Latest / The Vietnamese with Kenneth Nguyen / 449 - Is Vietnamese Culture Being Replaced by Korean entertainment? Karen Tran Wood - IW Group

Transcript

449 - Is Vietnamese Culture Being Replaced by Korean entertainment? Karen Tran Wood - IW Group · The Vietnamese with Kenneth Nguyen

0:00
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome to the Vietnamese podcast.
0:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Today I am at IWG with Kerem Trayner Wood.
0:07
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a really big honor for me to be here.
0:09
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you so much for having me here.
0:11
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you for coming.
0:12
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you for coming all the way out here to chat with me this morning.
0:15
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so IDWG is a big Asian American marketing firm here in Los Angeles.
0:22
[SPEAKER_03]: We're overlooking, I think it's Beverly Hills or Hollywood back here and Karen trend would you've been here for a of a long time and you handle some of the biggest movies that come out here in Hollywood.
0:35
[SPEAKER_03]: And we're here to talk about your journey.
0:37
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
0:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Let's do it.
0:39
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
0:39
[SPEAKER_03]: So tell me a little bit about you coming to America.
0:44
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, so me and my family, we had a very interesting story, unlike a lot of the Amizera few cheese, immigrants who came here around 1975 shortly after the fall, we actually came here in a much later wave in the early 1990s.
1:02
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think Eric's experience was very different.
1:05
[SPEAKER_05]: My mom was around, she was ready in her 30s.
1:09
[SPEAKER_05]: My dad was almost in her 30s, so for us, it was truly a story of starting over and rebuilding.
1:16
[SPEAKER_05]: And my mom, she wears the pants and the vamsic, so I think it was also the lay her decision that we're going to do this, hopefully we have three daughters, and we want to make sure that they have a great future.
1:29
[SPEAKER_05]: And at that time, and now we, my dad's side, we were doing well.
1:33
[SPEAKER_05]: We came from a great family, but I think my mom, just looking ahead into the future, she feel that the opportunities, especially when you have girls in an amazing family, but the opportunity is very different.
1:46
[SPEAKER_05]: So ultimately, we came here in 1990.
1:48
[SPEAKER_05]: We were sponsored by my aunt who actually came in 75, via boat.
1:54
[SPEAKER_05]: And yeah, that was where a story really began, you know, so we, we were truly a working class family.
2:02
[SPEAKER_05]: Because around that time, what's great is that you have an establishment in East Community.
2:07
[SPEAKER_05]: We mainly live in Orange County.
2:09
[SPEAKER_05]: It's so you have the hub, which is a little saying on, right?
2:13
[SPEAKER_05]: So that's the advantage is that my mom was in struggling with like, language barrier because you were living in that hub.
2:20
[SPEAKER_05]: However, at that time, there were a lot of people, Vietnamese people were already really well established, while we were just kind of getting our feet wet in a new country.
2:31
[SPEAKER_05]: And I was around three.
2:33
[SPEAKER_05]: I came from a family of three daughters.
2:36
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm the youngest one.
2:37
[SPEAKER_03]: So you came to America three?
2:39
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, okay.
2:39
[SPEAKER_05]: So I wasn't American born, but I truly was the only person in my family that I would say was American race.
2:47
[SPEAKER_05]: Right.
2:48
[SPEAKER_05]: Because both my sister, they were ready in their teens when they came here.
2:53
[SPEAKER_05]: So their experience is drastically different from life.
2:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Wow.
2:57
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
2:58
[SPEAKER_03]: No, um, we'll return to that because I think that's a very interesting point.
3:02
[SPEAKER_03]: People who come in their teens What they're consuming in the entertainment industry is very different from what we quote unquote sort of like we grew up It's just a very different outlook, right?
3:14
[SPEAKER_03]: But when you were three what kind of entertainment were you Consuming from that point to maybe high school?
3:22
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, first of all, I don't think I remember much when I was three.
3:26
[SPEAKER_05]: It was very easy, but I think for me, maybe what I was fortunate with was I grew up mainly with my grandma.
3:34
[SPEAKER_05]: So what we came over here, obviously the parents were working.
3:38
[SPEAKER_05]: day and night, sisters were in school.
3:42
[SPEAKER_05]: So I was more or less raised by my grandma, who didn't speak English.
3:47
[SPEAKER_05]: So in order to communicate with her, I had to learn the deemies.
3:51
[SPEAKER_05]: And therefore, I think I'm very lucky to inherit the fact that I'm still very culturally connected both in terms of entertainment that we consume as well as just language.
4:03
[SPEAKER_05]: I pride myself in being able to speak in Vietnamese very well.
4:07
[SPEAKER_05]: compared to some of my friends.
4:09
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
4:10
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think, you know, my journey with interest he met truly began with sitting home with my grandma watching movies.
4:20
[SPEAKER_05]: Watching Hong Kong movies, and very bad the enemies stop.
4:24
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm not sure if you remember, but back in the days in the 90s, we had the blockbuster, the Hollywood video, where we would go read movies, but there's also those local Vietnamese video stores that we had around that time and some of them were stores that specialize in launching out Hong Kong dub films.
4:44
[SPEAKER_05]: And so you would go to the video store and you would come out with like stack and stack of like Ideal cuz up right and you would have to rewind them and And return them obviously returning them is not as fun as going to rent them But that was truly my childhood Washingtony lung Maggie Chong Those were kind of My my move the icon I was very naive for one point at one point I pop the Ashley stove into me
5:11
[SPEAKER_05]: But it's always realized that I was watching all the movies at that time.
5:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
5:17
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think a lot of us that learn how to speak Vietnamese, we watch... It's Fimiu.
5:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Fimiu.
5:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
5:24
[SPEAKER_05]: Essentially.
5:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
5:27
[SPEAKER_05]: all the different chapters of them, right?
5:29
[SPEAKER_05]: They were so fun.
5:30
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think growing up now looking back, you see there's probably so much influence from that, too.
5:38
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, Vietnamese culture, I think at least around the time I was growing up, there was so much...
5:44
[SPEAKER_05]: influence from Chinese entertainment, Hong Kong entertainment, right, whether it's film or music.
5:49
[SPEAKER_05]: There were a lot of music that were translated from a Chinese version, and that was kind of Vietnamese pop at that time.
5:57
[SPEAKER_05]: Now we have our own pop, which we'll talk about, but that's kind of what growing up the 90s was kind of like we're even the early 2000s.
6:07
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it was such an influential period in our histories.
6:11
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was probably watching those same things 20 years before you as a kid, with the dubs.
6:19
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's how I learned my Vietnamese, my dad would sit there, my mom would sit there.
6:23
[SPEAKER_03]: They would tell us, like, okay, we use this in formal situations.
6:26
[SPEAKER_03]: We don't use this in normal dinner table at the friend's house.
6:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I knew it, yeah, that.
6:35
[SPEAKER_03]: you don't talk like that.
6:37
[SPEAKER_03]: So it gave me this sort of like this ability to distinguish which what language is to use.
6:42
[SPEAKER_03]: And the beauty of that period is like the extension of all these filmmakers that are Vietnamese Americans that are now living in Vietnam, new movies because they have this lineage of Fibault that they could draw from.
6:57
[SPEAKER_05]: Right, right.
6:58
[SPEAKER_05]: So it was a fun time, easily.
7:00
[SPEAKER_05]: And I don't regret.
7:02
[SPEAKER_05]: I feel very fortunate being able to grow up during that time.
7:05
[SPEAKER_03]: So in high school and college, did you have any inkling what you wanted to do?
7:11
[SPEAKER_05]: No, actually, so my family were very typical in a sense, where my older sister, my older sister, as a pharmacist, my second sister is a doctor.
7:25
[SPEAKER_05]: So, naturally, I was being seared more towards the health side of things, but being someone that's scared of blood.
7:35
[SPEAKER_05]: I knew that wasn't going to be my strength, so college, I want TCLA for college, came out with political science as a major and actually had a master in political science after that at Kelsik Fullerton.
7:51
[SPEAKER_05]: So I've had quite an interesting journey professionally.
7:55
[SPEAKER_05]: I like to say I've made a lot of pivots and changes in terms of kind of figuring out what I ultimately wanted to do.
8:04
[SPEAKER_05]: So unlike a lot of people who do what I do, they would study communication, not a college, and just start out working as a coordinator, as a marketing, called the City Coordinator assistant.
8:17
[SPEAKER_05]: I actually spent some time in government affairs and pre-law for a while until it just hit me one day that I'm like, I think there's something missing.
8:28
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't think I'm made for such hard and dry profession like law or even health, right?
8:36
[SPEAKER_05]: I knew that I needed something where I can
8:39
[SPEAKER_05]: be a little more creative, you know, because I wasn't, I was doing well in those industry and profession, but I think I was lacking a lot of joy in what I do from a day to day.
8:50
[SPEAKER_05]: So by my mid-20s, that was pretty much how I was like, okay, we really need just so search here and see what is it that I see myself doing for the long run.
9:03
[SPEAKER_05]: not just for now, not just for, you know, because I could have, I have a lot of friends who are lawyers who kind of finished that path and some of them are great lawyers, some of them don't want to be practicing anymore.
9:16
[SPEAKER_05]: So it's a tough profession and I think, you know, not so you're truly passionate about it and passionate about using the law to help people versus sliding for money.
9:28
[SPEAKER_05]: Right, which is, you know, so then, then, you know, that's the right profession for you.
9:32
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think I just came to realization that that's probably wasn't the right to happen to me.
9:38
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
9:38
[SPEAKER_05]: I didn't make my family happy though.
9:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Right, I can imagine.
9:41
[SPEAKER_03]: But I mean, now, now that I'm listening to undergrad political science, you get a master's in political science.
9:47
[SPEAKER_03]: That means that you're really well versed in politics, right?
9:52
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, I mean, from academia's standpoint, during that time, I worked for the California State Senate.
10:01
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm very good involved in the Vietnamese community down in Orange County.
10:05
[SPEAKER_05]: Even during my UCLA day, it was very active with the Vietnamese student union.
10:10
[SPEAKER_05]: Funny story is that that's where I met a lot of people that you've interviewed on this podcast.
10:15
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to see CLA Chris, who is now teaching, I think, the name, an influencer.
10:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, shout out to Christian Travels.
10:23
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no each other.
10:26
[SPEAKER_05]: As was Sarah, who's our coffee.
10:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
10:29
[SPEAKER_05]: So we are all actually in the same Vietnamese student union hub.
10:34
[SPEAKER_05]: We're around at the same age more or less.
10:37
[SPEAKER_05]: We were in college around the same time.
10:39
[SPEAKER_05]: So it's very refreshing to see some of us Joe working and, you know, Joe touching media.
10:47
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, some shape or form or touching create of work and some shape or form.
10:51
[SPEAKER_05]: So some us do, you know, it kind of carry on with us.
10:55
[SPEAKER_03]: That is amazing.
10:56
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm really, really happy to hear that.
10:59
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
11:00
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, when I think about the word of entertainment and political science, and I think about some of my co-sprons that are in Hollywood, a lot of them have this political science background.
11:16
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, some have worked for Obama, some have worked for, you know, these different campaigns and government, what are those things that you pull out of political science theory or the understanding of politics in America that allows you to kind of move and mobilize campaigns in the world line of work that you do.
11:38
[SPEAKER_05]: I think it's truly the idea of navigating, right?
11:43
[SPEAKER_05]: Especially during a time like this.
11:45
[SPEAKER_05]: I used to say, I mean, I met my husband from our master program studying political science.
11:51
[SPEAKER_05]: And we, sometime we'll talk about gosh, how it would be such an interesting time right now to study political science.
11:59
[SPEAKER_05]: I think any of the theories that we've learned when we were there, like some of those are probably up the door or how, you know, how do they even make sense when you're going to talk about, you know, look at the theory and everything that we're going through right now as a country, right?
12:14
[SPEAKER_05]: But I think, you know, believe it or not, even though people don't see an instant connection between entertainment and studying polystyre.
12:22
[SPEAKER_05]: I think there's a lot,
12:23
[SPEAKER_05]: excuse you, which actually the funny thing is, when I first started in PR and marketing, one of the areas that I actually wanted to specialize it for entertainment is awards campaigning.
12:36
[SPEAKER_05]: I think that's where you kind of see the connection awards campaigning for a film to win an Oscar, to win anything that we see in the awards world, as truly
12:46
[SPEAKER_05]: almost like a political campaign in its own way.
12:50
[SPEAKER_05]: Right?
12:52
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think there's just a lot of similarity and astrually about navigating and adjusting and adapting to changes, dealing with crisis.
13:01
[SPEAKER_05]: That's a key part of being a publicist.
13:04
[SPEAKER_05]: It's always, while we are probably type of people that like to always, always prepare and predict.
13:12
[SPEAKER_05]: what's going to happen, you never know, especially with the World War in where social media anything can take off, someone can say something that can just go viral, so it's truly about prices management and navigating and controlling the narrative, see the best that you can't, right?
13:31
[SPEAKER_05]: Without overstepping, you know, those on the other side who are journalists as well.
13:36
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'd love to take our conversation from this political science getting a master's into where you are today.
13:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Can you give me, can you walk me through that journey?
13:45
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, so around my mid-20s, after realizing that probably not gonna be a great lawyer, probably gonna be a miserable lawyer, I'm a bat to LA, and pretty much started over.
14:00
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think maybe for me, the idea of starting over is never something I'm really scared up, because I see my mom, my family, the idea of starting over, coming here in the night
14:12
[SPEAKER_05]: Navada gigating a new country, a new lifestyle.
14:15
[SPEAKER_05]: Maybe that was kind of instilled in me, so it never, it never scared me.
14:21
[SPEAKER_05]: So basically, I moved back to LA, and one of the first places that I started, I've always known, so going back to the story with my grandma, I've always known, I have a love for the cinema.
14:35
[SPEAKER_05]: I think that was where it truly started, right?
14:39
[SPEAKER_05]: And the more I look into the entertainment world, it's a vast industry.
14:45
[SPEAKER_05]: There's so many things that you can do, right?
14:47
[SPEAKER_05]: And I was, it took me some time to figure out what is it?
14:51
[SPEAKER_05]: That is right for me.
14:53
[SPEAKER_05]: And so I learned that, you know, when it comes to film, there's a whole career around how to market films, how to talk about films.
15:03
[SPEAKER_05]: right, I didn't see myself as a creative telling.
15:06
[SPEAKER_05]: I didn't, I never have the desire to be a filmmaker.
15:10
[SPEAKER_05]: I think that's very high.
15:11
[SPEAKER_05]: Now either do I have a desire to act or, you know, to do something that's like front and center, but I think that my strength lies in how I communicate with people,
15:22
[SPEAKER_05]: and create conversation and narratives around a project, around a film, around a talent, right?
15:29
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think that's where I landed at Phelmen of Dependate, which is like what a sound, a non-profit organization that championed independent filmmakers, championed visual story, telly.
15:42
[SPEAKER_05]: And Phelmen of Dependate, they're still around.
15:44
[SPEAKER_05]: They're, I think they're right around the street here.
15:48
[SPEAKER_05]: Around that time, they had a lot of written programs.
15:52
[SPEAKER_05]: First off, they had a screening series at LAPMA.
15:55
[SPEAKER_05]: But two of their biggest programs was the Spirit Awards, as well as the L.A.
15:59
[SPEAKER_05]: Film Festival, which is no longer, you know, active, and fortunately.
16:04
[SPEAKER_02]: What year was that?
16:06
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, what's day is, hi, 2013, 2014.
16:10
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, so when you started with, you know, that's when I truly started in entertainment, my first red carpet experience, had my first experience working at a film, a large scale film festival.
16:26
[SPEAKER_03]: What did you actually do for the company?
16:29
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, so when we were there, we were on the organization side recorned and worked with a lot of studios to program their film screening series.
16:39
[SPEAKER_05]: The Spirit Award is a very big awards show.
16:42
[SPEAKER_05]: It usually happened the night right before the Oscar.
16:45
[SPEAKER_05]: And, you know, the Oscar obviously celebrate, you know,
16:49
[SPEAKER_05]: awards contender and the spirit would sometimes do predict who's going to take the Oscar that year depending on obviously with more of an independent filmmaking at, right?
17:00
[SPEAKER_05]: So that's a big awards showing itself that I supported with press, red carpet, talent coordination,
17:07
[SPEAKER_05]: And then the L.A.
17:09
[SPEAKER_05]: Film Festival is the same thing.
17:10
[SPEAKER_05]: There's programming, like any film festival.
17:13
[SPEAKER_05]: There's a massive programming behind it, a big PR push around it, and working with publishers who represent the film at the festival, and working with how, when you have films at festival, sometime, there are films from the studio that they're premiering at your festival, or they are films that are up for acquisition, right?
17:37
[SPEAKER_05]: looking for the right audience to show that it has potential for sales.
17:43
[SPEAKER_05]: So there's a little, a lot of different capacity and how you do PR and marketing around a festival film, around an independent, which I don't do as much now, unfortunately, but I learned a lot from those days.
17:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, what a great place to start, because the spirit of words of, you know, I've had some of friends that films got in like, I think it was at year was maybe 2010 or 12.
18:09
[SPEAKER_03]: But it was Alan Sparrow, it was a director's defundator, he was a Vietnamese director actually.
18:15
[SPEAKER_03]: And remember going and winning, I think, an audience award from the L.A.
18:20
[SPEAKER_03]: of Film Festival that year, but it is really the hub of independent filmmaking.
18:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
18:28
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's such a great place to start.
18:29
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, I kind of understand your lineage and where you come from, you know, called the sigh, and then you get to, you know, the independent film arena.
18:38
[SPEAKER_03]: It's an amazing thing.
18:39
[SPEAKER_05]: So, I actually truly come from a background being a cinema boss, working in an independent film, and then, you know, now at IW for the last few years, I've had the opportunity to work on a lot of great studio projects, more commercial, big tent pool projects, which are fun and challenging in their own way.
19:02
[SPEAKER_05]: But I think I always kind of have that, um,
19:05
[SPEAKER_05]: independent film roots, jail.
19:07
[SPEAKER_05]: I still appreciate those film a lot more.
19:09
[SPEAKER_05]: I used to work on a lot of delquimantries.
19:12
[SPEAKER_05]: So basically, film dependent was one of my first gig and entertainment.
19:18
[SPEAKER_05]: And I led to a lot of PR firm, PR agency, jobs, as a poor leader, as you know, your policies, the public says, you know, you kind of have to work your way out.
19:28
[SPEAKER_04]: Right.
19:29
[SPEAKER_05]: essentially an anti-seem it.
19:31
[SPEAKER_05]: And at those agency, I wrapped the film, right?
19:36
[SPEAKER_05]: I would take them to Sunday and stop by Southwest, Tribeca, Toronto Film Festival.
19:43
[SPEAKER_05]: And yeah, we weren't just working with studios, like I said, we were working with essentially a sales team to drive buzz to get these
19:56
[SPEAKER_05]: Some of them do, some of them do, you know, but it's a very fascinating world to be a part of, as a very different than being part of the studio.
20:06
[SPEAKER_05]: So I are working with the studio as a client.
20:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, in your journey, I'm sure you're like seeing the Asian American film industry, you're seeing the Vietnamese film industry, both in America and in Vietnam develop, what are some of your thoughts and reflections on the last 15 years of Vietnamese Asian films any of it coming out of the world now that are having a surge in the world?
20:38
[SPEAKER_05]: I think right now, especially as such an exciting time, if you're going to talk about Vietnamese entertainment, I think there's so much going on, you know, both here with the diaspora community as well as students and music that are coming out directly from Vietnam.
20:56
[SPEAKER_05]: I've been, I still have a family in Vietnam.
20:58
[SPEAKER_05]: I've been back to Vietnam for three times now.
21:01
[SPEAKER_05]: I pretty much went back.
21:02
[SPEAKER_05]: Basically, I think of the Namaste decades.
21:05
[SPEAKER_05]: The first time I was there was right after high school as a teenager, second time was after college in my mid-20s.
21:12
[SPEAKER_05]: And then recently in 2023, my husband back.
21:18
[SPEAKER_05]: So every decade, Namaste changed so much.
21:22
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think right now, a session exciting time.
21:25
[SPEAKER_05]: Some of the filmmakers, obviously,
21:31
[SPEAKER_05]: Leon, right, going back to the novel and just doing amazing, amazing projects.
21:37
[SPEAKER_05]: Subland, for example, one of my favorite film, and I was just at Toronto.
21:41
[SPEAKER_05]: I really wish I could.
21:42
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I didn't get to test it.
21:44
[SPEAKER_05]: I was so busy running around with my own films.
21:47
[SPEAKER_05]: I didn't catch it.
21:48
[SPEAKER_05]: I was bum.
21:50
[SPEAKER_05]: But I gave me dairy like in the MOOC for a lot of five, which is one of my all-time favorite film.
21:55
[SPEAKER_05]: So I see, I think we're seeing a lot of amazing talent.
22:00
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, that's up and coming right now.
22:02
[SPEAKER_05]: I think there's so much potential that when I was lost there in 2023, it's fully this digital world now.
22:13
[SPEAKER_05]: I can't imagine how tough it is to be an artist or an actor, and not because everything is so social media driven, right?
22:23
[SPEAKER_05]: I follow the music scene.
22:24
[SPEAKER_05]: A lot of things that are going on in pop music,
22:28
[SPEAKER_05]: every time you drop a music video or something, it needs to go viral.
22:33
[SPEAKER_05]: That's like a tough call, right?
22:35
[SPEAKER_05]: And I also even noticed like on social, like even before the music video job, there's a whole marketing campaign around it, just to drop them up excitement and buzz forward forward to even have that momentum before a drop.
22:50
[SPEAKER_05]: And then you're seeing a lot of
22:57
[SPEAKER_05]: But the production like value is so crazy, you know, like the spend and the production value that they put into these variety show is so mind blowing so I think there's something really exciting right now going on.
23:22
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, but I think our industry is kind of in this new phase now.
23:28
[SPEAKER_05]: I would have to say and I can't fully pinpoint what it is yet, but I think it's going to be something extremely big and exciting.
23:38
[SPEAKER_05]: I think what I hope for is that we're going to be able to bring something that's truly Vietnamese that can resonate with the global market.
23:48
[SPEAKER_05]: Right, just similar to K-Pop and K-Drama, right?
23:52
[SPEAKER_05]: There were a lot of investment and infrastructure building to see how big K-Drama is now, to see how K-Pop is.
24:00
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think we're still in the early stage of that.
24:04
[SPEAKER_05]: And I hope that once we figure it out, it's not just merely to mimic K-Pop or K-Drama, right?
24:11
[SPEAKER_05]: It's going to be something very special to just us in our culture, but it's going to be embraced by the world.
24:18
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I pray one day that you and I can see each other and work with each other on the other side, which isn't Vietnam.
24:26
[SPEAKER_03]: I know it's very tough because we all have our lives and work here in the US and here in LA and being an entertainment industry, but there are a few things that are having Vietnam this year that would crazy.
24:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Box office for Moda,
24:42
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it hit over 30 million right and whether those reports are real or not or blown up who who knows But you go from like a gentan film like the last one pray was like 28 million or 23 million
24:57
[SPEAKER_03]: But you're going to the $30 million rate, right?
24:59
[SPEAKER_01]: It's crazy.
25:00
[SPEAKER_03]: It's crazy.
25:01
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think it's a government back film because it's probably one of those propaganda films.
25:04
[SPEAKER_03]: But whatever.
25:05
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I don't think the history of Vietnam, the government has ever really looked into backing entertainment.
25:11
[SPEAKER_03]: But now, with Muradah,
25:14
[SPEAKER_03]: they're probably going to look into saying, wait, this is a propaganda film, but if we put more money into action films, our V-pop scene, our views that seem building infrastructure, maybe we can get like much more out of the economy.
25:27
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, I think it's a huge export, a culture export, and a huge driver of tourism in the Yacht Trail.
25:35
[SPEAKER_05]: So, so yeah, I think they're up to something and I can't wait to see what else they do.
25:42
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, even these big variety show that has been so successful right as some of us from over here and obviously seeing some of the performances, I'm very aware that there's a lot of government back here and a lot of intention and how they stage and do certain number and focus on certain
26:06
[SPEAKER_05]: But I think, yeah, it's so fascinating and I think we're going to hit something great very soon.
26:14
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, you have mentioned just a few minutes ago about, you could tell that they're pouring a lot of money into structure and production.
26:26
[SPEAKER_03]: I know this might be a sensitive question, not my government or anything, but more like,
26:31
[SPEAKER_03]: culturally proud, I saw a sensitive in this way is that what can we do more of?
26:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Both in Vietnam and Vietnamese American, from your perspective.
26:45
[SPEAKER_03]: As somebody who pushes these types of films and projects for the mainstream, what do you think that we as a Vietnamese American community or the Vietnamese in country can do more of?
26:59
[SPEAKER_04]: Hmm, that's a good question, and that can be a whole podcast with us, I'll find things for your community.
27:07
[SPEAKER_05]: It's really a full answer to that, but, you know, I'll take, I'll read some recent example that I work on one of the projects that we work on here at IW race recently that we, we were very proud of for Shoga.
27:23
[SPEAKER_05]: for our facts.
27:24
[SPEAKER_05]: And Shogun was a project that we came on.
27:27
[SPEAKER_05]: Probably about nine months, it's not a year before it actually dropped on Hulu on FX.
27:34
[SPEAKER_05]: And when it came to us, we knew we had something special, but there were certain things we were kind of concerned about, right?
27:43
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, how would it
27:52
[SPEAKER_05]: How would that even resonate with like a wide audience here in the US, right?
27:57
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, people have an appetite for this, you know, it's so dense, you know, and obviously we had a great cast in it.
28:03
[SPEAKER_05]: Here are you Gisaneta, for example, was a very notable actor.
28:07
[SPEAKER_05]: And what's funny is that at the end of the day, it still has a white man.
28:13
[SPEAKER_05]: And there.
28:13
[SPEAKER_05]: So when we released some of the early trailers and asked that, she probably like, oh, Tom Cruise in Japan, there were a lot of conversation about the tropes.
28:22
[SPEAKER_02]: White savior.
28:23
[SPEAKER_05]: White savior.
28:24
[SPEAKER_05]: It didn't hope that the 80s version of Shogun reinforces all the tropes in stereo types.
28:29
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think, you know, it was a challenge with marketing because we knew
28:35
[SPEAKER_05]: that we were going to have these conversation as just a knee-jerk reaction when people first see a little bit of it.
28:41
[SPEAKER_05]: But don't fully understand how's going to be different, how it's truly going to invert the western gaze this time.
28:49
[SPEAKER_05]: It is going to be done right.
28:51
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think, you know, Shogun, I think at the end of the day, it shows that global storytelling, something that is so culturally specific, when done right with a lot of care, collaboration, it can resonate with a global audience.
29:08
[SPEAKER_05]: And I really think that that's where we ask, you know, Vietnamese American creators, creative, whether here or in Vietnam, that's those are things that we should lead into.
29:19
[SPEAKER_05]: K-pop demon hunter, same fate, right?
29:24
[SPEAKER_05]: We didn't work on it, but we did host a panel with Maggie King.
29:29
[SPEAKER_05]: And it was right before K-pop demon hunter dropped and became the sensation that it is.
29:37
[SPEAKER_05]: She's shared that it truly start from the folk lore of the story, right, which is a part of her culture, Korean-American here, it's a Korean-Canadian actually.
29:46
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't want to make sure we get that right, but the folk lore was where it truly started and the K-pop of it all came in later as kind of a way to bridge and connect and make this project reached such a global audience.
30:04
[SPEAKER_05]: What I love about it is such a unique case study because I don't think Netflix knew what they had.
30:11
[SPEAKER_05]: I think it was truly a reactive campaign after it took off and it shows that fandom and community amplification pay such a big part in driving the success of that project.
30:25
[SPEAKER_05]: And it that outweighs any algorithm, any major marketing money, dollars, push that you can put into it, right?
30:32
[SPEAKER_05]: It comes back to a great content that everyone adjoice.
30:38
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think there's a lot about the Vietnamese culture, the Vietnamese, we have the talent.
30:44
[SPEAKER_05]: We have the raw ingredients, I think, for that right now.
30:46
[SPEAKER_05]: We have the talent, we have the culture richness, and we have the global mindset.
30:52
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think that there's a lot there that we can work with.
30:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that is one hundred percent true.
30:59
[SPEAKER_03]: You really spelled it out really well.
31:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Kipop demon hunters is such a wonderful example of something that really just broke through the mainstream consciousness.
31:11
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
31:13
[SPEAKER_03]: The Vietnamese cultures, like, right there, we are right there.
31:17
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I had crystal, I don't know, you know, crystal, he's a marketing branding.
31:23
[SPEAKER_03]: He's kind of like Gary Vaynerchek, and he's here in LA.
31:27
[SPEAKER_03]: And I had him, and I interviewed him about this idea of, like, because years ago, when I first started the podcast, I was like, really amped up about, like, competing with K-pop?
31:38
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was actually worried that Vietnamese pop or Vietnamese dramas were being drowned out by we want to emulate them so bad that we're losing, we are, he brought up a good point.
31:49
[SPEAKER_03]: He said, every culture has to copy.
31:55
[SPEAKER_03]: So K-pop, copy back street boys, unsync for a long time.
31:59
[SPEAKER_03]: They did for 10 years and then they guys so good.
32:02
[SPEAKER_03]: They just started to infuse Korean attributes and culture inside
32:08
[SPEAKER_03]: And Vietnam, we're doing that right now.
32:10
[SPEAKER_03]: Great.
32:10
[SPEAKER_03]: We are emulating, we're copying K-pop, and I'm so relieved to hear Crystal talk about this, which is, we are on that journey of like, perfecting our craft and understanding, like, you gotta get militant about training about, you know, getting, I don't know if you watch Katzai, the Popsar Academy on Netflix.
32:28
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm sure if you're gonna talk about K-pop and Katzai specifically, there are a lot of IWers that are expert at, I know enough.
32:34
[SPEAKER_05]: Katzai is also very unique because Katzai is a space here, right?
32:39
[SPEAKER_05]: We're from what I'm aware of.
32:41
[SPEAKER_01]: It's often in hard.
32:42
[SPEAKER_05]: It's mainly English, right?
32:45
[SPEAKER_05]: So they're very unique in terms of,
32:47
[SPEAKER_05]: They blow the line.
32:48
[SPEAKER_05]: What is truly K-pop, right?
32:50
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
32:52
[SPEAKER_05]: And they're always from their multi-national as a group.
32:55
[SPEAKER_05]: And from day one, there should be a global act.
32:59
[SPEAKER_05]: My basic knowledge of K-pop, right?
33:03
[SPEAKER_05]: So we're getting into that phase now where we're like, what is K-pop?
33:09
[SPEAKER_05]: What influences why?
33:10
[SPEAKER_05]: What is true, you know?
33:12
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think with the norm, I think.
33:14
[SPEAKER_05]: I totally agree with him.
33:16
[SPEAKER_05]: But I let somebody towards inspiration.
33:19
[SPEAKER_05]: Right.
33:20
[SPEAKER_05]: I do that every day in the work that we do as, you know, how do you take inspiration from something that you're seeing that as so successful?
33:29
[SPEAKER_05]: That's, you know, that's resonating.
33:31
[SPEAKER_05]: How do you take that as inspiration to create something of your right as the next thing?
33:37
[SPEAKER_05]: So, this is so, I totally, right.
33:41
[SPEAKER_03]: What do you think?
33:43
[SPEAKER_03]: in terms of Asian Americans showing up more in the entertainment world, are you seeing more of this after
33:58
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, after this string of K-pop and parasite and crazy rich Asians, are you seeing more or are you seeing it plateaued?
34:10
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you see it dropping because some movies bond?
34:14
[SPEAKER_03]: What is the sort of the temperature in Hollywood right now as it relates to Asian American projects?
34:22
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, so I job a group actually work on crazy-rich Asian.
34:27
[SPEAKER_05]: It was before my time, and this did I think about by year, which I was very bum about.
34:32
[SPEAKER_05]: But, you know, when you look at something like crazy-rich Asian, I have a lot of thoughts and feeling about it.
34:39
[SPEAKER_05]: Love a movie, obviously it's not my favorite movie, and it's not something I relate to because I report.
34:45
[SPEAKER_05]: That's the first up, right?
34:47
[SPEAKER_05]: But, you know, it was entertaining.
34:49
[SPEAKER_05]: It was commercial.
34:51
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, and I think it did what it needed to open the doors to all these other stories that need to be told, right?
34:58
[SPEAKER_05]: Asian Americans were always lumped together.
35:01
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think that's where the struggle is is that, you know, we overlook,
35:06
[SPEAKER_05]: We're overlooking so many ways because we're so diverse, but we're always lumped together.
35:12
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think that, you know, what we're the industry is right now, my job and what my team is doing, we truly benefit it from something like a crazy rich Asian, you know, the work that we're able to do the last few years, all the projects that follow crazy rich Asian,
35:30
[SPEAKER_05]: from like a turning bread to a shotgun, gosh, I work on at least like 20 to 30 TV and from projects a year, but probably get that or not.
35:42
[SPEAKER_05]: So it's starting to get hazy, what I work on and what I don't work on, but I think that speaks to volume, right, to the door that projects like that, you know.
35:52
[SPEAKER_05]: kind of allow, right?
35:53
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, that we work on things that probably, for example, we work on American born Chinese a few years ago where we're a lot of excitement for that.
36:02
[SPEAKER_05]: It was adapted from a FEMA's graphic novel.
36:08
[SPEAKER_05]: So there was already a fan base there.
36:10
[SPEAKER_05]: Did a huge marketing push for it, but you know, it didn't, it didn't perform, it didn't get renewed.
36:17
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, so yes, you're going to have
36:21
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, I think that there's learnings from everything, you know, but I think the fact that people are starting to realize that there's an appetite for a culture specific stories.
36:33
[SPEAKER_05]: It's truly the start of it.
36:35
[SPEAKER_05]: And I don't think that that's going to slow down.
36:38
[SPEAKER_05]: I think that it's good business.
36:39
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
36:40
[SPEAKER_05]: If you're seeing things that are successful, like a K-pop demon hunter,
36:45
[SPEAKER_05]: crazy rich Asian, it shows that our story, they're good money, they've been good money, they're a susas, and we should make more of them.
36:57
[SPEAKER_03]: What I think about what you just said about money being divided by different cultures in the Asian American scene,
37:05
[SPEAKER_03]: How, I often think about corporations and the bottom line and budgets when I think about, well, how can mainstream American corporations, film companies and parents of film companies, justify spending in the Vietnamese market or just a Korean market or just the Filipino market, when we make up such a small, tiny percentage, I've always wondered what the math looks like.
37:33
[SPEAKER_05]: So, oh, I'm trying to see what I can say that will get me in trouble.
37:39
[SPEAKER_03]: You don't have to answer that, it didn't do sense in it.
37:42
[SPEAKER_05]: No, no, I'll put it this way.
37:44
[SPEAKER_05]: Let's just say, you know, when you work in multi-cultural marketing, there's always a struggle.
37:51
[SPEAKER_05]: It's a uphill battle.
37:53
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, despite all the representation, all the success that Kippur is seeing, it's still a uphill battle when it comes to fighting for budget.
38:02
[SPEAKER_05]: and an investment.
38:03
[SPEAKER_05]: Let's just say that I've worked with, you know, executives who are, yes, very bottom line driven and see it in plain math.
38:13
[SPEAKER_05]: So for example, you know, they're like, Karen, I W, you guys handle the Asian American audience.
38:19
[SPEAKER_05]: That's about 7% of the U.S.
38:21
[SPEAKER_05]: population.
38:22
[SPEAKER_05]: Um, so this is how much that's how much that the brush is sent down right there's a reason but but it's also such a narrow approach to marketing If you think about it because first off if you look at Bots Office numbers Um, you know, if you look at the audiences that are showing up opening week to any big note movies like we work on a little in stitch for example, right Um
38:46
[SPEAKER_05]: Multicultural audiences actually makes up more than 50% of the people, you know, Hispanic, that's a black or any region.
38:55
[SPEAKER_05]: We make up more than 50% when it comes to box office turnout for most of these fell.
39:01
[SPEAKER_05]: So there's something there, right?
39:04
[SPEAKER_05]: And then, you know,
39:05
[SPEAKER_05]: I always try to educate and my clients and say, we need to look at this more broadly, multi-cultural consumers as such drivers of culture and even Asian Americans, right?
39:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Things like, we talk about K-pop, K-drama,
39:24
[SPEAKER_05]: Japanese culture is huge as well.
39:26
[SPEAKER_05]: Anything inspired by anime, manga, right?
39:29
[SPEAKER_05]: So we're such big culture drivers and you know, those things like actually resonate to such a wide audience, such a mainstream audience, if you think about it.
39:40
[SPEAKER_05]: So it's just, I feel like a misoppers unity.
39:45
[SPEAKER_05]: So always look at it so narrowly.
39:47
[SPEAKER_05]: That you guys are 7% of the population right now without understanding the potential growth.
39:55
[SPEAKER_05]: Asian Americans is a big growing population.
39:59
[SPEAKER_05]: Um, right now and we have our, our, our, our, our buying power is to make sense.
40:05
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
40:06
[SPEAKER_05]: Our disposal income is huge.
40:08
[SPEAKER_05]: We're so big on long-term spending.
40:10
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
40:11
[SPEAKER_05]: So there's money there, right?
40:13
[SPEAKER_05]: And there's just so much influence there.
40:15
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think it's just truly, um, an education process to kind of, um, change that narrative on how you look at spending a budget.
40:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, I'm going to ask another sense of a question.
40:28
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, budding power, spending power on behalf, but do we spend?
40:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Those are Asian-American population.
40:37
[SPEAKER_03]: Do we spend on things that we view sometimes as frivolous, you know, entertainment?
40:43
[SPEAKER_03]: And I asked that because I want to inspire the next generation of filmmakers and content makers that wait a minute.
40:53
[SPEAKER_03]: 7% is what we make up, but 50% is multi-cultural, multi-cultural spending, but we do have big pocketbooks, but we are not given the opportunities sometimes because of the pinching and holding the budgets and the bottom lines by executives who are not in this space that we're in.
41:15
[SPEAKER_05]: So, I think we do spend one of something that we're passionate and loyal to.
41:22
[SPEAKER_05]: I think that comes to just plain and simple.
41:25
[SPEAKER_05]: We are very picky.
41:27
[SPEAKER_05]: Asian Americans are hard to market to.
41:29
[SPEAKER_05]: We are extremely picky.
41:31
[SPEAKER_05]: We were digital savvy, we like to stay at home, we like to stream, more so than going to the movie theater.
41:37
[SPEAKER_05]: I think if you're looking at consumer behaviors, but we do spend.
41:41
[SPEAKER_05]: And if you, I think just to look at it, marketing these day, the key core audience that we're looking at are really Gen Z. And the younger, right?
41:50
[SPEAKER_05]: That's that's truly where the opportunities are.
41:53
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think, you know, as someone of an old millennial,
41:58
[SPEAKER_05]: I can already say that my standing behavior is very different from my mom.
42:02
[SPEAKER_05]: My mom is extremely frugal, right?
42:04
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to scan that's not necessary.
42:07
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, me, I'm already like, you know, I'm not.
42:09
[SPEAKER_05]: You just, you know, if you like it, just buy it.
42:12
[SPEAKER_05]: So you're already seeing changes in behavior when it comes to buy.
42:17
[SPEAKER_05]: And then, you know, you're talking about Gen Z's who are people who grew up digitally.
42:23
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, so I think that, you know, there's a lot of changes in terms of a consumer behavior, just within a population that we need to pay attention to a bit more and reach the where they are.
42:36
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I'm going to switch tracks here and go into AI and the future of AI.
42:42
[SPEAKER_03]: It doesn't sound like it's going to affect your business marketing so much.
42:45
[SPEAKER_03]: Because whatever product.
42:46
[SPEAKER_05]: I hope so.
42:47
[SPEAKER_05]: That's right.
42:48
[SPEAKER_05]: I hope not.
42:49
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, do you see it affecting your business much?
42:52
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, you still have the market and something.
42:54
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, I think it's such an unprecedented time.
42:57
[SPEAKER_05]: And I'm not gonna like, you know, cause my eye and go, no, I'm good, you know, because it's something that's evolving so quickly.
43:06
[SPEAKER_05]: So you don't know how advanced it's gonna get, you know, and I think with AI, my philosophy is that AI should enhance and amplify you.
43:19
[SPEAKER_05]: rather than cripple and replace you.
43:22
[SPEAKER_05]: If you're finding yourself in a position where you're a job or whatever you do is easily replaced by AI, you know, I think there's a lot more to unpack there, right?
43:33
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think that at the end of the day, everything needs to be very creativity, especially, needs to be very human-centered.
43:42
[SPEAKER_05]: Like I said, my journey started from my love of the cinema.
43:46
[SPEAKER_05]: and how the cinema connects culture.
43:49
[SPEAKER_05]: There's a lot of human connection is when it comes to art.
43:52
[SPEAKER_05]: And I really don't think that AI can replace that.
43:57
[SPEAKER_05]: In a true sense, AI will expedite things, make things faster, easier, potentially cheaper.
44:04
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think that we're seeing that in production, right?
44:08
[SPEAKER_05]: Right now when it comes to the entertainment world.
44:11
[SPEAKER_05]: But I still have a lot of faith for me at kind.
44:14
[SPEAKER_05]: that is kind of my takeaway when it comes to the act.
44:18
[SPEAKER_03]: When I think about the decisions that you have to make sometimes, I think about figuring out what makes something good.
44:25
[SPEAKER_03]: AI has to figure that out, we have to figure that out as humans, but I want to ask you specifically, what do you think makes a good film?
44:34
[SPEAKER_03]: What do you think makes a good product?
44:35
[SPEAKER_03]: What do you think makes BTS good?
44:37
[SPEAKER_03]: What, you know, what are the things in your soul that you feel makes things really high quality?
44:45
[SPEAKER_05]: All right.
44:45
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, this is totally my subjects.
44:47
[SPEAKER_03]: You're a tape.
44:48
[SPEAKER_05]: This is what Karen feels, right?
44:49
[SPEAKER_05]: I know, like, sure.
44:50
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, we're here.
44:50
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
44:52
[SPEAKER_05]: I think first off, when it comes to the movies or Kpop, anything music, people, people lean to them to escape, right?
45:01
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
45:01
[SPEAKER_05]: Um, so, and I think that's why, you know, people like to go watch.
45:05
[SPEAKER_05]: action film.
45:05
[SPEAKER_05]: They're not my kind of thing, but people like to stand three hours, go to the movie to watch, you know, buildings fall apart, Avengers fighting the bad guys.
45:15
[SPEAKER_05]: It's a way to escape, right?
45:16
[SPEAKER_05]: And the totally, I think that's that's truly the main one of the biggest value of entertainment.
45:24
[SPEAKER_05]: Like I mentioned for me, I lean to film to understand, and understand culture, to bridge cultural gap, you know, stories, to tell stories, right, that we all can connect to on a human level.
45:38
[SPEAKER_05]: I truly, you know, coming, coming from a,
45:41
[SPEAKER_05]: independent film background.
45:43
[SPEAKER_05]: That's how I look at the cinema, that's how I look at entertainment, right?
45:46
[SPEAKER_05]: It comes back to a great story.
45:49
[SPEAKER_05]: And you know, a lot of things in our world, especially with marketing and publicity, it feels very bleeding.
45:58
[SPEAKER_05]: One minute, you know, it's viral and everyone's talking about it the next minute, someone's talking about something, or talking about, you know, what's going on in the world, or what our president is treating, or saying, right?
46:09
[SPEAKER_05]: So like, I feel like what we do on a day-to-day basis is about timing, and sometimes it can feel so fleeting.
46:16
[SPEAKER_05]: Uh, but that.
46:17
[SPEAKER_05]: to me, a good movie last forever, right?
46:21
[SPEAKER_05]: A good movie, stay with you forever.
46:23
[SPEAKER_05]: I think I mentioned this earlier, but one of my all-time favorite movie is in the move for a lot.
46:33
[SPEAKER_05]: And believe it or not, when I first watched that movie the first time, I was so young.
46:38
[SPEAKER_05]: I didn't get it, I didn't get it, but it's a movie where if you come back and watch it at other phases in your life, you appreciate so much about it, right, like the idea of
46:51
[SPEAKER_05]: At the end of the day, it was just really Tony Long and Maggie Chang.
46:55
[SPEAKER_05]: It's all that you're going to see.
46:56
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, yeah.
46:57
[SPEAKER_05]: That's all you're going to get.
46:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a mystery.
46:58
[SPEAKER_05]: And that chemistry, but like the motion, the themes of restraining and constraint, that's the beauty of it.
47:07
[SPEAKER_05]: That's the human connection that I'm talking about.
47:10
[SPEAKER_05]: And I believe that there's an audience for every movie.
47:14
[SPEAKER_05]: So there's, I'm sure there are people who are out there are really like that movie.
47:18
[SPEAKER_05]: I didn't get it.
47:19
[SPEAKER_05]: I didn't care for it.
47:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Sure, I'll disagree, but, you know, I think there's an audience for every Zoom.
47:27
[SPEAKER_05]: And I would say that with music and, you know, it connects us on a different, and every one response to it differently.
47:33
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think that's the beauty of art.
47:37
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, what happens when the product was not good, and it's brought to you, so you have to work it.
47:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you get out?
47:53
[SPEAKER_03]: I've got to know, right?
47:54
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I'm not here.
47:55
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not here to ask the easy question, you know?
47:58
[SPEAKER_03]: I look, I don't want you to burn your customer, your clients.
48:04
[SPEAKER_03]: But I do wonder about these things.
48:06
[SPEAKER_03]: But when you guys reached out to me, I'm like, oh my god, when it comes to IDWG, I've just, I've known about Bill of Mod of Mindtire based on existence, right?
48:16
[SPEAKER_03]: And to be asked to come here, I'm like, I'm looking at, I can't not ask these questions, right?
48:20
[SPEAKER_05]: You should probably go over a few doors down an assville what he does with a bad movie that he had to work on or coach or consult for.
48:27
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't like to see how he ends with that.
48:29
[SPEAKER_03]: But we don't have to bring up any projects.
48:31
[SPEAKER_03]: We could just, you know, I mean, there's gotta be some general ways to address something that you're not connected to.
48:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, so I think the downside of doing what we do marketing PR is that the project is done when it comes to us.
48:45
[SPEAKER_05]: We, you know, like it's done, it's more or less long.
48:49
[SPEAKER_05]: I guess once in a while, we do come in early enough where we're still being made and we get to read scripts and we get to advise.
48:57
[SPEAKER_05]: But whether we advise and whether they take it, you know, and at it to hard and may change us is totally up to the filmmakers' studio the network, right?
49:06
[SPEAKER_05]: But most of the time, like for me and my team, our lead time on working on a film campaign is pretty short, and do you think about it?
49:14
[SPEAKER_05]: It's somewhere between three to two months.
49:17
[SPEAKER_05]: Something like a shall-gun as unique where we come on so much earlier, right?
49:21
[SPEAKER_05]: But your average campaign time frame is two or three months.
49:25
[SPEAKER_05]: So you're kind of doubt the card.
49:29
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, and I think, you know, we definitely have been doubt cards where we come in more from, you know, a crisis calm, perspective, more and more, more so than anything.
49:40
[SPEAKER_03]: And you let the client know, like, hey, we're a crisis here.
49:43
[SPEAKER_03]: We don't see it.
49:43
[SPEAKER_05]: We're just
49:44
[SPEAKER_05]: you know, flagging things right.
49:46
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think for us where we add the most value because I used to do general market PR marketing before right in my thought independent song days that I did general market.
49:57
[SPEAKER_05]: I didn't, you know, it's only at IW that I started.
50:02
[SPEAKER_05]: in the multi-cultural marketing world.
50:04
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think the key to front shader is with multi-cultural, studio executive clients, they look to you to advise them on what is culturally, what will culturally resonate?
50:16
[SPEAKER_05]: What is problematic, right?
50:18
[SPEAKER_05]: And there's definitely projects that we've worked on that are not very,
50:24
[SPEAKER_05]: Let's just say the multi-cultural audience would not respond well to what, you know, from movies that people have say are white wash, we've seen it all, we've dealt with it all, and I think the true value that we bring is really giving our clients honest advice opinion on what we think or how we think people would react to, to the film.
50:52
[SPEAKER_05]: when they cut it out, or even a trailer, anything.
50:56
[SPEAKER_05]: And from there, helping them strategize, right, on how to navigate those reactions.
51:04
[SPEAKER_05]: I really, I really think that's, you know,
51:07
[SPEAKER_05]: It's a fun part of the job in a different way, right?
51:11
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, when you're working on something like Joe gun, K-pop, demon, hunter, it's their great project.
51:17
[SPEAKER_05]: You're excited, you're proud.
51:19
[SPEAKER_05]: But sometimes you are dealt cards that are way more challenging.
51:22
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think that there are learnings, and I think those are the projects that truly feel great PR and marketing professionals, right?
51:31
[SPEAKER_05]: It's not always working on things that just catches on fire.
51:37
[SPEAKER_03]: Karen thank you so much for having me here today.
51:41
[SPEAKER_03]: Is there anything else that you wanted to include in dialogue and after I really truly would like to have, you know, this
51:50
[SPEAKER_03]: podcast.
51:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Every year, every two years we get back and we kind of refresh with you about the status of the industry, you know?
52:00
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, no, first of all, thank you so much.
52:03
[SPEAKER_05]: I mentioned to you, then the fan of the podcast for quite some time, have had a lot of gas that on this podcast that I know or really looked up to at my, like, Goku Jin, you've had some really great folks
52:20
[SPEAKER_05]: There are some big shares for me to fill with this, but I really hope that we'll have more opportunities to talk about how the industry changes every year, and I think with IW for up, you know, we're truly people with that.
52:37
[SPEAKER_05]: If you know Bill very well, he's not someone that likes to beat his chest.
52:42
[SPEAKER_05]: We do the work for the client, and when you're a PR, marketing
52:47
[SPEAKER_05]: you're truly behind the court, you know, I think that I was trained by some very old school policies or bosses back then who were like, if you're in the spotlight, if you're on that step of repeat or carpet, you're not doing your job now, you're
53:03
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, yeah, it shouldn't be about you.
53:05
[SPEAKER_05]: It should be about your project.
53:06
[SPEAKER_05]: It should be about the talent.
53:08
[SPEAKER_05]: Your unblack, you need to treat your profession in a very serious and professional way.
53:15
[SPEAKER_05]: And I agree with that.
53:17
[SPEAKER_05]: I understand that now.
53:18
[SPEAKER_05]: So really does do, we as an agency really get to talk a lot about our work.
53:25
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm sure some projects I mentioned, you probably don't even know that'll be work on it because that's how good we are at our job, right?
53:32
[SPEAKER_03]: But I do think though that it's nice in this modern age to peep behind the curtain to see what you guys do.
53:42
[SPEAKER_03]: And for me, I say every year to have you back home, but I don't like we should do it every three months to talk about the work that you guys do because I think it's compelling, but it's also a way
53:55
[SPEAKER_03]: to let our community know, wait a minute, there's a lot of action happening.
53:59
[SPEAKER_03]: And without people talking about it, like from the inside, how do people know, right?
54:05
[SPEAKER_03]: And especially having a Vietnamese woman handle this, you know, pushing of mainstream films, of films that are made by Asian Americans.
54:16
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, all of it is so important for our community.
54:19
[SPEAKER_05]: And I guess we'll leave with this now.
54:23
[SPEAKER_05]: I haven't had a chance to work on a Vietnamese project yet.
54:26
[SPEAKER_05]: Believe it or not, despite all the films and TV shows that I've worked during my time here, I'm still waiting for that project.
54:34
[SPEAKER_05]: So I hope that whenever that project happened, I'll be able to have a chat with you about it.
54:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it might have to make sure.
54:42
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe it's pretty good out there.
54:43
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not up in the issue.
54:44
[SPEAKER_03]: There's some big projects up there.
54:45
[SPEAKER_05]: Doesn't end up faster.
54:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
54:47
[SPEAKER_05]: We're going a lot of Japanese projects, you know, Chinese-centric project.
54:53
[SPEAKER_05]: Haven't had a true Vietnamese project yet.
54:55
[SPEAKER_05]: That's like, okay, let's do this.
54:57
[SPEAKER_05]: Let's show them how this is going to work.
55:01
[SPEAKER_05]: So I'm very optimistic and I'm just going to manifest in, or even the next time I'm back, we'll be able to talk about that.
55:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, they're being shot right now.
55:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, all right.
55:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, Sharon.
55:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much.
55:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
55:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to the Vietnamese with Kenneth Wynne.
55:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Special thanks to Brittany Tran, to Jane Wynne, Catherine Wynne, Tina Fam, Sydney Jamie, and Crystal Tran.
55:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Please find us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok at the Vietnamese podcast.