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New kid on the block Warren Fu went from a career in economics to become the most fashionable videographer around today, working with the likes of Mark Ronson, The Strokes and The Ting Tings on recent projects.
The LA native said, “I was miserable when I was studying economics. Then I bumped into a friend from high school who believed I should be doing art. She told me about an internship at Lucasfilm and the rest is history.”
Working at Lucasfilm Fu says was like “an 80’s kid’s dream”. He continues saying: “Basically, there was a Stormtrooper in the doorway, Slimer was in reception, the Hoverboard from Back To The Future II…”
The one time graffiti artist started out at the bottom cleaning the computers and running errands in the offices, but he picked up valuable experience along the way.
He said “I would ask questions. I worked in the model shop with all the old school guys and the graphics department on the logos. I saw how George Lucas would come up with some idea in a meeting and a week later we’d made it. That was really cool.”
Fu grew tired of watching other people make the creative decisions and chose to go it alone. A massive fan of The Strokes, he listened to You Only Live Once and recalls the divine inspiration that struck him saying: “Immediately, a graphic equaliser came into my head”.
He seized the day and produced a 30 second clip of his vision and emailed it to The Strokes manager. Julian Casablancas’ wife picked up the short video and obviously seen the potential as she asked Fu to design The Strokes official website.
When he met Julian in the flesh for the first time they immediately struck up a friendship. “We hit it off straight away. He watched the clip and I got a phone call at 3am, “We have to make this.”
Now the 34-year-old is taking his “retro-futuristic style” to the masses and churning out visually stunning videos for a host of A-List stars.
Fu insists that this is only the start: “There’s so many sides to my aesthetic that I can’t wait to show. I don’t want to get stuck with the Tron, sci-fi thing.”
Watch Warren’s video for Mark Ronson’s Hipster anthem The Bike Song here and check out our Ronson interview in the new issue of Uber – due to hit the streets on this week, make sure you get your hands on a copy.