Blog Post 2: Beyond Finishing the Game

Posted on August 20, 2018 by by | 3 Comments

 

  1. In John Fong’s “Beyond Finishing the Game: A Look at Asian America Grassroots Outreach”, he shows us how Asian American filmmakers have been able to overcome the obstacle of marketing and outreach through adopting an “aggressive grassroots strategy”. Instead of relying solely billboards and television commercials, Asian American films are using a community-focused marketing strategy in order to obtain box office numbers that are high enough to keep the films in theatres.
  2. “Mobilizing the student population, personal appeals to audiences by filmmakers and utilizing the growing worlds of Asian American media, would all allow filmmakers to reach audiences for a fraction of the cost of a traditional marketing campaign.” (pg. 7)  One of the main challenges standing in the way of success for Asian American cinema is access – a way for the films to reach audiences. Because companies are hesitant to invest large amounts of money in releasing Asian American films, the budget for marketing and distribution of Asian American films is extremely low in comparison to Hollywood films. Asian American filmmakers are able to overcome this obstacle by going directly to the Asian American community to ask support. By adopting an “aggressive grassroots strategy” that is based on personal interactions with the community, the cost for marketing is cut significantly.
  3. A key concept that the author introduces in this article is community. In the article, Fong defines community as “something that they know they can rely on”. He believed that an Asian American filmmaker’s greatest resource is the Asian American community because they are reliable and cannot be bought. In order to obtain support from the community, Asian American filmmakers have developed a strategy of creating a pan-Asian campaign around the content in the film which encourages Asian Americans to see the film in order to become a part of the movement.
  4. I think that the recent release of the film To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before goes against John Fong’s idea that Asian American films need to market themselves through the Asian American community in order to be successful. Although the film features an Asian American female lead, the advertising that I have seen for this film seems to follow the traditional marketing campaign for a teen rom-com. Despite the fact that the film does not use the “aggressive grassroots strategy” that Fong defines in his article, the film has received rave reviews. 
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