1. This article written by Johnfong present the idea of how Asian American filmmaker present their cinematic work to the world. One thing to consider when talking about the success of a movie is whether or not it would be accessible in local theaters. Not only does it have to make its way to the theaters, its success also depends on how many tickets were purchased. Getting people to watch the movie These two basic requirement for a successful movie requires money. However, a lot of times, Asian American filmmakers does not have a lot of money to begin with, so making a hit movie is definitely a challenge. Through this article, the author present the readers many workarounds that Asian American filmmakers use to get their work out to the world. This shows the reader how difficult it is to make a movie when someone who has tremendous talent is born as an Asian American.
2. One workarounds that Johnfong mentioned in his article is when filmakers find the balance between “community” and non-community audience. Community support is not something that all filmmakers can buy with money so having that support means a lot to Asian American filmmakers because it makes them feel that people who are like them will always have their back. Other ways that Asian American gains their support is through “emails”, “campus visits”, “organizations” “opening night parties” and “cast and crew appearances”. These things require hard work but without them, Asian American films would not be where it is today. Johnfong also begins to list out movies that exceed its expectation as Asian American film such as “The Debut”, “Better Luck Tomorrow”, “Finishing The Game”. All of these movies required hard work from its crew and cast by creating a large email list, visiting college campuses and film festivals, and travel from city to city to promote their movies.
3. Important terms
“grassroots strategy” – This strategy is basically how Asian American film maker built their way up starting from the very bottom. This way of strategy is hard work but it is cost effective. This strategy has been used by Asian American to promote their movies starting with the community and working their way up to ordinary movie watchers, ending with mainstream media.
“community” – this terms refer to a person support system from people who are like them in term of race, interest, and goals. These people are hard to win over but once they are won over, they are the greatest kind of support Asian American filmmakers can get beside regular movie watchers.
4. I consisted myself to be very lucky to be able to attend a large public university where I am expose to everything from seeing the cast and crew of the upcoming movies to advance screenings of movies that would be coming out soon. All of the are great ways to advertise for movies without spending much money. For example, like I mentioned in my last week post about a YouTube channel called Wong Fu Production has been visiting college campuses such as UC Riverside to meet their fans and promote their new show called “Yappie”. This show heavily focuses on how young adults deal with their identity. Even though they did not visit UC Irvine, my friends from UC Riverside still relayed all the information I need in order to watch the show. So therefore, I can really see why college campus visit can be really effective if the show is trying to captures its young audience in an open and diverse universities.