Product Placement

K

Kugar13

Well-known member
Hello all,

As an indie film maker I do my best to avoid product placement, but where is that fine line b/t it is ok and it isn't? Well, you may say it is never ok, but there is no way to avoid it. If you use a car it is a product, etc. I understand if you use a product as it is meant to be used you 'should' be in the clear, but are you really? The norm in indie film, where I am, is to avoid bottles with labels, no clothing with logos, yatta-yatta, but these things (with the logo and label) would be used properly, so where is the fine line. Sure I'm not going to have a coke or pepsi in my film, I can't risk the repercussions, but what about that xbox way in the back of the shot tucked away on a shelf under a dvd player and tv on an entertainment stand? Is it ok in the shot? I have searched high and low on the web and even purchased a few books that I thought would help, and they really didn't....

Any advice?

Thx

Kugar
 
Always wondered this myself, especially with cars. It's just impossible to shoot some things without the make/model of the car betraying itself.
 
Products exist in life and to shoot with an effort to make sure nothing is showing is in itself distracting - often times even more so than the "product placement" shot.

Granted, showing the new kitchen utensil like in The Truman Show is going to be obviously bad for a film, purposely drinking from a white can that says "cola" in black letters is just as silly. You want a scene to look natural and you cannot do that without having some brands in it. As long as the logos are the original size on the products and they are not placed to show or hide the name then it would look natural and that is what you want.
 
Product placement is a paid consideration by corporations to content creators and media owners. You don't avoid it for legal reasons in most instances.

Professional set decorators work through placement agencies to broker deals with corporations who want their goods in front of cameras in less conventional advertising situations.

Most often, when you see a label covered or altered, it is because no compensation was negotiated in advance. Set decorators have very, very little time to prep each episode (features are a more typical arena for placements), so placements often fall by the wayside.

In a short or no-name one-off, you'd likely use whatever products on-set that you want, but don't expect any money for the gesture.

e
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top