Product Placement?

Happy Valley Incident

Happy Valley Incident

Anyone have any good stories or ideas that have worked in getting companies to put their products in your movie????

Is there a website where you can advertise that you are looking for product placement in your movie?
Companies that can help you?
Or do you just start contacting companies asking them if they are interested?

Thanks in advance!!
 
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Indie filmmakers approach companies all the time for product placement.
The key to understanding product placement is knowing that companies
are willing to pay to have their product in a high profile movie being used
by a high profile star.

If you are looking for product placement as a way of getting extra money
for your production - you want Coke or Pepsi to pay you to include the
product - you will need a film the advertiser believes will be seen by a lot
of people. Major theatrical distribution will be a key. Coke or Pepsi wants
James Bond to pick up a can, take a drink, utter a satisfying sigh and then
use the can to disarm the bad guy. It's not to their advantage to pay a
filmmaker money to have their product in a movie that will be seen on
YouTube or entered in festivals that might be seen by 1,000 people.

There are websites that will help you find advertisers willing to pay you
to show their products. They charge a fee and take a percentage. If
you have a very high profile project they will be be willing to work on a
percentage basis only.

Is that what you're looking for? Advertisers who will pay you to use their
product in your movie?
 
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there is the other end of that spectrum.. getting to use stuff for free in you indie movie. There was a web site dedicated to this for small filmmakers (we talked about it here, but I cant find it!) mostly geared for fashion. You can try the same thing with local boutiques, might get you some great fashion for $0. In my first short film Power Up I got to use the great hats for free, the local shop got credit in the film!
 
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For a small indie production, as directorik mentioned, it's less likely that you'll be in a situation to be paid for product placement, and more likely that you will simply be asking them for their permission to feature their product.

Every major corporation has an individual employed for the sole purpose of product placement. That is the person who you would contact. In my first feature, we needed a whole bunch of beer cans, as prominantly-featured props. Without legit permission for product placement, I would've had to make fake beer cans, with a fictional logo. It was so much easier to just ask for permission to use PBR. Their product placement guy asked to see a copy of the script, and made me promise to certain conditions, then gave us permission. No money.
 
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Very true, wheat. I was hoping Happy Valley would return and
answer my question so I could expand.

Getting products for free is different than getting companies to
pay you to place their products in a movie. And not only on screen.
There are companies that will provide products for cast and crew
use. Redbull did for several years. They would provide cases of their
product to a small production and allow its use on screen. The
reason; get crew members used to using their product when on set.

Especially for you filmmakers working in smaller cities, getting goods
and services for free is something you should really look into. In big
cities with a lot of very low budget production, this isn't as viable only
because places are approached so often. When working out of Los
Angeles I have gotten amazing cooperation and amazing products and
services just by asking: exotic cars, food, wardrobe, police officers in
uniform with their cars, fire trucks complete with crew, restaurants
complete with food for cast and crew. I worked on a short film several
years ago where the producer got a flyby from two "Men in Black"
type helicopters - they flew in, hovered for a bit then one by one pealed
off. He knew someone who knew someone.

Ya just gotta ask sometimes.
 
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