Blog Post 2: Beyond Finishing the Game

Posted on August 20, 2018 by by | 2 Comments
  1. In Beyond Finishing the Game: A Look at Asian American Grassroots Outreach, by John Fong, he talks about methods Asian American filmmakers use to advertise their film to the public. The biggest factor in all the methods used is the community and how filmmakers reach out to the community to make them feel a part of something bigger. Asian American filmmakers have employed a aggressive grassroots strategy to reach Asian American audiences.
  2. One of the earliest methods used by Asian American filmmakers to advertise their films was the APA First Weekend Club, which was a newsletter that would alert subscribers when Asian American films were opening in theaters. This newsletter helped to “mobilize audiences to watch films on their first weekend of release, to generate box office numbers high enough to ensure a second weekend, and then a third and so on”. The following year, Gene Cayajon used a “almost exclusively grassroots, self-distribution strategy” to advertise his film The Debut. He “used the Closing Night of the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival as a kick off” for his own film. He also held many meetings and presentations directed to Filipino Americans in the community.
  3. A key term John Fong introduces is “grassroots” and he mainly uses this term to describe the common people in a community which makes up a majority of it. He combines the term with traditional marketing strategies to come up with a method that is even more effective for advertisement.
  4. The movie that recently came out in theaters, Crazy Rich Asians, was directed by John M. Chu. Chu has directed popular films such as Step Up 2: The Streets, Step up 3D, and Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. Using both his own grassroots and fame as a filmmaker, advertised country-wide in most communities. His marketing reached most communities and as a result, his film is currently the #1 selling title in box offices currently.
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