Goodbye Wah!Banana

How It All Begin

One year just flew by like that. In such a short period of time, I have done and experienced so many things. So many things that changed my life in ways that I would never expect. 

Slightly more than a year and a half ago, I graduated from NUS with a degree that didn't give me much confidence. I knew the laboratory wasn't a place for me, I absolutely cannot fit into that environment. It was just so... not me. The young and ignorant me decided to seek out job opportunities in other fields; knowing, at the back of my mind, I wasn't going to find one. 

I was walking around the NUS Career Fair and a booth caught my eye. It was a company that I am familiar with because I played games with my then-boyfriend on their platform. I walked up, curious to know what they had to offer, leaving my resume with them, not expecting anything. But then they called me back.

I took up the job offer. The pay was decent and the environment seemed chill. I was to help the director with managing the eSports scene or so I was told. Within weeks, I got transferred to the production team. The team that was in charged of making product videos on YouTube for the company, and it was there, I made friends that I know will last a lifetime. 

The Teamwork

We were working on a series of product-related videos for the company's channel that were doing relatively all right. So the management decided to try something different, something that can target a wider and more general audience. So we were tasked with the duty of starting and growing a new comedy channel to eventually use it as a marketing platform for their products, and so we did.

Wah!Banana was created. The name was designed to sound local and yet fun at the same time. It was a fantastic name. The videos were designed to be relatable and ridiculous. It was a success. It started a whole new trend on the SG/MY YouTube scene, everyone was doing a list format video. We were ecstatic.

We were an extremely organised team. Aaron was the overall in charged. He managed the channel and was the brain behind the scripting and editing directions. Jason would be in charged of filming and editing the videos. I was in charged of managing the social media platforms and props. Elliot was still a student and he would drop by to help us with the filming and acting. 

It was the teamwork and the creative brains of Aaron that brought the channel to a whole new level. We wrote, direct, act, edit and market the videos. We did everything without any prior skills or knowledge on video production. We observed, researched, asked and learnt as we went along. The willingness to learn and the acknowledgement that we don't know everything were what drove us to strive for the better. 

Things Didn't Work Out

Everything went well for a long time. We were preoccupied with growing the channel until we realised that we weren't able to grow it anymore. We realised that it was not going to be possible because the channel was simply not meant for that, it was built solely for marketing purposes. 

The interest of the company and our interests weren't on the same page. Talks didn't turn out as expected. They made no effort to retain us. We knew then, we had to leave. 

And so we did.

We knew we had to leave because there was no progression if we were to stay. Aaron, Elliot and I are constantly striving for improvement and progression, we knew we wouldn't be happy staying. It is really painful letting go of something that we had spent so much time and effort on. The channel was our baby, we worked so hard on it yet we own absolutely no part of it. We had no control of how the channel would grow. 

The Future

Letting go was tough, in fact we still find it extremely difficult to accept that we are no longer a part of it. Yet at the end of the day, we know it is the right choice. Now we are free to start our own channel, and actually own it and to be able to decide the course of its journey and growth. We never felt more motivated. 

We know the fans are upset and disappointed that we are no longer a part of Wah!Banana, so are we. I don't know the plans for Wah!Banana's future but I know ours. We are setting up a new channel to do what we do best, entertain. I sincerely hope that if you enjoy the videos that we have produced so far, you would jump onboard the new channel as a subscriber, a viewer and the most importantly, as a friend.