YouTuber Of The Week: CJWorks Productions Takes Malaysians Back To The Good Old Days
It's the last week of January, and to end the month, we highlight Jonathan Toh and Clement Chen, the brains behind CJWorks Productions in our weekly YouTuber Of The Week column. Read to know how they started out in a classroom to make a YouTube hit which has over 700,000 views below.
By Darian Goh — 26 Jan 2015, 04:44 PM — Updated almost 10 years ago
There has been a steady rise of Malaysian YouTubers lately and one of them is CJWorks Productions. Conceived by Jonathan Toh and Clement Chen, we managed to catch up with them and asked them a few questions...
CJWorks Productions started out in a highschool classroom in 2012. By that time, there were already a few Malaysian YouTubers out there and that inspired them to come out with their own channel.
CJWorks: One day Jonathan and I (Clement) decided to sit back and chat during high school in the year 2012. This was where we came up with an idea of making short videos and posting them on YouTube and we brainstormed for an idea before filming it in our high school.
CJWorks: There were already a few Youtubers in Malaysia that makes short, inspiring, and sometimes funny films such as JinnyboyTV, DanKhoo, TMT and more. So that's what inspired us to make videos.
It was only natural for both the university students to venture into YouTube, as both of them already had a passion for videography and filmmaking
CJWorks: For Jonathan in short, he loves filmmaking, video editing, and photography. Whereas for Clement, besides videography, editing and photography, he also loves to design!
Their meteoric rise was fast, and from watching the likes of DanKhoo and Ling BIG Yong on YouTube, they got to work together with them in their most viral video yet, "Typical Malaysian Students" which garnered over 700,000 views
CJWorks: For both of us, our favourite video has got to be "Typical Malaysian Students" as we got to film along with many types of students from different ages, races and cultures and it's also our first shoot with Dan Khoo and Ling BIG Yong.
But what else can we see on their channel? When we asked Jonathan and Clement, they stated that one can expect videos that reflect Malaysian culture and humour.
CJWorks: We produce videos about Malaysian cultures such as typical Malaysian students, funny shorts and inspiring videos.
Darian: If there is one reason to subscribe to your channel, what is it?
CJWorks: There's no one reason, but we promise to bring you more laughter and epicness to all our videos.
Just like previous YouTubers featured on this column, they advise aspiring YouTubers to do it because they love it, and never for the fame
CJWorks: Just do it with passion, there's no barrier in the YouTube world and be yourself. Getting fame is never the thing in your checklist, but only with passion cause only with passion, you will enjoy what you do.
The group makes sure they walk the talk and have done outrageous things just to get the right shot. They told SAYS that on one occasion, they nearly fell from a moving car and almost got their cars stuck in the mud!
CJWorks: There was once where we were filming behind a Ford Ranger with two cameramen, one audio guy and three actors without locking the rear door. This was dangerous as we may fall on the road anytime and getting our cars stuck in the mud during filming. Nonetheless, it was a great experience.
One of the biggest challenges for them is the lack of time to produce videos consistently. Juggling between video making and school is tough but they promised that they will be rolling out with new content this year.
CJWorks: We currently face time constraints as students, as there are lots of other work other than videos. But we have loads of ideas that we haven't filmed yet, but stay tuned and we promise all of you guys we will do our best to bring you guys more.