekken)
Ho, and you'll also notice that there isn't a post where I don't say « well », it's just some habit I have from French language that follows me everywhere...
1st, it's MimS, not MiMs, the capital S is important :pQ: Well thanks again for joining me today MiMs. Let's start off with the typical question and ask how you got started in AMVs?
Actually I've known AMVs ever since I've watched animes, fact is, to me, they were just Naruto stuffs using shitty songs on youtube. Then, in 2007 I met some guy, who is one of my best friend right now, who showed me Jihaku and Euphoria and well... I don't think I could describe how I felt when I saw these vids. In the following days I watched Magic Pad and it was too much : I had to edit myself !
Funny thing is my friend doesn't really care about AMVs anymore right now and he's always surprised that I'm still in it haha.
It took me a while after this to release my very first AMV. It was in April 2008, a video using Haruhi Suzumiya anime and it wasn't really good... Since then I haven't made so many vids actually, kinda lazy and busy plus I really don't like what I do in general. I had and still have a lot of AMV ideas but I dropped sooooooo many projects, kinda upset me.
Also, back then I really was a big anime eater so it was impossible for me to edit various 'cause AMVs were about giving justice to the anime. Now it's just about editing and entertainment...
I don't have any.Q: Care to share with us about your editing process? How you get started, how you edit and ending off?
Well 2 cases :
I love this anime, I need to find a song for it. I find a song : ok let's do it
I love this song, I have to find an anime or a concept to it (which can imply multi anime). I find the anime or the concept : ok let's do it.
It's always about making a good vid, no matter that I want to give justice to an anime or to create a concept : AMVs are about editing, I want people who don't like animes to be able to appreciate my videos for what they are, MUSIC video.
Now it happens I don't even try to make some vids because the idea would need me to make technical stuffs I don't want to spend time on (lazy again)... I just want to make neat videos, great to watch. I don't like spending hours working on a stuff which is 3-second-long. That doesn't mean I don't like masking or else, just that it's not my top priority ^^''. I have a huge respect for editors who spent months and months working on their vids, I can't do it myself or I would drop my project for sure. Though, lately, I'm a bit bored, seems like editors want to show they're able to mix animes to create an unique story and well... That's not what AMVs are about imho. Basically I don't mind them to do it if it's well done but it's not my priority as an editor to that type of things.
Also, I can say that I'm a pretty linear editor, I start from the beginning of the music, I sometimes put some clips at some spaces but in general, I end up changing them 'cause it isn't good anymore once I arrive to that point.
Hm...Q: From reading past comments, you seem to be a well accepted judge/critic among the AMV online contests and from editors in general. What's your method for critiquing/judging videos?
I hate having criteria to check. I mean, once for a very little IC, I had to give points according to things we gave me, I tried to follow it, it didn't suit my op at all so I just put marks that would give a ranking following it XD.
I don't really know how it started that some people trust me as a judge. I think the main reason is that I was always absent when there were 'important' contests and since I knew some of the coordinators, they tried to put me as a judge and finally thought they were ok with the way I do my judgement.
The only thing I can really tell is that there can be lots of work in a vid, to me, it can be bad as hell. Months spent on a vid don't mean it'll be great, it'll just mean you're patient and congrats to you but me, as an editor and as a judge, I don't care. I just watch the vid : is the pacing good ? Are my eyes schocked when clips change ? Is it interesting ? What does it have than the previous vid I watched didn't have ? Is this voluntary random or just rushed ? Is there a storyline or just a global idea and if yes, is it clear through all the video ? Are effects well done ?
I kinda work like it... hope it's clear
AMV France is an association, Org isn't.Q: So as a member of AMVFrance, can you share with us a little bit about how the French community is different/similar from the Org community?
Amv France is French, Org is... org. I mean, we could say it's Americain but it's not true, look at Mirko or Nya. Org is just a bunch of people who like the website to me.
Org forum is big as hell not AMV Fr one XD
But there is one common point : to French, AMV fr was seen as elitist for a long time (while it's not), to people outside Org, Org was full of elitists (while it's not).
That said, let's go back to the association point. You have to know how it works, it's pretty... « democratic ». In fact, every two years, members of AMV France participate in an election of their staff filled by 10 persons, members themselves. By members I mean, they pay every year to be part of the association.
The association has some goals to reach, the main one being that its finance has to be stable or it's not legally allowed to exist anymore. For that point, it mainly depends on Japan Expo contest for many reasons : Japan Expo convention is the place where we meet every year and let's say if the contest becomes uninteresting, people lose a reason to come particularly if they don't know anyone. I mean, well, for people like me near it, it's easy but when people live far from Paris, it's tiring and expansive to come. Also, if the contest doesn't receive enough entries, it can simply... disappear from the convention. You know, AMV France association is little, JE is all about sells and basically, we don't help it to earn anything, they keep us because they want to, like « they have many entries so people are interested in it » but if it comes we have no more entry well, maybe there won't be AMV France in JE anymore which would be kinda dramatic.
That's why the staff works as much as he can to interest the community and even foreigners : )
I used to be part of it but I didn't want to keep on... I'm still a basic member though but I'm not really into it anymore, not that I don't care, just that I have other things to do.
Honestly, I'm more Org than AMV France now lol. Before, I used to be on AMV Fr IRC channel and it was a lot of fun but then people started to leave it and meanwhile, the way people considered AMVs changed. Imho, if there weren't contests, the hobby would be dead, which saddends me. I kinda miss the old days, Dark Krystal, Master of Chaos, SoH, Dark Kirua, Kael, they were the French editors who gave me the desire to edit myself. They were examples to me (well, they weren't anymore when they became my friends for some of them but still :p). I also miss people like Koop who released Twilight with so looooooooong credits 'cause everybody wanted to beta it and he mentioned all of them (at least think so). Back then, there really was an AMV COMMUNITY. Back then, I remember editors received looooooong reviews on their AMVs, people pointed anything they could see and/or feel watching it, good or bad, there was passion.
It wasn't Org, South America, France and Russia, it was AMV. Seriously, I always hope to see a Reflections of Style 4 y'know.
Now... Kinda uninteresting but well that's not the original question >_>
I honestly don't know. Thing is, even in France, it's separated, there are so many teams >_>Q: Are there any active barriers that keep foreign editors outside of a-m-v.org that you can notice or have heard of? I notice from stalking watching the other sites that there is quite a talent pool out there. Is there anything that might make the transition a little easier for them
AMV France forum isn't so active, only few French editors are on it ^^. There are soul's team, eden team, phoenix team, [insert a name here] team forums which are active so well...
Org people just have to take care when they talk to a newcomer but basically, I'm part of the people who think newcomers have effort to do also. In my own case, before registering on the French forum, I spent 2 months reading it in shadows ^^ ''.
People who choose judges are from Org, people who vote are from Org, that's all |:Q: You've mentioned in the past about the lack of foreign representation in the VCA/JCA contests. Care to expand/explain a little bit about that?
I don't blame them but don't expect to see many foreigners which such a system.
About JCAs, they should be completely re-worked imho, to take VCAs semifinalists is unfair to me. I've got an idea but it'll be a paiiiiiiiin to organise : Choose like 7 judges and they have to choose 3 vids for each category. Plus, add exchanges in finals between them before making the raking so that they can deliver a global judge op rather that just a mathematical result:s
Hu... It saddens me that you only point MEPs I'm in T_T.Q: MEPs seem to be quite your forte'. Empty Mosaic and Memory Flash are testament to that. Care to share a little advice for MEP coordinators and the like about how to put together a solid MEP?
Well, ok, I have to admit it this is where you can notice me the most. Just before answering to your question, I want to say that I made some vids alone like God First or Awakening and I think they're really worth watching XD (and also Dragon Screamer for the French version of Quickening but that was a fanboy video x) ).
For MEPs in general, I just don't like not doing what I'm supposed to do that concerns someone else. For my own vids, I don't care, I drop, too bad. But in MEPs, I don't like to be the one who spoils the whole project so I try always to be as serious as possible.
About Memory Flash³, I wasn't a coordinator, just an editor among the others and I was really proud to be part of it. The 2nd opus was released when I started to be interested in AMVs and since that moment I always said : if there's a 3rd one, I'll be in and I was, so, really, that was like a dream to me XD. Hm... Though things weren't how I would have liked them to be but it doesn't matter now, we did it and I'm glad : )
If we have to speak about MEPs I coordinated, you forgot Acid :p. Won't say much about it but, as both coordinator and editor, it was the project where I had the more fun until now (even considering the running 2nd opus of Empty Mosaic).
Anyway, fact is, as a coordinator, you have to know who you're working with, what you want from any of the editors in your project and also show that you are yourself motivated. I mentioned Empty Mosaic², well... for example for this project I didn't take any track deciding to trust editor : never do that. It was a mistake, now I know it, never, NEVER, do that. The best way to keep people motivated is to show your own motivation, to edit yourself and to spam them every week, every day. That's how it is. Also private forum, not only for betas but also for random stuffs not even linked to the project to create some fun though this point doesn't work every time sadly, depends on editors' motivation ^^
By the way, I don't think I have THE solution, I just know that when I start a MEP I end it and it'll be always like this 'cause I'm a dictator : D.
I don't know honestly... To reorganize the forum was a good idea but I don't think it was done so well XDQ: Anything in general that you think could improve a-m-v.org?
I mean, well it is reorganised, but it's not good or bad, it's just different, it doesn't make things easier to me.
Also, I wish the amv annoucements section was more... well, y'know, right now there are quickening and project org vids so it's quite different but damn, there's no real op anymore. People say « great », « ok », « bad » and that's all. No more developed op like I could read long ago.
Well, now that I'm writing it I don't think it's such a good idea, people will be even more scared XD.
Maybe you shoud promote more the IRC channel... the best moments I had in AMV France's life were when everybody went to its channel...
Writing this, I want to say something not linked at all in the itw : I really miss godix, really, he was part of the people who made me want to connect to Org channel. I didn't connect for a while learning his death, even now thinking about it makes me really sad. I didn't really know him that much but I had great conversations with him and I think he was a great smart and funny man. IRC isn't the same anymore since he left us.
Well... apart from that, no idea, sorry, I can't help you much.
I don't have any, I'm not the best placed to advice people.Q: Well thank you for joining me this week. Any last minute advice or general comments for the editing public?
Just do whatever you want, the way you want but learn to accept someone's else op. By showing your work, you accept to be reviewed in any possible ways. You don't have to agree with the review, just accept it for what it is, the viewer just doesn't care about the reason why you made this or that stuff, he just watches an AMV.
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Next week on "The Lip Flapper"
We'll be hitting up next week and interviewing Kisanzi, a long time member, who is a master of karate and friendship for everyone!
Lastly, I can kinda see where he's coming from about the technical AMVs that have been coming out because it has a fairly lack of emotion and focuses more on story, but at the same time, I disagree because even some AMVs, like Jus Talionis, did a great presentation on both story and emotion. Course, the ones I've seen now: Metamorphose & In Terminis didn't really have that same flair that Jus Talionis had, imo. Anyway, last thing I found funny was MimS just wrote: 
But I was reading up on Godix's posts here for awhile now because right as I came in here, I watched the AMV Iron Chef tournament and just heard about his death that way, Kinda my reason why I decided to snoop around Godix's posts and, honestly, I found them interesting because Godix just didn't really care about how other people felt when he commented on someone's video and I just kinda compared it to the posts nowadays and I feel as though there's a difference between the two. Course, that's only with one member, not with the whole AMV community as a whole but he did make an impact here in the community. ^_^ So I guess that's kinda my reference.
