We’re so glad to be expanding ISA by creating original content through ISAtv and this is just the start. We were all asked if we wanted a show and of course we were in! (Yup, even Wes and Ted have their own shows coming)

So why a dance show? Well, hip hop dance used to be my life. In college at UCSD I was coordinator of a team called Ascension. I was consumed basically 3 days a week (at least!) with dance. We did shows and competitions around souther California. I even posted some earlyyy youtube videos of our routines (old school fans know!). But, after graduating, it all came to a complete halt as Wong Fu Productions took over my priorities. I tried to take classes just for fun when I could, and help out my team, but over time, dance was totally out of my life and the only contact I had was watching my super talented friends on YouTube or ABDC as they continued their passion. When it came time to discuss what show we would all have for ISA TV, I knew this was finally my chance to dance again, and dance with some of the best! I’m so honored to work with these choreographers and excited to be on the floor once more, even if it is just once a month; I’ll take what I can get! Hope you enjoy the show so I can keep shooting more episodes! And go easy on me, I’m rusty! It’s been years! haha

Thought I’d dig up some old photos from my vault to give you a peek at what I was doing before this whole WF thang became what it is. These were the “costumes” from Ascension’s year end routines from each year. Oh young-Phil, look what you’ve gotten yourself into. haha

And since so many comments are asking for uploads of old videos.. LOOK! one has already been here this whole time! Hidden in 2006, lol. See if you can spot me, good luck.

sigh, good times. No, Great times. The dance “scene” has changed a lot since then, due to shows like ABDC and SYTYCD, and I often felt like I’ve fallen to far behind. So glad I can pretend like I know what’s still hip with Step By Step! Thanks!

Listening to the radio recently, I had an observation that I’m sure many of you shared… what happened to all the slow songs, specifically, the slow LOVE songs? Without sounding too much like that guy who says “music was better in MY day”, have you noticed that slow songs on pop radio don’t really exist anymore? And if they are slow, they’re usually sad, but there are no current, popular, slow, love songs anymore, and this made me wonder… what do teenagers in high school slow dance to nowadays? Because, when I was in school, the songs we slow danced to were by current artists and on the radio. But then another thought crossed my mind… do teenagers even slow dance at all anymore, since there’s no music for them?

Since I’ve been out of school for awhile, and don’t have any close friends still in high school, I did some “research” by going onto my FaceBook page and just asking you guys randomly… Here’s just a few of the responses I got…

Just as I had suspected! Either no more slow songs at dances, or they play old ones (from when I was in school, haha)

Growing up as shy awkward teenager, one of the biggest, most nerve-wracking, yet potentially thrilling moments of my adolescence was the slow dance. The sweaty palms and butterflies, trying to find the right timing or wording, waiting for the fast music to fade out, or worst yet, the song coming on while your date or girl was off somewhere you couldn’t find her!! haha. School dances are arguably the biggest events of adolescent years…but without slow dancing in there, I feel like they’re really missing out on something special, something magical and meaningful.

“Take It Slow” is about two teenagers who may have missed out on this magical moment at their first dance together, because popular music didn’t allow for it, but taking matters into their own hands. I hope that despite the DJ not playing any slow songs nowadays (because there are none), that people will still find a way to have this special and sweet moment together, because there are really few things like the innocent romantic emotions that come from slowly swaying with a person you really care about to a good, sweet song.

On a personal level… I miss slow dancing. As we grow up, it’s one of those things that don’t happen much anymore.  Now, people just wanna bump and grind. I mean, that’s fine and all… but the good stuff, the deep stuff, is in the slow dance.  But maybe, that’s what makes it more special, now that we’re older, because we don’t get to do it as often.

And since slow dancing is so rare I strongly encourage those who are in a relationship, or soon to be…to take advantage of that dance partner.  Don’t waste the opportunity you have everyday, to simply play a slow song, in your room, from your car, wherever…and just dance with them. It’s easy, too! All you gotta do is just sway, so no excuses like “I can’t dance”. Just get close, close your eyes, and move. Please, slow dance whenever you can, don’t take it for granted… because there are fewer and fewer opportunities to (if at all) as time goes on.

BEHIND THE SCENES

I must see them live someday.

WHAT TOOK SO LONG?
We shot the video in March, the week before we shoot the “That Girl” mv. We released the song and trailer at the end of April. So why’d it take so long to release the video? Yeah we know, we know. The main reason was because of “Funemployed”. At the time we shot the video, we weren’t sure when Funemployed would be released, and we wanted the music video to come out either toward the end of the series, or at the very end. Funemployed kept getting pushed back, and therefore the music video had to as well. Hope it was worth the wait.

The shoot for this video was probably one of the most intense music video shoots we’ve done, primarily because it involved the most people. We’ve never had so many cast members for one music video before, and the locations we were using were much grander and more unique than ever before.

LOCATIONS
We chose “Jason” and “Kyle’s” jobs based on the locations that we found. We didn’t first think, “Hey, Jason should work at a donut shop. Let’s go find a donut shop.” No, it was…”Hey, we got a donut shop, let’s make him work there.”
The donut shop was owned by a friend’s family. California Donuts, in Los Angeles (Koreatown). Go support them if you can! So much delicious. Trying to focus on the shoot with all those donuts right there was tough.

The warehouse was also courtesy of a friend’s family business. Located almost 1 hour away from us, getting all the cast members and dancers out there was a challenge, but everyone was up for it and made it out. This was a GREAT spot for us not only because it was so big and we had it all to ourselves, but also because we had forklifts and shipping crates at our fingertips. It made for a lot of unique shots and sets.

CAST
The other challenging part about making this video was organizing all the cast and dancers. We’ve never brought in this many friends and cameos (David Choi, Kina Grannis, FM, Jeri Lee, Chester See, Chris Dinh) along with other actors, plus a team of dancers. The dancers are from a hip hop team called CADC from UC Irvine. They were friends of Phil’s back in college and haven’t lost a step. It was great to have them be a part of the project. Overall though, directing 20 some people on set was new to us, but resulted in a hilarious, colorful, exciting cast.

PRODUCTION
A lot more can be said about the actual shoots (two long nights), but I think the video behind-the-scenes say it better. If you’re really interested in how WFP work, definitely watch both clips all the way through.

So there you have it. We’re so glad to finally share this project with you. HUGE props and thanks to David Choi who spent countless hours editing the song and making it sound as epic and catchy as it is. And to Kevin Wu for his dedication and giving us a reason to make this song and video. It was an honor to work with him on this.

Pass it on to your friends, request it at your school dances, make it your ringtone, post it on your facebook, play it for your grandma, get everyone to DANCE TO THIS SONG!

Answers will come in due time. But for now… Here’s what you need to know.

• We made a song with Kevin (KevJumba) and David Choi.

• David Choi produced the track from beginning to end. He is AMAZING. period.

• Kevin and Philip “rap” and “sing” on the track with much help from auto tuning and audio filters. David also sings the bridge.

• This song was made in conjunction with “Funemployed” as part of the story which will be revealed later.

• There is a music video to the song which will be released at some time.

• It’s purposely supposed to sound relatively generic.

• The topic of the song is meant to tease pop songs these days.

• The song is now available to download on iTunes. Click HERE (link) to support David, Kevin, and Wong Fu. We literally did this with no one backing us, straight collaborating for the sake of it, so your 99 cents are going to a good cause. =P

• If you want to listen to the FULL song, yes we uploaded it already on YouTube (better us than someone else), you can listen HERE (link)… but still buy.

• The title TELLS you what to do! It doesn’t get any easier!

Please support and buy the song on itunes! Here’s the LINK again! Let’s make it the #1 pop song!! haha.

THANK YOU TO FAR*EAST MOVEMENT, who without them, there would be no ISA. I wonder if people really understand, this whole ISA thing was literally done by the 3 of us sitting down with the 4 of them and creating this show. (Ok that may be over simplifying because we had a LOT of help, that’ll come later). But really, these guys are so hardworking, so true, and so humble themselves that it has been such an honor and privelage to work with them. And for them to look at us the same, equally means so much to us. The night before the show, it hit me… this was our THIRD ISA concert in the past yr (the first one was 9/7/08 so we just made it). From LA, to SF, back to LA… it’s been an incredible year. 3?! that’s not normal, haha. I really don’t know how we did it. which leads us to the next section…

Thank you to 4C the Power for putting on great workshops that we were so glad to take part in. For helping us give back to the community. For being the hands and feet for ISA by finding volunteers and volunteering yourselves. It means so much to us. Support like yours is really what keeps us going.

Thank you DIANA and LINDA for being the masterminds. This time around was soooo much easier on us and FM all because of your hardwork and diligence. Trust us, it doesn’t go unnoticed or unappreciated. You girls are the true stars of ISA before all of us.
THANK YOU, THE FANS AND SUPPORTERS. How did we pull of 3 major, sold out concerts w/in one single year? Yeah, a lotta hard work on our part, but ultimately because you guys bought the tickets. You guys told your friends and spread the word. You guys were in the crowds and online cheering for us. I don’t know if we’ll be able to do another three concerts this coming year, but for sure there will be more ISAs, bigger, better, and outside of CA we promise…haha, as long as we have you out there to fill up the seats and help build this movement.

Alright, enough of the mushy stuff… here are some select photos I went through for all the lazy busy ppl who didn’t wanna sift through the bazillion pics from Shinobi. THANK YOU SHINOBI STUDIOS for your AMAZING work. Your photos truly stand out and give ISA the imagery that propels it forward.

THANK YOU to our HOSTS, Tom Ngo and Lydia Paek. Tom, you are the truth. Period. Lydia, you are such a natural and your personality really brightened the theater. Hope to work with you more!

Clara Chung our JCP Breakout Performer contest winner opening the show with an original song of hers! We drove her to the concert in a limosine.

Then GLP took the stage. They sang some 90s covers which gave them super cool points right off the bat.

G is for Gabe Bondoc! His style is so awesome.

L is for Leejay, the beatboxer of the group who did some crazy stuff…plus he could dance really well as he showed off at the end of the show.

P is for Passion. He was at our last ISA in SF. So good to have him back.

Kina Grannis graced the stage next, singing a couple of her songs. I think the whole theater got chills. She’s sucha sweet girl… who you miiiight be seeing in a future WF short! oops, leaked.

Quest Crew was up next and…they were just phenomenal.

Victor Kim doing the unthinkable.

There’s a reason we put Quest right before intermission. It’s because no one could follow them. They had the whole audience on their feet, and this is just halfway into the concert!! I’m so glad we were able to bring them back this year… we had them at the first ISA, before they were the ABDC champions! So proud of them.

KevJumba took the stage next. Yup, in the flesh. The crowd went crazy for him and his antics.

Tom and him did a little skit, looks like they’re getting angry!! haha. In the back you can see Derrick…he’s the one that made the amazing ISA trailer. We flew him in from Seattle as our way to say thanks. Kev brought him on stage as an added bonus.

David Choi, what else can I say that I didn’t already. Did you read my last post. I still get a little emotional when I watch the clip of him performing and everyone sings along.

And to close out the show the way no one else can…the one and only Far*East Movement. I can’t believe how far they’ve come in just the past year. Since the first ISA, they’ve done some amazing things. Song top 4 on the radio, national mainstream radio play, performing at Powerhouse with BEP, Pitbull, and JAY-Z! Truly a blessing to see them still so humble and driven.

KevNish

J-Spliff

Prohgress

They brought everyone back out on stage for the finale song “Girls on the Dance Floor” and everyone was just rockin out and celebrating on stage. It was truly a grand finale to the whole night. For an even more indepth look at the concert and what happened before and after, check out FM’s recap. 

Oh yeah…and these guys.

Mission accomplished. This was a loooong post. I’m spent. One last Thank you. This past week has been epic. …to be continued.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW! Click here to buy now! There are 4 ticket types! General Admission ($20), VIP Pass ($50), VIP Pit ($50), and Backstage Pass ($95). Be sure to read the description of what each type of ticket gets you!

AND…Check out this line up!!

KevJumba

Bruno Mars

GLP (Gabe Bondoc, Leejay, Passion)

David Choi

Kina Grannis

Quest Dance Crew

Wong Fu Productions

Far*East Movement

Hosted by: Tom Ngo and Lydia Paek

Is that not the craziest collection of all your favorite ppls in one show? We did our best to have a variety of different acts so that you get a taste of everything in the show. Tickets have been on sale since Saturday, and they’re already starting to go fast (I’m not kidding). Be sure to get your tickets sooner than later! Hit the jump for some top secret information.

Starting August 15th we’re doing to go on a ticket tour around the LA area. FM and us will personally be going to some special locations where you can meet and chill with us, get some cool new FM and Wong Fu gear, and also buy your tickets in person. The first stop will be in Hacienda Heights at Whimsical Yogurt on Saturday Aug. 15th in the afternoon. There’s gonna be giveaways and contests so don’t miss out. Check here for more event info! We wanna see you there!

2nd…JCPenney is sponsoring this next ISA, and we’re working with them to put on a really cool contest where you could win plane tickets to LA so that you can be in the show on Sept 6th! Here’s some secret info to give you a head start before we even launch the contest. We’re looking for a “breakout performer”. First, go to JCPenney and pick out something to wear in the video from their Back To School line. Then make a video of yourself showing off your talent. It could be anything (singing, dancing, juggling, yo-yo-ing, drawing). You’ll hafta submit the video and then get votes. More details to come, but thought I’d give you the heads up so you can start working on your videos NOW! If you win, we’re bringing you out to the show to perform for everyone!

Ok, that’s it for now. Secret transmission…Out.

This is a dizz-ope clip of Mike Song dancing (specifically, “tutting”) to the Wii Mii music. You remember Mike right? Mr. Kaba Modern from ABDC season 1. Enjoy this very creative, very intricate, very precise little demo of why he kicks butt. Or kicks tutt. har, har… har. Hit the jump for another awesome Nintendo related video that you just gotsta hear.

Iono about you, but ever since seeing this video a few weeks ago, I haven’t been able to get it out of my head… and I don’t mind. Our buddies Paul Dateh and David Choi. Nice one boys. This is what the original 8bit song sounds like.

Iono why, but Nintendo music always makes me feel really good inside. Do you feel the same?

Part of me doesn’t wanna expose what happens, it’ll give you more incentive to go to an event to see for yourself, but I guess I can share a little…

Ok, it’s not really that much of a secret for those who are true sleuths. A lot of people in the audience at these various events upload their video clips of  the show. I did a quick search and these came up. The above one is pretty good because they subtitled it (eprops), and it’s from our show at Univ. Washington.

So yes…we don’t sing or dance…but what we do is…talk. yay. Talk about how we started, what we’re up to, how we work and what’s ahead. talk. Ok that’s not it. I suppose the “main event” is when we screen various new/unreleased work. Some stuff that might never get put online, some stuff just prescreened early (ie we’ve already shown David Choi’s new music video on the road). The most fun part of the events though, is when we do Q&A. We don’t like talking AT ppl, it’s more fun talking WITH them.
This person uploaded a good chunk of our talk at Univ. Michigan.

Things don’t always work technically either. Here’s us having some issues w/ the microphone. In the past, messed up projectors, computers, security have all made for stressful, but memorable shows.

Here’s a well put together piece from our event at UC Davis by Nicki Sun of AGTV. Wow, with clips like this, I don’t even have to make tour videos anymore!

And finally, for reading this far… I can’t believe I’m gonna share this, but you earned it. During the Q&A at UC Davis it was requested that I do the WonderGirls “Tell Me” dance. I immediately refused…but the audience wouldn’t settle. I gave in, tho I don’t know the dance, but I did what I could…and of course I wasn’t going to do it alone, so I brought some ppl down. Enjoy.

Well there you have it. A quick idea of what happens during our events. They’re not always so crazy with 500 ppl, sometimes it’s 200, sometimes 50. The smaller events have their perks too…because then you don’t hafta wait in lines like this to get in. (from UW)

In anycase, no matter how big or small the event, we just love going out to meet all the special people who make Wong Fu Productions what it really is. Without your support we are nothing and we are so grateful! Thank you Univ. Michigan, UC Davis, Humboldt St., Oregon St., Univ. Washington, Univ. Oregon, Pacific, and Univ. Chicago!!! We had a blast. And to everyone else, hope these clips didn’t spoil anything and you’ll come out to a future show!

We’re back and there’s sooo much ahead! watchoutnow!

*photos courtesy of Andrew Wong

Another AA doing big things is Jon Chu. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him once (turns out he’s the cousin of a college friend of mine), and he’s actually seen our stuff…the old stuff though (dang those lip syncs). Anyway, he was the director of “Step Up 2″ and I guess really has a passion for dancing/dancers. There’s no way you could’ve missed his online dance crew war last summer with Miley Cirus. Anyway, he’s taken it to the next level with the creation of the League of Extraordinary Dancers, an online series he made sponsored by Puma. The trailer looks pretty fracking sweet (I’m biased because i love dancing) Check it out though.

Like Justin Lin, Jon Chu went the film school route (USC, Lin went to UCLA)…unlike us. Sometimes I wonder how things would be had I tried to do film school. hmm. I guess we’re doing things a little differently huh?

Finally, you know the Far*East Movement guys are our homies, and I’m so proud of them right now. Their song “Girls on the Dance Floor” is #2 in Los Angeles right now.
Do you guys realize how big of a deal that is? They’re unsigned, Asian American, and they’re getting more love than Jamie Foxx/Tpain. They’re so close to having the #1 spot. Please please help them by clicking this link, and voting for FM. It takes 5 seconds really. Do it again later, and again, and tell a friend. It doesn’t matter if you’re not from LA. Just do it and feel good that you’re helping a really great group of guys. =) Read their words. Please vote…don’t let Soulja Boy win.

Well, that’s it for Free Plug Friday. (heh, I just made that up). I hope we can have cool #1 spot-72 million-extraordinary news for you someday. In the meantime, we’re on tour. Got UC Davis tomorrow and Humboldt state on Saturday. cya on Twitter.