In John Fong’s article, Beyond Finishing the Game, he analyzes how Asian American film makers access pathways to market their films. Because these films don’t have the same budget as Hollywood films, the film makers must utilize different forms of promoting.
Some examples that Fong used as the ground work for accessing the mainstream population are The Debt by Gene Cajayon and Better Luck Tomorrow by Justin Lin. Both films used email listings to send newsletters about Asian American films opening. Cajayon was able to identify and appeal to his target audience by doing meetings and presentations in the Bay Area’s largest Filipino community, Daly City. He relied on the community for support but had to be mindful to not ask too much as to “create the turn-off of obligation” (pg. 3). In 2002, Lin implemented these same tactics with the release of Better Luck Tomorrow. He also created a campaign around the controversial themes of the film, which allowed Asian Americans to rally and find a sense of belonging. This created a platform for Asian Americans to feel influential through “voting” by buying box office tickets. These forms of marketing “allow[ed] filmmakers to reach audiences for a fraction of the cost of a traditional marketing campaign” (pg. 7).
Some key terms used by Fong are “grassroots campaign” and “target audience”. The term grassroots was used in this context as utilizing a community-based strategy to create buzz and to help the films be successful in the box office with little monetary investment. The target audience must be identified to promote these films successfully because if these strategies are used on an audience that is not interested in the subject matter, the efforts are useless.
This article was written in 2007, before major media had Asian American actors in the forefront of film and television. Some examples include Fresh Off The Boat, that has a Chinese family as the central topic and has been running since 2015. Another example of having an Asian actor in mainstream media is when the TV series The Walking Dead aired in 2010 with the Korean-American actor Steven Yeun playing a series favorite, Glenn Rhee. More recently, the movie Crazy Rich Asians has gotten a lot of media attention for having an all Asian cast and has been able to utilize mainstream strategies to promote this film. In the Netflix movie, To All the Boys I Loved Before, the Vietnamese-American actress Lana Condor is the lead role. With the more recent success of films with Asian-Americans as lead roles, I hope to see more Asian representation in American media.
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