“Music, I’m with you no matter what.”
Jiho Shin, who is well-known for his nickname, ‘The Man Who Plays the Piano’ has written it as his motto on his web page profile. He is not a professional artist yet, but his fame on online and specialty is no less than that of pro musicians. In the video folders on his homepage (http://www.cyworld.com/jihoshin), there are lots of famous Original Sound Track (O.S.T) music and popular songs that are played by him. Recently, he played ‘What I’ve Done’ (an O.S.T from the movie Transformer) and gained tremendous popularity. Now more than one thousand people visit his homepage in a day to enjoy his own piano arranged performances.

Coterie ▶▶ Amateur ▶ Professional
‘Coterie’ is a small group of people who have a common interest and do not want other people to join them. They are beginners, who are going for ‘Pro’ status, but do not create copyrighted works yet. They simply enjoy their hobby. So, generally they do not mind violating copyright laws (‘Pros’ overlooked them because most of them were a coterie at one time themselves.). However, a coterie can make novel ‘masterpieces’, because they are not bound by all the industry restrictions. If these restrictions form and their unconventional works increase, gradually they become amateurs.
How are amateurs different from professionals? There is a famous posting that lists ’80 differences between amateur and pro’. Here are some of them.
• Professional’s one day is 25 hours but amateur’s is only 24 hours.
• Professionals study throughout their lifetime, but an amateur does it at one time.
• When professionals create works amateurs imitate it.
• When pros challenge the present, amateurs maintain it.
These are only a part. Yet you might not agree with some of them when you see the whole list. Because the ‘a technical gap’ between amateurs and professionals is getting more diminishable these days, the boundary line has started to fade. Like the above example, Jiho Shin, even expert amateurs have been gaining more popularity than professionals by giving familiar performances to the public.

Professional + Amateur= Proteur
Image editing parody of movie posters, magazine advertisements were once in fashion. Now, the trend is ‘creating video files.’ It began with User Created Content (UCC) and lately, a heavy windfall of UCC creators has changed into Proteur Created Content (PCC). Because of the spark of PCC, the word ‘Proteur’ started to become well-known to the public. If UCC is pursued for mere amusement, PCC is used to inform technical professional data. From playing musical instruments to making a short film, it covers various fields.
In video files, amateur and professionals show only a small gap in their technical ability. For example, young girls, piano trio revived ‘B rossette’ (an O.S.T from Korean TV show ‘White Tower’). Also, a man who has studied computer graphics for only 1 year presented the ‘Trans phone’. The ‘Trans phone’ is an imitation of a movie ‘The Transformer.’ However, people were surprised at the fact that the creator was an amateur. There are also short movies from literature works. “Not only acting ability but also camera and editing techniques do all astonish.” People have said that their works’ are ‘novel, innovative and evoking sympathy’.

Visit Report from Proteurs’ space
S# 1.Online club ‘Di-ca Gallery’ (With club manager, Choi Hyung-jun)
Because of the popularization of the digital camera, there are many online amateur photographer clubs. Among them, CAH (Chung-Ang Herald) visited ‘Di-ca Gallery (http://cafe.naver.com/temadica.cafe)’, which has almost 80,000 club members.
“We meet many times at both online and offline spaces. So, we can learn photography skills faster.” Club manager Choi Hyung-jun answered. That was why the club’s online space was filled with feverish excitement. He emphasized that their club is very systematic.
“Our club members are divided into two classes, the character-preference class and the landscape-preference class. On weekdays, we practice character photography in the studio located at Dae-hak-ro. We also frequently hold lectures with professional photographers.” On weekends, members go outside for landscape photos.”
When this club started, they did not know a lot about photography, but gradually, several members, who knew a lot about photography helped. As an answer for ‘What do you think about the degree of professionalism of the amateur photographers?’, he stated that it is the difference between Mania and Expert.
“As a result, I think the amateur’s pictures are more appealing. Amateur and professionals, they are Manias and Experts. They both have particular points of view that can not be represented by their partners though they try.”

S# 2.Teheran Valley Orchestra (With orchestra leader, Park Sin-zeon)
Teheran Valley Orchestra (TVO) was organized in 2001. The majority of the organizing members were IT business employees employed on Teheran road, Gang-nam. They named themselves TVO. Now, TVO has extended their scope to the whole of Seoul, and Gyung-gi do. Almost all 200 members are employed employees, real amateurs.
“TVO holds a ‘fixed period concert’ 6 times a year. Additionally, they hold ‘TVO family concerts’, ‘improvement concerts’ and ‘service concerts’ for their neighborhoods. From this year, they have started a music class ‘TVO Academy’ for all music fans.”
They give many concerts a year, and for concerts, they have to practice a lot. During the day time, they work as an employee and in the evening, they play instruments passionately in a practice room. I wanted to ask. Isn’t it tough? However, as soon as I heard his last word, I realized how foolish this question was!
“We do not need both modifiers ‘amateur’ and ‘approaching professionals’. We were just gathering for the passion of music. Pride in our achievement is our power.”

People have changed…
Why have the number of these proteurs increase so rapidly? First of all, the problem of ‘food, clothing and shelter’ has decreased. Mostly, people do not have to worry about tomorrow’s life. Now they think ‘How’ instead of ‘What’. In other words, they have started to want a higher quality of spare time. Therefore, people restarting their old-dreams; they are learning to create a new culture, rather than just living to support.
With people’s life composure, ‘Civilization’ has developed. No matter how comfortable people are, it would be of no use without well-equipped tools. However, lately, popularization of advanced equipment has been spreading rapidly. Only experts could get it in the past, but now it is not an exclusive possession of the professional any more. Especially, in computer and photography categories, the growth of amateurs is remarkable.
Lately, the development of Internet businesses and multimedia has acted as the catalyst to stimulate this trend. With appearances of a one person media, or a ‘personal expression culture’ has spread and many people want to show their ability by using UCC or PCC. They learn more enthusiastically and hope to list more video files on the online world.

“When a chance comes, amateurs think first and seize the opportunity but professionals seize it first and think.” Christopher Mitchum said in a movie ‘Summertime Killer’. It is not referred to as a problem of ability. It represents the difference between amateurs and professionals. It is about the ‘mental factor or attitude’. Now the amateur’s ability is not inferior to the professional’s. However, the more important point is not the technique, but the idea and thought. Many photographers say, “The best technique information about a camera is in its manual. However, the ‘eyes for catch the theme’ is only in your head.”
Nevertheless, you can be an ‘amateur who is like a professional’. Because you are not a professional and don’t have to be a professional, you can enjoy it in a more pure format than someone who is a professional. If you have just ‘will and passion’, you can start it now. It is beautiful to be able to spend your spare time as your working life. Moreover, it is gorgeous if you can do it like a professional.

<Interview>

CAH: What do you think about the professional degree of amateur photographers these days?
Cho: Because of the development in media and popularization of DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex), high-class amateurs have appeared. Their levels are various but some of them have great ability which is no less than that of professionals. In technical knowledge, there are little or no gaps between amateur and pro. However, it is an important factor that one has his own philosophy, being able to capture great photos or not. While amateurs leave 1~2 masterpieces out of 100 shoots, professionals leave more than 90 masterpieces.

CAH: Would you explain your picture that won ‘the eyes of this week’?
Cho: It was really lucky. March 1st, I was going to In-sa-dong after visiting Tap-gol Park. I saw a lot of sparrows and suddenly wanted to take a picture of them. Sparrows move very fast, so I only sketched outline first and took them quickly. When I developed the film, I discovered one cut which was exquisite in its timing. The very scene, just before a sparrow spread its wings while it jumped down. It could attract many people because it is so rare a scene. If I could speak to sparrows, and ask it ‘Please jump down again and again, until I get the perfect shot. I will pay you!’ then it would be easy, but it was a rare if impossible shot and I won ‘the eye of this week’.

He seemed to enjoy ‘Modern Times’ with his camera lens. I envied such an attitude. Through DSLR, he could be different from Chaplin.