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

~~*~~*~~

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.

My Mother's Life, an inspirational yet touching true story of her life. ; ℓα ∂συℓєυя

      The pain, the suffer, the sacrifice. This article is going to be special, this article is written dedicated for my mother, whom I knew would never read this, but still she's a true hero. With all due respect, please do not take this article without permission, and if use any, please credit my mom at least for it.
      My mother started off her childhood not easy, having 4 siblings, she was in the middle. Out of all her silbings, she was the one who was the least spoiled, she was the one who faced most of the harshest things that anyone could have faced in the society of poor. She, is a really unique girl who deserves more than she have right now, she deserves a better man than my father.
      Her mother to start off would always spoil the others when they ask her for money. Unlike her other silbings, asking her mother for money, she went off joining the malitary in Taiwan and became a nurse after with all the money that was gained through everything she would give most of them to her mother, leaving her self with barely enough to live. The greedy sisters would still continueiously seek her mother for money, and secretly the mother, weak as she was already, would give it to them when the whole purpose of those money was for her so that she would be able to live a good life.
      In her mid-age, she met my dad, which then I dont know how, never asked, it would be too awkward to ask anyways. Maybe Ill ask my dad later on in life, but not now. Meeting my dad in the medical field while around malitary wasn't really a good idea. And definately marrying him wasnt a good idea either.
      As my mother pursues her nursing later on in the United States, she knew little than enough to keep her alive. Yet somehow manages to survive. She was defaintely a great role model. She entered the United States, with a little cash, a little knowledge of its foreign language, and no one to take her around, she was literally lost, didn't know where to go. And back then, Asians migrating wasn't even a big thing. Barely any Asian were at California then.
      When her career was finally stable enough, she moved her three children to the United States for better education with the citizenship she gained. Another wrong decision she made by settling in the US and leaving her husband back in Taiwan to work, intrusting him in the relationship and the family. It wasn't long before he began to flirt, and soon enough cheat on her. Who knew how long this have been going on, but then it was one of those times where protection wasn't enough and an accident happened. And that's where I came into the story. Yup, you would think the whole time, the mother I talked about is my biological mother? Wrong. It was my adoptive mother who learn to love and forgive in a sense and allow me into her life.
      It was on one of those typical days where one of her friend needed someone to look after her grandmother and asked my mom to help out. That's where the surprise visit came in. It was because of my mother's surprise visit back to Taiwan made her saw what happened. That's where I came in to the story for real in life form. That was the time when I was about to come out of the womb and mother had no one to call but my dad,and sadly, she was there as well when it took place. And according to her, she was the first one to held me in her arms, all along, thinking that it was my mom who held me, thinking that she was the bigger person in the picture. In fact it was actually mother herself. After everything was settled, when everything have calmed itself, one person that wasn't calm was mother. She didn't know what to do. That was the downest part of her life. No the struggle she had coming to the US, not the fear of not knowing anyone and having to survive in a foregin country, but facing her husband cheating on her and having a bastard child. It was then, thanks to Buddhism that calmed her down completely, if it wasn't for them, mother wouldn't have made it until today.
      He never comforted her, he never really sincerely apologized either. And that left a huge mark on her. I mean if I was the one, I would have left everything and just return back to US with a divorcement and start new. But mother did, she stayed and settled, trying to forget and forgive. Though there's always this mark of scar on her, but then she hid it well, all these 18 years, I wonder how she survived. The more I learned about the truth, the more guilt I felt. I was the stone in their relationship, if my existent wasn't present, then this family may have a chance to live happier than ever, but then again, that would mean my dad may continuously cheat. Oh well, maybe this was all fate in a sense.
      Now today, why did I out of no where wrote this article? My parents once again broke into a huge fight with my dad starting everything with greed. He cared about himself more than others, and money obviously more than his wife.  I really do feel bad for my mom, it was at that time I wish I had a job already, and a place of my own, a place where mother can come and escape all these miserable hell. But then again, I am just a 18 years old with all the "irresponsible" marks on my head, what can I possibly do? I feel like punching my dad hard, hoping that he would get some sense in his system. I wished for powers to change my dad's mindset, and become a good husband, but then again, those are just wishes not things that can be done easily.
      At this point in life, I began to feel thankful, not just because I have a life already given at the palm of my hand, but a good life, a life many like my mother would be jealous of. A life where guys that are really truely after me, and the ones that I have been with are all good and not bad influences. That I have extreme luck, though there are down hill many time, but the uphill is really rewoarding. Thank you for everything you have done mother, you are truely a hero in my heart, the only thing i regret is not being able to be your friend and be there to talk with you about these and make you feel better. Making work the only escape place, the only paradise to escape from troubles. I am sorry.