10 Year Anniversary (WFW 99)

hi I'm Philip hi I'm Kat hi I'm Wesley hey everyone welcome to a very very very special episode of Wong foo weekend super special it's our birthday ten years for ten years old home food Productions has been around for an entire decade we were making videos before YouTube even existed when we first started making videos we had to buy a server and bandwidth so that people can download the videos from a link that we had to pick we had to pass around a link physical link just going around on like Instant Messenger and forums and stuff and that's all the first few videos got around and they were just like you know little skits that we made and the first video is actually something we don't do anymore it was a lip-synch video and Ted and I actually weren't even involved with it they're always very clear to make sure to say that but I can I guess I can see why but no we didn't know each other back that's true it was a it was a lipstick video that I did with my suitemates and we did like a couple just for fun but we ended up meeting in class later on in college and we just started doing school projects together and chem good friends and then we graduated and then we moved out to LA I still can't believe that waffle production could be a ten year old kid just running around now little troublemaker I know you can't actually talk to him for production area back then like you know we keep saying like there was no such thing as being professionals on YouTube there was there was none of that we were just we knew we had a fanbase that was growing and we knew we wanted to keep making stuff but we were just coming in here blind yeah online media was just emerging most people when they graduate they move home or they go to some internship or some job that they have set up we didn't do either of those Phil said let's go to LA and I was like I don't know LA sure the thing is I didn't know LA either well the reason why we picked la was because the last year of our college year we were traveling up to LA a lot from San Diego we're doing a lot of shoots here so we just decided la is the place to be so no here you saw oh my god are you okay I'm so sorry this is where we first moved to after we graduated and we moved to LA for the very first time our friend's mom was like a real-estate agent and we had no idea where to move to in LA and she said Oh moved to Hamburg well this was home for what three years tears tears a lot of stuff happened in this house like the most the formative years of like the official wongfuproductions like I think when we were moving here like we weren't even really totally taking one through totally full-time we were still doing weddings and stuff for like TVs and commercials club promo a lot of people think we live together in you know at university but we actually didn't we live separately this was the first time we lived together and really got to know each other's living habits some people have roommates and then they go to work and then they have the people they work with and then they leave working they had their friends we were just 24/7 always together and live work play eat sleep everything like it was all just the three of us and we didn't really actually get out that much because we were just so focused on working and trying to keep long food going I've never really had roommates before these guys um so it was really interesting living with two guys who are your friends that you saw everyday in college but now every time you wake up you see them like now I can see Phil wearing like basketball shorts and in the kitchen just making cereal I think that was odd size boxers haha well we're lucky we each had a room at least we had a room Ted had the biggest room I had the smallest you had this yeah the smallest cuz you didn't want you wanted to pay the least amount of rent oh yeah I think actually we handled it pretty well like the fact that we didn't kill each other those first few years that's pretty good considering how much time we spent together ted is not working ted is not working ted is not working let's this boy Ted is not working but no work head it's not working some roommates just just being roommates don't like each other but we did everything together no one cleaned the kitchen whoa spaces no one ever cleans the kitchen no it's because there's nothing to clean since we were never even down there oh sorry kidding what are you peeing friend it's really weird it was the beginning of the nice guys store or this the nice guy brand or Wong foo merchandise cuz we were doing all these commercial work or TV jobs and weddings and it was just not enjoyable for us but you know we we needed the money basically but that's why we had one idea to start selling merchandise yeah the first one first or website was built in that room right there and we we bought our you nice guy calm in the hallway of this sitting on the ground everything you like I can't believe no one's taking that yes we're original West was designing the shirts like in his room and then we were designing the website and then downstairs was our warehouse we packaged every single thing ever shipped out in the first three years I think you couldn't walk through it those cardboard boxes and shipping materials every time when a huge water comes through I would grab these guys and we would go into the kitchen we would wrap a moment with you DVDs our first DVD and that that was kind of how we spend our nights there was an assembly line yeah there really was we bonded over folding t-shirts I remember like the first 50 orders I was like no I want to I want to personalize it so I drew like a picture on every package that's not that's what we had to do to keep one for going you know we we sold these shirts and these mini Spencer's and it allowed Wong foo to keep making things all thanks to ya so if you bought a shirt from like back in thank you even now we have food because of you I always thought it was just crazy that we somehow convinced each other to all do this very crazy thing I'm like how did we all agree that this was a good idea oh well let's just go everyone else thought the other person like was like they got it under control for the first you know a few months one into every night say good night to each other we did we know we said good night I said good night to you guys and oh the funny thing is we were living together we were like five steps away but we're still talking to each other down aim an email good night guys do we do that I said good night to you guys for sure didn't hear it you know sometimes sometimes they said good night back sometimes I don't remember saying it was a recording dinnertime do you want to so after much deliberation Cady cafe another Friday night just a three of us boys yeah I'm one of our friends at the time brought us to this cafe one of the first restaurants in the area that we ate at and we just fell in love with it because it was cheap you got free drinks cuz it just opened and I mean they're open till 4:00 in the morning so our eating habits and schedules is really bad because we're spoiled by this kind of like oh well we'll eat dinner at 11:00 we we spend a lot of time in this restaurant like late at night like brainstorming ideas and like talking about work and not always work we premiered to try to do work usually we just end up like this there was a waitress at work there and then Betty and she was she was very she nice yes she was she was a pretty girl we would probably talk about man what do you think we're gonna end up in like 8 to 10 years Betty stop working and you know why because she didn't like me and we scared her away this was like 2006 to 2009 we came here a lot yeah I think we came here like three to four times a week it was here oh it was here and Chipotle actually I think we're spending too much time together no don't even go there in 2008 we spent like the first couple months trying to write a movie like a full-length movie like probably in that booth right there but is that it looks like now Ted only now it only eats four or five star restaurants you know this is this is the this is a walk back into a time when you used to get this it came in a metal bowl it looked like dog food I'm actually very excited for this I used to get this and what about Sara blog right now and Phil hasn't do you wait to be late guys let's start a Happy New Year 2011 Utley on the way so it's been so long since we've said hello man what was life like during this era of long food was like those are the transition years in Palmetto this is like the growing years I think I think we had a little bit more structure YouTube was growing and we were kind of understanding that okay there's there's there might be some future in this if we keep it going the right way but we were meeting other people that were making videos online so I think it felt better meeting others that we're kind of going through the same thing you were going through move over okay let me let me teach Phil real quick okay he needs the most help realizing hey we're not alone in this I think that you know the old place we we thought all we had was just us three and it was nice to open up to more people he's my you smile a nice smile so they know your happiness and that's why I have you there I'm here I was just meditating I David hey Ted I remember personally it felt better because there was a daily routine I remember we would wake up to whatever business and then around lunch I walk down there and get like a Vietnamese sandwich and like a milk tea walked back eat it out here that was my lunch break go back in and shoot something it felt pretty good to know that that's how things worked aqua animal started in this house yeah I remember there were a lot nights where I was just making buttons for like two hours we turned the kitchen into a warehouse but then Ted actually got us a real warehouse my room was actually massive I had a whole upper floor me and pepper so the room itself was really fake and then the closet was like a walk-in closet so I decided one day switch it up I'll put my bed in the walk-in closet so I can have my own my entire room like an office place and we went in there one day and we were like we're playing some video games and we realized wait where's your bed my phone fax real quick about this place we met Chris what we were living here so the first project we did with him was up in the club right there the entire funemployed series was shot here so inside the house on the driveway on this walkway funemployed was all here yep one full weekend started here that's we were like man we need to make more videos but we don't have enough time to do stuff we should just our vlogs started one for weekends here as you know a lot of stuff from our house all right we're done packing up the cars for now where are we headed to welcome back to the first official Wong foo office I remember opening these doors the first time [Laughter] I was very proud that we had gone from you know that first town house and then you know fast for a few years and we have yeah in office this seat feels very familiar to me is just like this looks like West chance the best man all YouTube friends came to visit us here because you're very proud of our office [Music] what do you think has been the biggest change in the last 10 years everybody's I'm gonna say my hair just has hair Ted so old now I think the thing that's changed the most has actually been YouTube itself from when we first started not even existing to like you know this this hub for these independent people in their bedrooms to now like these big companies and businesses you know it's so different and even us we're just trying to keep you know our heads above the water and keep up I remember actually being we were graduating and we were at like at FX at UCSD and I was just telling Wes I'm like man if we could just if we could just make videos and make money off that and just but just keep making whatever videos we wanted that would be the dream that'd be the best and I guess it sort of happened and sometimes I just have to step back and realize oh we actually kind of accomplished that in that's pretty amazing we never had this planned out we never had a five-year plan we never had a ten-year plan because everything changes so quickly this has been a wild ride nowadays they start you to like or they start a channel thinking about that like they have a goal in mind but we never were like all right guys today we're gonna be waffle productions and this is what we're gonna be like we just we just happen it happens so naturally and gradually well it's a lot it's 10 years worth of hard work every single day every hour a little bit of luck a little bit a little bit of luck and you guys just started out as fun you know three college kids making videos and to think that it could be something that lasted 10 years is it just blows my mind and I hope it can last 10 or 10 I look more more it's been a it's been a good good 10 years we couldn't have done it without you guys I know that sounds very cheesy but for us to have made the steps that we've made it's all because of the support we've had whether you found out about us last month or since that first lipstick video and you stuck with us it just it means so much and it's amazing to think that we've created so much work and you know reach so many people and this is not the end we're working even harder these days to get you guys more high quality videos doing bigger stuff we're really grateful that you guys are sticking with us as we grow and I think there's gonna be a lot of good things to come anyways we could just keep going on and on about how lucky and fortunate we are but we'll end it now and with one more thank you for the last 10 years you've changed our lives immensely and and I'm speechless I don't know to say thank you guys thank you you

Channel: Wong Fu Productions

Views: 724,820

Rating: 4.9815798 out of 5

Keywords: wongfupro, ted, fu, wes, chan, philip, wang, wongfuproductions, memories, history, years, looking, back, old, new, past, beginning, begin, start, areyouaniceguy, awkward, animal, video, first, wong, wesley, college

Id: _EoVbUNGPWI

Length: 16min 41sec (1001 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 09 2013