Occupational Interview : Wesley Chan from Wongfu Production

[This was a college assignment I had to work on for one of my classes. For the assignment, I had to interview a person with an occupation, and luckily, prior to the week that is due, it was Wesley Chan's ticket stop event from WongfuProduction, and I thought I would give it a shot. And here is the interview, I thought I should share it among everyone!] Warning, some of the words I may repharse a bit to make the sentence flow, and others may have lacked some words because it was a meet and greet and I didn't ask all the questions I thought I had. Please don't take my exact word for it. Thank you!] And shoutout to Wesley Chan! (: thaaaank you so much for letting me take time out of your day to interview you!

24 November 2013

Occupational Interview

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For the following interview, I went to a meet and greet of one of the famous film writer/director well know on internet and asked him if he would do me a favor, allowing me to interview him for one of my classes, which is counseling 17. Thankfully, he was nice enough to agree to it even though it was during his meet and greet event. There may be some awkward responses below due to my nervousness in asking the questions, so just fair warning. Some question because it seems very repetitive, or maybe its  just because my interviewee answers it very detailed that one of his answer can simply cover three questions in the sheet. So I may skip some, however, I will leave down a reference so its easier for anyone to look back at the previous answers. And for some because I don’t have his direct quote, I will write from my own perspective from my memory.

Simple Biography of Wesley Chan:

Wesley Chan is a UCSD graduate who majored in visual arts, and started his career as filmmaker/director as soon as he graduated, if not during his senior year. It all started when he met his two classmates Phillip Wong and Ted Fu. These trios made their legacy through uploading their videos on the internet back when internet was just getting off its feet. Soon, when YouTube was created, they became even better known to the public as Wongfu Production. They were invited to many places as speakers, and soon they had their world tour, showing their fans worldwide their videos live, along with meet and greets. Wongfu Production now not only make films and movies for a living, they also have their own clothing line called “Are you a nice guy?”, along with their popular plush sets called “awkward animals” that have been constantly expanding. Now, they have been around for a decade, their fans have grown from a few thousands who subscribed to their show all the way to national wide simply from making little videos here and there.

1)      How did you started in this field?

Well, I was a visual arts in University of San Diego, and during the classes I took, I met Philip and Ted. Back then, we started making videos just for fun. It started from vlogging (or video logs) to short films. People started watching and the audience grew around the country. It was unexpected. And finally in senior year we decided to try something new, and made a movie. And through all those short films and the movie, we were invited to different universities to give speeches and talks, and that was when we realized, we have stumbled upon something, and it was then that we decided to foster it and nature it. It was simply unplanned.

2)      What do you like the most and least about you job?

What I like the most about my job is being able to have the freedom to create and make videos, along with being able to share it with the world. And as for the least, it is the uncertaincy of where things are headed.

3)      What is your typical day like?

Every day is different, some days we would stay in the office and have the “office life”, editing films, writing script and putting things together and on the other days we would be out shooting films. We never have a set typical day, because one day we can be giving a speech in UCSD for falls convention, and another day we could be flying to London like last week.

4)      What emerging trends do you see affecting your job or industry in the next five years?

 I think as technology and social media progress is something exciting. And because of this progressment, you need to be more unique and stand out more than everyone else to be able to stay on top. For example, the Asian Community needs to stay together, because it is still a young industry for Asian filmmakers. It is way too early for each of us to go off on our own.

5)      What skill set of skills and abilities will I need to be successful in this line of work? What kinds of task do you do on a typical day or in a typical week?

In order to be in this field, you definitely need to be passionate about filmmaking, not to mention the need of being creative in all senses. You need to care about community, and not be afraid to take chances, especially being able to adapt to new skills and obstacles that comes at you.  [as for the second part regarding the task, reference back to question 3, which he explained pretty much that part, due to time convenience, I decided to skip the ones that are similar to each other, or can answer each other’s question]

6)      What type of task do you spend most of your time doing?

[Due to the fact that his task are different by day, it is spread out throughout the year depending on what they are focus more towards that time/month/season/event]

7)      What do you like best about this job?

[Answered back in question 2, when he answered what he likes most about his job. Which he stated that it was being able to travel worldwide, to places he himself has never though he would have been.]

8)      What are some of the more difficult or frustrating parts of this career?

Because we are or own bosses we need to be thinking about how to sustain, and run our own company twenty-four-seven. And since we are also our own employees, we have to be always on the clock.

And as for the frustrating parts, during the Europe trip I realize that we cannot please everyone because people tend to be disappointed. And it is really hard to be able to look past that  since we are trying to represent Asian Americans in the film industry, yet we cannot please everyone. However, we cannot complain about this, rather, all we can do is try our best to please everyone.

9)      What characteristics does a person need to have in this job?

To be able to do this job, a person needs to be creative, unique, passionate, and really have desire and love for the filmmaking industries, rather than doing it just for the name and fame. [Reference back to question 5 and the last question.]

10)  Is this career changing? How?

Because the social media is expanding, this career is getting more competitive and well know in compare with back the; it has became more challenging for the new comers who want to aim for the top or to become successful to be noticed today.[Reference back to question 4.]

11)  What kind of hours do you work?

Due to the fact that they are their own bosses, their hours are flexible, and as for the hours, it depends on what they are working on that particular day. [Reference back to question 3, 8, and 12]

12)  Is your schedule flexible or set?

Their schedules are flexible, since each day their schedules are different/flexible by activity of the day, it starts and ends differently as well. [For extended information, please look over at question 8 and 11]

13)  Does this career include or require travel?

Yes, this career includes travel. As Wesley explained during the interview, in order to get in touch with their fans worldwide, it is an important part of the job to be able to meet, greet and outreach to their supporters nationwide.

14)  How does this career affect your lifestyle?

It is still something Wesley tries to wrap his head around, “because its social media, my lifestyle consist of more travel, and I have been to places I never thought I would have been to”. He explains further, “You feel closer to a lot of people with the influence of social network, and because you put so much in blog and videos you feel like you have a lot of friends. It’s this false idea like you have a lot of friends. It takes time to accept so much out in the open, especially traveling, and this whole celebrity idea, online celebrity to be particular”.

15)  How did you prepare for this career? + How did you find this job?

Wongfu production is at the right place at the right time. We started out a new, because back then, there were no YouTube, and internet video making isn’t just a job out in the open that you can major for in college. It is to the point where we didn’t know where we were going, but we were just creating the path as we go. It is mostly thanks to the audiences who watched our video and helped spread the word, because if it weren’t for the audiences, we won’t be here today making films.

16)  Do you have any advice on how people interested in this career should prepare?

If you want to be a filmmaker or someone of media through new media, first make sure you like it or enjoy it, and its something you are passionate about, it’s not something you want to do because you just want the name and fame. To prepare for this career, you need to be at a point where you are not afraid of making mistakes, because people fail many times, and with every mistake, you tend to learn to stay humble grounded. Surround yourself with many people, and try to learn from them.

Mother ; ℓα ∂συℓєυя

It was yesterday, and the day before yesterday that got me realize how much effort my mom gives in on daily life. Even though she is not my birth mother, her role in my life became bigger and bigger as the days went by. Although I tend to forget that, and be ungrateful at days, its at the end of the day that things collect itself and I find myself in my own little bubbles. Yesterday night we celebrated her birthday, and that's when I realize, nobody really appreciate her appearance much. Nobody waited for her to show up, and nobody asked where she had been the whole day, working. Even though its family dinner, I don't even see a speck of greeting. Maybe I am blind, but then the things they do , tends to be captured by me. Jay's refusal to join the family celebration and talks, instead he rather play angry bird, and minion run. The generation below me's ungratefulness, not knowing why we are gathering here today. And the in-laws who are just there because their spouse needed them to be there. My mom have to buy her own cake and do all those things just makes me angry. Why couldn't anyone else buy her a cake? She deserves more than purchasing her own cake. It was at that point I wanted to make a cake just for her, maybe a cheese cake or something like that.
On the drive back to my present's place, I gave it a lot of thoughts. I wanted to cry, it's not until I was leaving that house that made me realize how empty it was leaving it. Leaving the warm spot. How unfullfilling it was, and how much they needed me around yet I was like that. I wanted to cry, but I didn't know who to cry to. Nobody at this moment would understand how I feel, nobody. And that is just pretty sad. Thinking that I grew up all these year having so many people passing by on my life, yet nobody understand me well enough to see how I feel. Maybe I am introverted rather than extroverted. I thought of my brother, the youngest one, though still older than me, he is the third in line. He is an introvert, unlike my older brother and sister, whom are extroverts. It would make a lot of sense, but then as of now, it makes no sense at all. In fact I dont even know what I am talking about anymore. I wanted to write this blog since yesterday, but then because I was away at someone else's place, I couldn't let them see my secret blog. I couldn't let the society in, its just something I havent came in terms with yet.
No now, and probably not ever would they find this blog. I guess this place is just a place where I let out my fustration, a place where I can talk about all sort of secret and not being scared to express myself and how I feel. Although sometimes I really do wish someone would read this and talk to me, someone who would understand how I feel. Regardless of introverts or extroverts, just somebody.

Secarios we imagine; "it is easier to be said than done"

At home, in my thoughts on bed, I can imagine millions of scenario that are played through an incident. I can imagine how to approach each and everyone, and how I should encounter each and everyone of them. There is this common saying that, "it is easier to be said than done", and quite frankly I think its utterly true. We watch movies and see stupid scenes where individuals could save themselves from death, and humiliations, but what we are being tied to and am too blind to see is that we have to be in that current character's shoes to judge the action itself. We need that certainty in which we don't have. We typify characters on screen and off screen for the stupid choices they have, but how many of us actually thought of a second that we may never be in the same scenario as them. I remember as a kid, it is frustrating just to see cartoon characters freeze in the middle of the road just because they saw a car approach and is about to hit him/her. I remember I would scream and tell them to run, and think that these characters are illogical and doesn't think, but when I encountered a near car-accident experience a year back, all I could do was freeze on the spot rather than escape from such event. These things are so frustrating to deal with, yet we take it so lightly.
These past few months, I been thinking about my actions I have done in the past. I may have committed a sin that is so sinful that even a non-religious atheist believe in the term "sin". I kissed a homozygous being, or in another term, someone with the same gender as me. It wasn't that part that made me shameful of what I have done, but rather, the fact that I took no responsibility of the action made me angry. Made me ashamed of the things I done, and how I have handled it. It became awkward after that sleepover. In fact, waking up after your hormones drown out is the worst thing that could've happened. Realizing that all those things you did were just because of the moment rather than actually doing it according to your feelings were just wrongful. Especially when in the next few days, the girl I had such encountered with wrote me a four page letter confessing that she did it not for the moment, but because she grew feelings for me, What the hell self? Why did I even allow that to happen when I don't have feelings for her? It seems ridiculous then, and still seems ridiculous now to think about it. She tried calling me and talking to me because I tried to avoid her, she tried coming up to me and saying hi and still but all I can do is walk away and pretend I have errands to run and things to do. I treated her awfully, for when she was contributing her whole heart out. I was the bad guy in that friendship. If I didn't have feelings for her and she was my best friend, I shouldn't have motivated her to kiss me, or to kiss her back. I shouldn't have gave it the chance for it to happen,. nor should I have allowed it to happen.
I knew she was bi, I knew she doesn't just playing around. I knew shes kind and sensitive, yet I wrecked her like a wrecking ball. I was the reason why she ended up unfriending me and blocked me on facebook. I was the reason why every time I see her on campus or around the hall, she have to put her head down and walk away fast. I was the reason why our friendship turned from being best friends to being just awkward strangers in the street. I really want to say I miss her, I miss being able to talk to someone about things, to be able to speak Chinese openly, and being able to open up and accepted. She actually cared full time rather than my other friends caring only half of the times. Yet I dropped her hard. What was I thinking?
There were so many opportunities where I could have saved the relationship. There were so many times where we could have made up and pretended nothing have happened, yet I chose to do the selfish thing and blocked her off of my life once again.
How stupid of me? Letting one of the most important person go just because of that. Flushed it down the drain like that...
I imagined in my bed, scenaros where I see her, and apologize to her. I see myself talking to her, saying and speaking some sense, giving this whole speech trying to make up for these. But i know no matter how I say it, there would be no way things would just simply go back to normal. Her sister hates me now for wrecking her, and I dont blame her. because if was her sister, I would do the same thing.
I imagined all these different scenarios where I walk up and ask for her time, to ask her "do you hate me?" Apologizing for the years of pain I caused on her, but just now, just half an hour ago, when I saw a back shadow that seems like her but I didn't have the courage to check or even to call her out or pull her back, I felt powerless. I was shakened as if I was in front of a hundred audiences. I was afraid of facing her, all the guilt and fear rushes into my brain, paralyzing me from reaching forward, or to even open my mouth to speak up. My feet began to drag, and I began to walk slower.
She seems exactly like her, the girl seemed exactly like her. The way she walks, the way she position herself, and the way she holds her phone. It makes me think so much, my heart tells me to approach her, to talk to her, to stop her before not seeing her again. This is the chance. Yet in my brain, my logic is telling me the opposite, telling me that I am just heading into a trap. It's stupid, it is really stupid but true.
I wish there was just a time machine, going back to the time where none of these happened, going back to freshmen year, maybe even elementary school and start all over with the knowledge I have of today.

but to bad that is just a narrative of fictional sci-fi that would not happen anytime soon.

If she was reading this today,  I really would hope for her forgiveness, because I am the one at the completely fault of what is happening today.