The Flip Lapper : Volume π - CodeZTM Interview

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Kosmit
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The Flip Lapper : Volume π - CodeZTM Interview

Post by Kosmit » Sun Apr 01, 2012 4:18 am

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Disclaimer: These interviews are not associated with a-m-v.org's administration. Continued exposure to "The Flip Lapper" may cause unexpected amounts of laughter and glee.

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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"

This week, we talk with CodeZTM! Later in the week, we'll see an ostrich fighting a kangaroo!

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Interview Spotlight

So why did I decide to interview CodeZTM this week? Well, if you've even remotely ever been in our forums, you'll notice his name popping up everywhere! Cause he just can't keep his mouth shut. Or because he is a very active member of the community and constantly tries to make the forums a more interesting place to be. One of the two. I'll let you decide.
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Q: Thank you for joining me today, Code. Why don't we start with a little introduction and you telling us a little bit about yourself.

Well, my name is Zackary and I’m a full time tax accountant and a senior in college. I have a love of literature and music, which contributes to my editing style.

I live in central Arkansas, which is in the middle of the United States, and is part of the “south”. Yes I do speak with a strange accent (we speak very slowly and with a drawl), please to be getting over it. XD

Q: How did you get involved in AMVing? Is this a creative outlet for your imagination since you can't exactly use it when doing someone's taxes?

Hey, I can get creative with taxes!

Well, I could, but the IRS doesn’t like that. :uhoh:

Haha, anyway I got started here in mid 2005 when I was directed here from another website. I didn’t join the forums until 2006, but after I did, I found a nice community of people that were just a little scary looking on the outside, but had a lot of fun things to say/do on the inside. So I stuck around!

While originally it was just a fun hobby to do, it really is a way (in the present) to be creative. As you said, taxes aren’t exactly a colorful career, and AMVs are something that just bring a little life back into me at the end of the day.

Q: You started way back in 2005. As you have admitted many times, you weren't very good with the technical stuff and your videos have had some technical issues. Then, at one point, everything got better all of the sudden. What happened, years of practice finally paid off?

Yes and no.

First of all, the best advice I can give anyone is to LISTEN to others around here. While they appear overly critical, it’s the best way to learn! Take criticism and learn from failed AMV projects or techniques that just didn’t work. That was my first flaw, which was being unable to take criticism and apply it to my work. I’ll never forget the time I should have listened to jubjub2 in the Valentine MEP, and instead released my monstrosity of a track to the world, only to get it shot down. >_<

Anyway, years of practice certainly helped things. I learned the “hard” way (AKA: No mentors, not reading the guides fully, not having beta testers until late 2008), so practice certainly helped along the way as I learned new tricks with each video.

I think the thing that really turned me from being a “bleh” editor to an “average” editor was me finally taking the time to read the AMV Theory guides (in General AMV) as well as the AMV Technical Guides (as well as bugging the ever loving crap out of mirkoSP and a few Re-Evo editors). Once I did that in 2008ish, things went MUCH more smoothly from them on.

I also have a lot to thank Sanchez for. When I started getting “good”, was when I started talking to him on MSN and getting film/editing/technical.


Q: According to my observations and what you have written on your profile, romance is your favourite genre. You have proven that with great AMVs such as "Betwixt and Between" and "Selfless Regret". Where did the love for that particular type of AMV come from?

Long story short is that I’m a sucker for romance.

I love seeing people happy together, and it’s sort of one of those things that shows that love exists in this world. Well, in the imaginary AMV world anyway.

Q: At the end of "Betwixt and Between" you say it's your favourite of you AMVs. Why's that?

It may or may not be based on a set of real-life events that occurred when I was in college. :uhoh:

Actually, it was. XD

I felt like I really captured the situation well (from the shy yet violent Taiga to the bitchy blue haired demon and the clueless guy). Oh, and for the record, I was not involved in the love triangle, but had a great ringside view for quite a while. I was a friend of the blue haired bitch’s inspiration, and knew Taiga’s inspiration as well. We were all pretty good friends, and I later became a good friend of Ryuji’s inspiration.

Taiga/Ryuji’s inspirations did get married by the way. ;)

The blue hair bitch’s inspiration? Well, she’s doing fine too. Met a nice guy that actually loved her, can stand her tempter/arrogance and I think they’ve been dating for 2+ years. Funnily enough, she actually saw this video a year or so after the fact and laughed her ass off about it. XD

Her: “Was I really that bitchy to you?”
Me & Taiga’s Inspiration: “YES!”
All: LULZ

Q: Even though you say you're not a fan of action, you have tried editing stuff in that genre. In fact, you've tried almost every possible AMV genre out there. How does it feel to be editing stuff outside of your comfort zone?

It’s difficult because you’ve got your mind set in how you like to edit a particular genre (for example, I cross-fade like a nut in romance videos), and trying to deviate from that to such a large degree can definitely be challenging.

HOWEVER, it’s an invaluable experience to have. I personally have learned a lot of interesting tricks and how the different genres work. It makes me better able to review/judge material in contests, and be able to fuse together many different genres. Selfless Regret was the first of these kind of fusions (romance/drama/action), and is not going to be the last.

I definitely think that EVERYONE should do this sort of thing. Which reminds me that I may actually have a very special contest/event for this very topic come Winter 2012 to be the brother/sister contest to Project OrgEditor. ;)

Q: One of the things you're known for are MEPs. Multi Editor Projects make up almost half of your AMVs. Why do you like participating in/organizing MEPs so much?

I have a terrible disorder that makes it hard for me to edit full length AMVs with a consistent concept/editing. MEP tracks are easier for me to put a lot more effort into, and just generally end up being something that I like doing.

Plus, I love working with people. The Disney, Cascada and Re-Evo MEPs that I’ve been involved with are very fun, low-stress (most of the time!) and a great way to collaborate many different styles together into one lovely piece.

Q: One of your most successful projects is the Disney MEP. It even had a second edition. Where did the idea for that come from?

Shamless Plug: There’s a third edition in the works too! Check it out summer 2012! :3

I love the collective Disney films/music probably more than any other media in the world. So it’s not a long shot to say that my love of it was the biggest factor behind it.

But the REAL motivation behind it was that I wanted to push editors into editing with this kind of music, because there is a great shortage of *good* Disney AMVS. Considering how close Disney themes are to many anime themes, it’s just a great combination that I want to see done more often!

Q: I've always had this image of you being an org editor. Yet, at some point, you joined one of the more known YouTube studios, Re-Evolution. How did that happen and how is this working out for you?

They had a trial audition going, so I gave it a try! I’d always wanted to work with a studio, and this was my shot! Somehow or another, they actually liked Betwixt and Between, and accepted a “Raw” editor into their group.

Re-Evolution is probably the best group of editors I’ve had the pleasure of working with. While I haven’t been active as of late (tax season! YUCK!), when I am active, the members are always ready to look over my material and help me out with editing/pacing/effects advice. It was probably my favorite decision I’ve made while being an active editor.

StrawberryKiss, Khoa, Trever, Vivamist, Corsair, Replay, and everyone else are all great people to work with, and all extremely kind.

So be nice to them around here! :)

Q: You're a very active member of the org community and beside editing, you have started some interesting projects. Let's start off with Project Editor. Where did the idea for that come from?

It started out as a MEP version of the hit TV show “Project Runway”, which is basically what Project Editor is, but with fashion instead. I loved the idea of making editors edit in creative and unique ways, and thought it was a great way to get some interesting videos out of it, while still letting people have fun with it!

Q: I'm terribly sorry, but I just have to ask this. The first Project Editor had some... teething problems. At some point you did an infamous rage quit, which even earned you an award at godix's Troll's Choice Awards in 2009 and the contest was then finished by The Origonal Head Hunter. What the hell happened there?

Ehehhe… And here I’d hoped that everyone had forgotten about that. :sweat:

*Sigh*. I’ll just be honest.

At the time, I was going through a very stressful bit of my life involving something that I don’t want to discuss publicly. I took my frustration/anger about this situation on a few editors that were just simply trying to help me better run the contest.

When the shit hit the fan, I realized what an idiot I had been and didn’t want to de-rail the project anymore than I already had. I messaged Original on MSN and told him that he was in charge, and just left for good.

It was a very childish thing that I did, but I can guarantee that it will not happen again. We’ve had 2 successful iterations of this contest, and I’ve matured as a person and now know how to better handle my stress. I’ve added Nya-Chan Production as a co-coordinator to the project, and [key]Scarlet is handling our graphic design.

Q: Yet you came back. Is the hobby that addicting?

It wasn’t so much the hobby as it was the people. When I peeked my head in and made a comment on an AMV, a few people recognized me still, and didn’t seem to hate me too much. I met a new group of editors that had joined in my absence and made some new friends. I started editing again, and I’d realized that I just loved the community/hobby as a whole.

Oh, and come a few years later and I started up Project NeoEditor. Still full of problems/complaints, but I managed to finish the project and learn from the mistakes that had been made. But people had fun!

A year later and a-m-v.org sponsored the very first season of Project OrgEditor. A few bumps with the themes chosen and some disagreements on judgment calls I made, but we managed to finish! Plus, I learned which themes were best to try and make, so we should have a lot more fun in season 2!

Q: Now you're running the very interesting interview/panel series, The Lip Flapper. The reception has been incredibly positive so far. Where do you keep getting all of these cool ideas? Also, have you tried talking to the admins to regularly place the interviews on the main page, not just the forums?

I just think about what I’d like to see on the forums and try to make it a reality! I’m planning a second contest to run in the opposite season of Project OrgEditor (this one isn’t org-sponsored, just to clarify) because it’s something I thought I’d personally enjoy, and that others might enjoy as well!

As for admin support? Well, I haven’t officially asked yet (outside of comments in threads), but I hate to bother them. They’re in the middle of making major website changes, and my interviews (I feel anyway) aren’t up there on the scale of “SHIT THAT MUST BE DONE NOW”. XD

Oh, but if an Admin is reading this, and they would like to talk to me about how I can make my interviews something that a-m-v.org would actively sponsor, please to be letting me know! I would certainly take up the reigns and do more work if it were necessary.

Q: To sum up, you edit, run MEPs, run contests, do interviews, and also do a lot of AMV reviews. It would be hard to find someone doing more on than you this site. How do you find the time to do all of these things?

I’ve mastered time magic and can cast a +4 Hastega buff on myself, while casting a +2 stop on the earth. :awesome:

Haha, actually the real truth is in major planning. I started planning OrgEditor season 2 in January and had the funding for it wrapped up in February. I’ll likely have my other contest start planning as soon as OrgEditor is finished. It’s still nearly a month away, but the entire contest (forum posts, the website, registration, ect) is all ready to go! All I really need finished up is the scoring system, the promotional video and a few tutorial videos for the contestants.

Lip Flappers (except in March when I had a few schedule-conflicts with editors), are all planned exactly 1 month in advance. Since April is coming up, I’ll likely start contacting editors for May interviews and panels.

While I may not have a lot of “free time”, my micromanaging and future planning definitely let me take the time to properly dedicate to school/work and still be able to add to this community.

But come May 15th? YAY! I’ll be more active again and hopefully have new content to share!

Q: Anything you might like to say to the a-m-v.org community?

Thanks for not hating me too much. ;________;

Haha, but seriously it’s a pleasure working with and talking with such a diverse group of people from around the globe. It’s an experience that not every hobby gets to have, and I think I’m a better person because of it.

DISCLAIMER: The cheese in the above paragraph is not dangerous. In fact, it is quite delicious. The cheese will not try to hurt you, and will never try to stab you. However, it may wish to teach you French. We are not responsible for any and all mistranslations that the cheese may cause.

Q: Thank you for taking the time to answer all these questions. Any last minute thoughts you might like to make, or perhaps some tips for new editors just starting their adventure with the AMV world?

What an irritating question! Who on earth would ask this question to someone…

Oh wait. >:|

Anyway, the biggest thing I can recommend is not to be afraid to ask questions! Always search the forums for a question similar to yours first, and if in doubt, pm/ask an active member! We usually don’t bite, and can be quite helpful! :)

The other thing I can recommend is to never post anything out of anger. You can’t take it back!

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Monthly Calendar

April 2: Fall_Child42 Review
April 9: Effects Panel
April 16: GuntherAMVs Review
April 23: Unconfirmed
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Past Interviews/Discussions

Check the Main Thread for all relevant information about future Lip Flappers, as well as past/future interviews!

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Re: The Flip Lapper : Volume π - CodeZTM Interview

Post by Replay Studios » Sun Apr 01, 2012 2:14 pm

just awesome ^^

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Re: The Flip Lapper : Volume π - CodeZTM Interview

Post by Shin-AMV » Sun Apr 01, 2012 4:00 pm

Sweet. Well deserved interview for Mr. ZTM after doing so many interviews. :up:
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Re: The Flip Lapper : Volume π - CodeZTM Interview

Post by Rendakor » Sun Apr 01, 2012 8:04 pm

I came in and expected some epic trolling, given today's date. However, got a very good interview with the man behind the interviewing. Great read.
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Re: The Flip Lapper : Volume π - CodeZTM Interview

Post by TritioAFB » Sun Apr 01, 2012 8:05 pm

It's strange to see Code as the interviewed :O
Good interview
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Re: The Flip Lapper : Volume π - CodeZTM Interview

Post by Nya-chan Production » Mon Apr 02, 2012 2:26 am

Kosmit wrote:Q: I'm terribly sorry, but I just have to ask this. The first Project Editor had some... teething problems. At some point you did an infamous rage quit, which even earned you an award at godix's Troll's Choice Awards in 2009 and the contest was then finished by The Origonal Head Hunter. What the hell happened there?.
It was actually the SECOND Project Editor which had such problems, the first one finished just fine ;x
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Re: The Flip Lapper : Volume π - CodeZTM Interview

Post by irriadin » Mon Apr 02, 2012 12:24 pm

Very interesting read!

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Re: The Flip Lapper : Volume π - CodeZTM Interview

Post by Diegao » Tue Apr 03, 2012 2:23 am

Yeah finally an interview about you :shark:
It was interesting, and I have to say that I admire you in your ability of managing time :up:
Keep going on! :bear:
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Re: The Flip Lapper : Volume π - CodeZTM Interview

Post by Ijexis » Tue Apr 03, 2012 2:11 pm

That was a pretty good read.
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Re: The Flip Lapper : Volume π - CodeZTM Interview

Post by Mkid » Tue Apr 03, 2012 10:46 pm

Answered alot of the questions i wasnt asking! :awesome:

I surprisingly read it all, so it was entertaining. nice to know more about code :ying:
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