Interview with blogger Pavel Grinev. Three questions for a celebrity: Pavel “Kinaman” Grinev Kinomaniya 88 is always with us

Participant name: Pavel Grinev

Age (birthday): 31.03.1988

City: Rostov-on-Don, Russia

Height and weight: 186 cm

Channel direction: let's plays, movie reviews

Number of subscribers: from 145,000

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His happy childhood was spent in the city of Rostov-on-Don. Pasha grew up in a complete family, his parents loved him very much.

Since his school days, Grinev surprised everyone around him with his talents - the boy independently mastered the guitar, and later he admitted that he did not even know how to read music. “It just happened somehow,” the young man smiles.

He always dreamed of creating his own rock band. Pavel developed a love for rock music after he heard the songs of Viktor Tsoi and the Kino group. By the way, Grinev also owes his pseudonym “Kinaman” to a popular rock band.

When creating his own account on Yandex, the nickname “Kinoman” turned out to be busy, and as a joke, Pasha replaced one letter. Viktor Tsoi remains the young man’s idol to this day. When creating his own image, the Leader (also known as Pavel’s pseudonym) was guided by the singer’s appearance.

The hairstyle, narrow cheekbones, and large chin are very reminiscent of Tsoi’s facial features. Even subscribers are actively discussing Pavel’s resemblance to the young rock performer.

As a child, the boy was very inquisitive and had many hobbies.– computer games, selection of songs on the guitar, bicycles.

He did not stand out among other children in any way - he walked with friends, played football (by the way, he always stood at the goal).

However, from an early age Pasha began to develop a form of scoliosis. Complications arose in relationships with peers, the guy switched to home schooling.

Now he is very thin, in addition, Grinev told his fans that he has disorders in musculoskeletal development and often visits neurologists.

In 2005, Pavel graduated from the 11th grade of school (information about this varies, conflicting facts are cited), after which he thinks about the future. Having decided to become a programmer, he enters the RKSI, but after studying there for less than a year, he realizes that he chose the wrong path.

Then the young man decides to suspend his studies for an indefinite period. However, he does not give up computers - his passion for the World Wide Web opens up new horizons for Pasha.

In 2011, Kinaman released a short film, “The Curse of the Gray Elephant,” dedicated to the old “Dandy” console.

Having secured the support of new subscribers and good viewing statistics, Grinev is decisively moving further in this direction. He is developing his own style, a new unusual format - the life of a disabled young man himself.

Opinions about Pavel’s activities are very different– some people like his content, others consider the young man’s videos strange and even disgusting. Unfortunately, due to health problems, Pasha’s facial expressions are not varied.

In any case, today Grinev is a well-known face of Russian YouTube - his audience of subscribers exceeds 140 thousand people, and he has a lot of fans who appreciate his work.

Interesting facts about Pavel Grinev:

The young man suffers from partial impairments of memory and muscle development;
He is the creator of the popular film “One Day in Childhood”;
Grinev’s favorite films are “ForrestGump”, “Needle” with Viktor Tsoi in the title role, “Crew”;
Pasha’s ideological inspirer is James Rolfe.

More than three years ago, on March 27, 2011, a film by an unknown Rostov guy Pavel Grinev called “The Curse of the Gray Elephant” appeared on YouTube. It was dedicated to the seemingly forgotten 8-bit console “Dandy”. Why will people watch this? It turns out they will. In the time that has passed since the first viewing, Pavel “Kinaman” Grinev has become, perhaps, the most authoritative retroblogger, and his project “Kinamania” gathers an audience of millions. It's no surprise that this old-school lover ended up in our "Three Questions for a Celebrity" column.

— How many people a day write to you in personal messages, email, etc.? And how often do you manage to answer them?

— On average, about 15-20 people a day, although it varies. Most often this happens through VKontakte, and half of them simply express their opinion about my project, so there is no particular need to respond. I answer those who ask to respond whenever possible, but not often, since I can’t regularly review all messages, and they gradually “move” down.

— Do you consider yourself a blogger?

- Why do we need to remember our childhood?

- Because in childhood, most people had a lot of good things and things that will never happen again. This must be remembered, because much of it brought real joy, which, under the pressure of adult life, simply disappears. If you manage to preserve this childish part of yourself, then you will never forget how to enjoy your current life. In addition, the feeling of satiety, which is characteristic of modern realities, will also not go off scale if at least sometimes you look at the world through children's eyes.

Watch the curse of the gray elephant calf:

Alexey Borovenkov

— How many people a day write to you in personal messages, email, etc.? And how often do you manage to answer them?

— Do you consider yourself a blogger?

- Why do we need to remember our childhood?

Watch the curse of the gray elephant calf:

Alexey Borovenkov

Kinaman(real name Pavel Grinev, genus. March 31, 1988, Rostov-on-Don, USSR) - Russian video blogger, director, musician, screenwriter.

In 2011, he directed the documentary film “The Curse of the Gray Elephant.” Informal leader of the nostalgia movement on YouTube. Author of the show “Dandy Chronicles”, “Dandy Memories”, “In the Kitchen”, etc. Currently working on the four-part film “One Day in Childhood”.

Childhood and education

Born into a working-class family, the second child, 8 years younger than his older brother Vitaly. Pavel's childhood was spent largely in the residential area of Rostov on Severny, where his family lived in a one-room guest house, as well as in the village of Sambek in the Rostov region, where the Grinevs regularly went to visit relatives on weekends.

In 1995, Pavel went to school, becoming a first-grader at secondary school No. 99 in the Voroshilovsky district, where he completed all 11 grades. During the entire school period I studied at 4-5, but did not like physics, in which I consistently received a C. In 2005 he graduated with honors. After school, he entered the RKSI, where after studying for one semester, he dropped out. To this day he has only a secondary education.

1 "G" class of school No. 99, 1995. Pavel is second from the right in the bottom row.

The Grinev family at the wedding of relatives (1996)

Disease

In early childhood, Pavel was diagnosed with disorders in musculoskeletal development, as a result of which in adolescence he developed a pronounced form of scoliosis, which led to a shift in the center of gravity of the body and made free movement difficult. In this regard, Pavel was exempt from physical education at school and received most of his training at home. The cause of the pathology is unknown, but according to the conclusion of a neurologist, this form of the disease is not dangerous and does not threaten the general health or life.

Nickname

According to Pavel, the nickname “Kinaman” was not invented by himself, but by the Yandex mail service at the moment when Pavel registered his email account in 2003. Initially, he wanted to call himself “Kinoman” (because of his love for the Kino group). But this nickname was already taken, and in response, Yandex offered several similar derivative options, among which Pavel chose “Kinaman” for himself.

Musical activities

In 1995, Pavel’s older brother Vitalik purchased a six-string guitar, and from that moment they both delved into studying the technique of playing this instrument. Inspired by the songs of Viktor Tsoi, at the age of 9 Pavel wrote his first song “New Days”, after which he began to actively record his own compositions on a household two-cassette tape recorder. In 2003, he recorded the first block of his own songs in electric sound, giving it the name “My World.” In 2005, with the participation of his friends, he assembled the Pentagon group to record the next home album, Stars Instead of the Sun, some of the songs of which he co-wrote with Pavel Toropov.

Group "Pentagon", 2006

The album was never completed due to disagreements with the bass player. Over the next few years, Pavel recorded his new songs acoustically, and in 2009 he combined them into the collection “Nostallife”, the main mood of which was very melancholy. Around the same time, Pavel became interested in covering melodies from video games and recorded about a dozen different cover versions that he published on the Internet.

Since 2012, he has continued to work on recording his new songs in full instrumental sound.

Writing

In 2005-2007, Pavel participated in the editing of the non-profit offline video game magazine Game Bit, which was published on the Emu-Land website. net, as an author and then editor of the magazine. Initially, he collected codes and passwords for games for the corresponding section, and then tried his hand at writing articles in the form of game reviews. Subsequently, he led several columns, and while working on the eighth (last) issue, he was one of the chief editors responsible for the issue.

During the same period, Pavel began work on his book of memoirs about the 90s, some fragments of which are published on this site. He also wrote a couple of short stories.

In September 2010, inspired by the works of American video blogger James Rolfe, he began working on a script for a documentary film.

Filming of the film “The Curse of the Gray Elephant” (2010)

Kinamania

On March 27, 2011, Pavel published on social networks his full-length documentary film “The Curse of the Gray Elephant,” which tells about the appearance of the 8-bit console Dandy in Russia, which gained popularity in the retro sphere of the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet. After the success of the film, Pavel continued to develop retrospective themes and opened a group on social media. Vkontakte network, a YouTube channel, as well as a website under the general name “Kinamania”, where he published his subsequent works.

In January 2017, Kinaman performed on stage for the first time in front of an audience at the Mona club in Moscow, where he presented the 2nd episode of the film One Day in Childhood. At the same time, together with a musical group that included his longtime friend Ilya Kuznetsov (participant of Pavel’s first musical recordings), he performed his songs on stage for the first time. Since then, the Kinamania project periodically gathers guests at creative events in Moscow and Rostov-on-Don with the participation of Pavel and his friends.

"Kinamania" at "MonaClub" (2017)

Pavel Grinev (Kinaman) is a good example of an adequate video blogger (who does not consider himself a video blogger), who runs his own popular YouTube channel.

Pavel does not strive to follow the rules of blogging dictated by YouTube after it turned from a video hosting site into a social network, and to chase cheap popularity at the expense of the quality of content. Unlike the vast majority of other bloggers.

First of all, Pavel is a person for whom the video format allows him to fully develop creatively. And, by far, his Kinamaniya is the best show about computer retro games that I have seen. In many ways even better than James Rolfe, whose work he was inspired by. Because it talks about our warm and luminous childhood, hugging a Dandy joystick.

I invite you to watch a short video interview that I took with Kinaman for YouTube channel ShiftUp.TV.

Hello friends, today on ShiftUp.TV we are presenting a new section, interviews with bloggers, and today there will be a teleconference with the city of Rostov, with Pavel Grinev, better known as kinaman. We will ask Pavel a few questions, and he will answer them in his famous kitchen.

Anton - Pasha, hello, tell me why you started blogging?

Pavel Grinev: I don’t actually blog, I do video creation, which is not tied to a specific work scheme, as happens with bloggers. I don’t shoot video messages, I very rarely write even on my page on social networks, and I don’t consider my activities to be a blog as such.

Anton - why did you choose the video format, and not the format of some classic blog, text, microblog?

Pavel Grinev: In fact, I didn’t choose it, it all started with my first film, which I shot in 2011, the film was full-length and did not include any blogging format, I was simply inspired by the works of James Rolfe, and wanted to do it in the same vein, but something that is familiar to all of us, those who grew up in the 90s, on the topic of video games, nostalgia and everything else. After the film, there were numerous requests to make a second part, because people liked it, and I chose some format for myself; Since I had ideas about how to continue this topic, I chose the format of the TV show Dandy Chronicles, and within the framework of this program I continued to engage in video creativity. Then new programs appeared, new ideas appeared, a new play show in the kitchen appeared, dandy memories appeared, but I don’t consider all this a video blog. I don’t try to adhere to the rules dictated by YouTube or another similar platform; for me, the Internet is a way to convey, a way to tell viewers about something interesting.

Anton - tell me, what does your blog on YouTube give you as a person?

Pavel Grinev: First of all, it gives me new friends, because through YouTube and thanks to the fact that I started doing this activity, I met many interesting and different people, creative, talented, who do the same thing as me. And thanks to this, I met people in many cities of the country and people with whom we communicate well in reality began to come to me.

Anton - How about making money on a blog?

Pavel Grinev: It’s hard to call this income, but there is still some income and it’s nice. Because, for example, about three years ago I had no idea that making programs about what you like and simply posting it on the Internet can bring in some kind of income, especially on an amateur level.

Anton - and another important question for me, how do you feel your own popularity, as an individual, as a blogger, as an opinion leader? Does this affect decision making, for example in your personal life?

Pavel Grinev: I don’t notice popularity as such and I don’t experience any feelings associated with it. Within the framework of the Internet, this question can be answered, for example, over time, I began to notice that when my YouTube channel gained subscribers and I wrote comments on videos that I liked from another author, put likes, I began to notice that with people started running across my channel and saying that “kinaman liked it, that means it’s cool.” And I thought that in fact this is not right, that if I liked it, it means it’s cool, this is just my opinion and I began to limit myself in this regard, because for example, I would not want to leave a comment on a channel dedicated to the fact that It’s not at all related to the scope of my creativity and the scope of my channel, I wouldn’t want people to run in there and say “oh wow, what’s going on here, kinaman likes this video format.”

In real life, nothing has changed and I hope nothing will change.

There is also such a side that over time and as more and more people began to watch my programs, I began to receive a lot of offers to meet in reality, that is, somewhere in Rostov, someone comes, says kinaman come on Let's meet, have a beer, play dandy, you are a very interesting person, and so on. And this is what I try to avoid, because I am a modest person, I cannot bring myself to the forefront, blow kisses, say hello to everyone. My circle is very narrow in real life, I don’t have many friends, but many of them are close friends, and with them I feel comfortable, and I wouldn’t like to meet strangers who just know me and want to chat with me. Maybe if there was some opportunity to hold a meeting, as they usually call a meeting with fans, where they could answer questions of interest and talk about something... but meeting specific people who write to me, no, this happens very rarely, and in I am very modest in this regard. But I learned this about myself precisely when people recognized me on the Internet, before that I did not know about this trait of mine, and probably my growing popularity, if you can call it that, opened my eyes to this.

Anton - tell me, how long did it take you to prepare for the film? And how long does it take you to prepare one of your programs now?

Pavel Grinev: I shot the first film in five and a half months, all other production programs I shot from a month to three. Now I am busy with a film that will be several times larger than my first film, “The Curse of the Gray Elephant,” and work on it takes almost a year and I think it will take the same amount, or even more. I write the script about halfway through, start filming, start studying how it turns out, look at what is missing, what can be added, and in the remaining half of the script I make adjustments that I learn from the footage of the first half.