Wong Fu film premieres on YouTube
In May 2010, Wong Fu Productions (Wesley Chan, Ted Fu, Philip Wang) and Ryan Higa started talking about doing a special project: a high-quality, long-form film that would be released just on YouTube for fans. Well, the moment is here: the film is now on YouTube, and Philip tells us more about it.
Written in a couple days, the 35-minute movie was shot in one intense week this past summer. Drawing from the talents of a few dedicated friends, the crew was no bigger than 10 and was usually just the three of us from Wong Fu Productions (WFP), plus the actors. There was no big budget, no big company, no big crews or equipment behind the shoot – just us, a DSLR camera, and the desire to do something major and to support each other.
In a time when "YouTubers" are still foreign to industry studios and decision makers, we didn't want to wait around for someone to give us the green light. We just went ahead and did it ourselves. Being Asian-American is not something most mainstream outlets believe is marketable. We struggle with this constantly. But with Ryan and Wong Fu's combined audiences, and a fresh approach to producing high-quality stories, we can show the world what we're capable of – not just as individuals in a new industry, but as a community, as well.