[HN Gopher] The economics of movie production placements
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       The economics of movie production placements
        
       Author : alkhidr
       Score  : 19 points
       Date   : 2021-05-09 10:55 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (thehustle.co)
 (TXT) w3m dump (thehustle.co)
        
       | 1cvmask wrote:
       | I wonder how effective these paid placements are like Blackbery
       | in Up in the Air. It seems the free ones are the only worthwhile
       | ones.
        
       | jasode wrote:
       | _> Any time a brand's logo appears in a film -- even if it's just
       | in the background somewhere -- producers have to get clearance
       | from the company to include it._
       | 
       | That contradicts the first result from google:
       | https://www.legalteamusa.net/can-you-use-a-brand-product-in-...
       | 
       | (And the Louis Vuitton lawsuit mentioned in the above article was
       | later dismissed so Warner Bros didn't need their permission:
       | https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/lou...)
       | 
       | Also, there was another recent article I can't find at the moment
       | that talked about brands that appeared in movies/tv that the
       | companies didn't know about ahead of time because the producers
       | never contacted them. The companies didn't care because they
       | liked the free publicity.
        
         | paxys wrote:
         | The citation link in that line itself is about stuff like music
         | licenses and doesn't mention props at all.
         | 
         | Getting clearance from the company is more for mutual benefit
         | than a legal requirement. Why not get some money or at least
         | the equipment for free if you can?
        
       | grawprog wrote:
       | It's interesting contrasting the economics of product placement
       | in big budget features with something like the way these guys
       | market themselves.
       | 
       | https://www.vivaladirtleague.com/
       | 
       | Right on their front page they offer various 'packages' for
       | product placement in their skits ranging from background
       | placement to full skits about a product. It seems like they do
       | pretty well for themselves. They went from almost zero budget to
       | being able to pay casts and crew and their production quality has
       | increased dramatically. Their videos do tend to contain some
       | pretty obvious product placement and some from some pretty big
       | name brands.
        
       | marstall wrote:
       | And then there's Absolut, which offered a large sum to Tim & Eric
       | to produce a video that mentioned Absolut in any way. This was
       | the out-there result.
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p0QtJMKt1s
        
       | parenthesis wrote:
       | "Any time a brand's logo appears in a film -- even if it's just
       | in the background somewhere -- producers have to get clearance
       | from the company to include it."
       | 
       | Why?
        
         | exac wrote:
         | Temporary "production" companies are setup by Producers for the
         | creation usually a single film or series. When filming is
         | complete, these companies are sunset, and cannot have recurring
         | revenue.
         | 
         | The Producer gets funding for their project from distribution
         | company (Paramount, Disney, etc). The distribution company is
         | the long-lived company that recurring revenue has to go to.
         | 
         | The distribution companies work as a cartel, whereby they have
         | an existing revenue stream from all the product placements in
         | existing films/tv that they want to protect. So as part of the
         | Producer's contract with the distribution company, they must
         | get the permission of the distribution company to include
         | branded products in their films.
        
           | laurex wrote:
           | As someone who used to write contracts for a distribution
           | company, this is correct. The distributor doesn't want to
           | take on liability. For a self-released film, a producer takes
           | on this risk- it's not a problem unless you get sued.
        
         | dboreham wrote:
         | Because money.
        
       | barbegal wrote:
       | Title should be product placements not production placements
        
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       (page generated 2021-05-10 23:02 UTC)