Wikitubia:Interviews/APC227

This interview was conducted via email on January 12, 2017 by Aidan Dunphy

APC227 is a YouTuber with over 30,900 subscribers as of February 10, 2017.

Q1: How and when did you discover YouTube?


 * In my first days on the internet I remember using German video sharing platforms like MyVideo before I discovered YouTube. I noticed pretty fast there were a lot of people talking about how YouTube was much better and they were all moving there. One day I decided to check YouTube out as well and welp, I found a new video platform for me.

Q2: Can you remember what the first YouTube video that you ever watch was?


 * Sadly no. It has been over 9 years now. The only things I remember watching were Lego stop motion videos.

Q3: Can you remember what the first video game that you ever played was?


 * If the Game Boy counts - It was Pokémon Gold for the Game Boy Color. I remember the hype where everybody was losing their minds because these things actually had color xD Good old days.

Q4: How many YouTube videos do you think you've watched in your lifetime?


 * If my calculations are correct it should be over 9,000.

Q5: Who was the first YouTuber that you were a fan of?


 * Pizzamovies. There is only one stop motion animator I look up to and that's him. I will explain in the next question.

'''Q6: Who influence you to make YouTube videos? '''


 * There were 3 people who made a lot of Lego stop motion videos back then. Pizzamovies, Spugesdu, and Metalzora. As far as I know they were the biggest and most active stop motion animators at this time. I didn't have a YouTube channel yet, but those were the people who inspired me so heavily that I decided to create a channel and make stop motion videos by my own. I was and still am a huge fan of them. Sadly all of them are inactive and gone today. I hope they will somehow come back in any way, even though I don't think this will ever happen again. These people will be always in my heart & my heroes and I will always remember them. Best of luck for them with whatever they are doing today.

Q7: What do you think about the new YouTube Advertiser-Friendly content guidelines?


 * Not a big fan of it. The thing that made YouTube so great is that creators could freely express whatever they like without getting censored or punished. Trying to regulate and dictate us what to do/say is just the wrong way. Taking away the freedom of speech will lead people to leave the platform and move to others (which many already did). I hope YouTube isn't turning into a safespace Nazi regime like Twitch.

Q8: How did you come up with APC227 as your YouTube channel name?


 * When I was younger and new to the English language, I always thought the shortcut for Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) sounded awesome. Also I always wanted a short channel name, so I decided to go with that. The number 227 is just a random number to make the name as a whole look cool. It has no meaning.

Q9: Was APC227 your YouTube channel name when you first created your YouTube channel?


 * Yes it was. I made serious preparations when I created APC227. I already had in mind that APC will be a stop motion channel. I had 2 older channels before APC but I don't think they exist anymore. They had no content anyways.

Q10: Currently who is your favourite YouTuber or YouTubers?


 * KEEMSTAR IS THE GREATEST YOUTUBER OF ALL TIME (Also Markiplier)

Q11: Do you have a favorite and least favorite video that you have uploaded?


 * Very good question, I never thought much about it. I would say my favorite video would be the Campingnovka video because it is one of my biggest 60fps project next to Football 2. My least favorite video is clearly the Contest Result video due the lack of quality and ideas. I generally made a horrible job on that video and I actually think about removing it since it gives me a bad reputation.

Q12: What is your favourite part about having a YouTube channel and being a YouTuber?


 * The fact that I actually make a lot of people happy with my comedy videos. Seeing their reaction every time fulfills my heart with joy. I got people saying that they feel depressed and sad and my videos make them happy again. This all is worth more than money man. And as long as I make somebody in this world happy with my videos, I will continue making these. Only bullets will stop me.

Q13: What made you want to upload stop motion videos?


 * Same as question 6. I looked up to Spugesdu, Metalzora and especially Pizzamovies. They inspired me so heavily in my childhood that made me want to be a stop motion animator by myself. My biggest dream is making a coop project with any of them. But again, sadly they are all gone today. Their channels are still up though, so you can check them out at any time.

Q14: How long does it take to make a stop motion video?


 * That depends on how many fps I use. 30fps is fast but looks bad. 60fps looks great but it increases the work by 200%. Since I have a cheap low budged setup and equipment, I try to stand out with a 60fps animation. The problem is that I have a full time job so I don't have much time to make videos, which means that I can do only 1 video per month. If YouTube would be my "job" I could surely make a video every week or 2 weeks because of my experience. Basically it counts like: 10 seconds of video = 1-2 hours of filming.

Q15: Do you play video games in your free time that you don't record and upload?


 * I never record or upload video games, so yeah. I don't play many video games anyways because of my other hobbies.

Q16: What is your favorite video game?


 * Oh god all the choices...I would say from the "modern" games the Mass Effect and Fallout series. From my childhood it is clearly Seek and Destroy and Reign of Fire.

Q17: How many video games do you own?


 * I have no idea. All I know is that I could have bought myself a car from all that money.

Q18: Do you watch your own videos after you upload them?


 * Yes, a lot actually. They are mostly "control views" from myself to find any mistakes I made in my videos so I can prevent them next time.

Q19: Will you ever upload a Facecam or Face Reveal video?


 * Probably not. I wish to stay anonymous on the internet.

Q20: You currently have over 30,300 subscribers, did you ever think you would have that many subscribers?


 * Nope and never. I could have never imagined that so many people would ever like my work. This of course motivates me to be better and make more content.

Q21: You currently have uploaded 43 videos, did you ever think you would have uploaded that many videos?


 * To be honest, I think I could have uploaded way more videos than that. And I will >:)

Q22: Currently your most viewed video has over 1.8 million views, did you ever think one of your videos would have that many views?


 * Not in a million years. I always though that 100,000 would be my "limit". Almost 2 million views blows my mind completely away.

Q23: What is your lifetime subscriber and video view goal?


 * I think secretly deep inside of us everyone wishes for those 1 million subscribers. And to be honest with you that would be my lifetime subscriber goal. Dreaming big isn't wrong, right? Dream big, work hard. As for the view goal I don't have a big goal for that.

Q24: What was your lifetime subscriber goal when you first started uploading YouTube videos?


 * Back then I never thought I would surpass 10,000. Guess that goal is reached xD.

Q25: How long do you think YouTube will last?


 * That depends on YouTube's policy. I have my own conspiracy theory about Google wanting to turn YouTube into a Facebook like social media platform once the money runs out. I censoriously hope that YouTube will last forever, but I highly doubt this will happen. As for that, I hope I will reach 100,000 subscribers and get the plate before everything goes down so I can have something to look back at. Because YouTube was one hell of a ride for me.

Q26: How long do you think you will be uploading YouTube videos?


 * All great things have to come to an end someday, that includes me with my channel too. But to be honest, I have so many big projects in planning, I don't think I can finish that all in one lifetime. So I think I will probably make YouTube videos until I get too old for this crap.

Q27: Are you planning on going to any YouTube conventions?


 * Even though I want to stay anonymous, I'd love to go to a YouTube convention. However, I will do that only if I have a fanbase that is big enough. Besides that I am German and my fanbase is mostly in the US and Russia, it would be even harder for me to go to a convention. Going to a YouTube convention in my country wouldn't make much sense since I have almost no native fans xD.

Q28: What advice would you give to someone who is trying to make videos on YouTube?


 * The most important thing is noticing your subscribers. That means reply to their comments. I see too many YouTubers just uploading videos and completely ignoring their fanbase. I spend hours of sitting there and replying to most of my comments. And every time I do that, I see so many people surprised that the uploader actually replied to their comments. Acknowledging your fans will make them want to come back and comment more often on your videos. And I think this is also the reason why I even grew this big.

Q29: What is the future for you and your channel?


 * I have always had this one big goal to be the biggest stop motion channel on YouTube. Based on that I will try everything to make it happen. I'm still in the beginning of my YouTube career, which means I have a lot of very big projects planned for the future. For example my biggest YouTube project will be my own movie series of a fictional world war 2 story, a sequel to Seek and Destroy, and maybe even a Warhammer 40k movie project.

Q30: Have you ever done a interview like this before?


 * This is my very first interview, thank you very much :)