If any of you are anything like me, I bet you spend a good amount of time (time that was originally set aside for studying, of course) perusing YouTube for some quality cat videos, make-up tutorials, and “Let It Go” covers. However, next time you find yourself watching your 8th consecutive Jenna Marbles video, I encourage you to type Wong Fu Productions into your search bar for some well-produced and entertaining short films, vlogs, and music videos.
Now, why is Wong Fu Productions being featured as our Campus Celebrity? Well, that’s because this is a production team made up of Triton alumni! It all began when Wesley Chan, Ted Fu, and Phillip Wang met at UCSD in 2003. Although none of the guys were originally intending to have careers in film or media, they enjoyed creating short films and music videos for class assignments. Their early work used the UCSD campus as their set and their fellow classmates as their actors. The first official Wong Fu production was a lip-synch video to Justin Timberlake’s “Senorita” (good choice, fellas). Not surprisingly, this video went viral on UCSD’s campus, as well as on surrounding college campuses. This was the beginning of Wong Fu and their YouTube channel. They created more and more videos, while gaining more and more fans throughout their remaining years at UCSD.
After graduating UCSD in 2006, the trio took off to Los Angeles together to make their once small-scale filmmaking grow into their production company Sketchbook Media. After five years of producing work, gaining fan support, and attending film festivals like the San Diego Asian Film Festival, San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, and Cannes Film Festival, Wong Fu Productions marked the milestone of one million subscribers on YouTube. Since then, Wong Fu Production has continued to gain more and more subscribers and produced more and more great videos. Today they have over 2 million subscribers and 281 million video views. They are even working on gaining support for their first feature length film!
It’s incredibly satisfying to see the success of UCSD alumni. Wong Fu Productions is made up of three friends who are hard working and truly love what they do. I feel especially inspired by Wong Fu Productions because I’m a media major myself, but they can teach us all to perservere and really pursue what we love. They let us know that we can and will end up gaining both success and happiness. Check out their videos during a study break, collegiettes!
Link to their YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCutXfzLC5wrV3SInT_tdY0w