Lidia Lukes – Pinewood studios
Slide 2
I will start with a brief explanation what is the product placement for those, who are not familiar or have not come across product placement.
Product placement is a form of advertising or brand merchandising used in any form of media-feature films, TV, video games, commercials, music and tie-ins.
The first signs of product placement are going back as far as 1930’ but real brand merchandising started with franchise of the films such as Bond. In ‘Dr.NO’, in 1962 was featured Aston Martin as Bond’s car. These days placement was not known in the form as nowadays. Product placement became very widely used in 90’ and is used now worldwide as the most powerful advertising of the companies and manufacturers. There are Product Placement Agencies and major US studios have their own departments dealing with product placement.
I will focus on feature films. There is no better advertising than using feature film to advertise product, which can be seen by millions and millions of people on a big screen in the cinema or on a TV screen. People can associate with certain product better when it is part of the story, than being bombarded by advert on TV during commercial breaks. And manufacturers see their products in the best possible way, without spending money on their own advert. Cars, motorcycles, bikes, beverages, clothing, watches, electrical equipment, mobile phones, TV sets, computers, fashion accessories and so on- they all can be featured in the film as acting props in visual, verbal or both means. Where does it start?
Slide 3
First, I read the script, which I analyze and make a breakdown of all potential products. The meeting with producer/or producers is the first step to introduce the products which would be best for the particular film. This is very important part, as we do not want to “overkill” the placement or to ruin artistic feel of the film. The meeting with Director, Production Designer and Costume Designer follow. The Director has to agree that all products used in the film will be in alignment with his film. Then the discussion with main artists is essential especially if the artist has to be seen with product or verbally use the product’s name, which is obviously always a dream of any company providing products for the film.
Some of the artists are not in favour of endorsing the brands and has to be found alternative way of collaboration. The producers are in favour of product placement as well as the studios or even independent filmmakers for an obvious reason-budget. Even the biggest studios are working within the budget and any products such cars, electrical equipment, clothing and etc. save and reduce budget sometimes fundamentally.
Slide 4
I will now go to some examples of product placement from my own experience, unfortunately we do not have enough time to go through many films in details but you might be interested in films such “Mission Impossible” with Tom Cruise, or Bond film entitled “Casino Royale”, which was shot in Prague and on locations in Czech Republic.
Slide 5
In “CASINO ROYALE” we used one of prestigious Czech company PRECIOSA. The Director did not like the look of proposed chandeliers in the casino and hotel lobby scene, so we approached the most obvious local company. To my great delight, the company was very keen and the most co-operative. They provided chandeliers, transportation of chandeliers and their spare components as well as technical support. Everybody was pleased with the final result. This is one of examples which should be now pursued in Czech films with various companies and manufacturers, especially the companies whose names crossed the borders of Czech Republic.
Slide 6
I remember when we were filming “MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2” with Tom Cruise involving huge placement used in the film, which was shot in Australia and USA. For the spectacular car chase in the film, where Tom Cruise is driving Porsche, following the heroine of the film played by beautiful actress Thandie Newton in AUDI TT; new model to be launched with the opening of M:I 2 film.
The German manufacturers were building 2 cars for filming purposes. They also provided components and shells for 4 more cars. The cars were under strong security for the reason not to unveil the car before the launch. This was also another example, where car could compete with rival car, but AUDI was certain that competition with Porsche would be beneficial to AUDI. Otherwise, there is a strict rule, that 2 products cannot compete and it is guarded by all parties involved.
The AUDI provided not only technical support but transportation from Germany to location in Australia then to USA. It was worth of all expenses spent on that as the launch and marketing of new AUDI TT associated with such film as “Mission Impossible 2” with Tom Cruise and famous Chinese-American Director John Woo was priceless advertising.
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Slide 7
Another example when the car manufacturers wanted to place their newly designed car, was sport VOLVO, which was placed in the film “THE SAINT”, directed by Australian Director Philip Noyce and starring VAL KILMER.
I remember, we were filming that particular scene in Oxford (England) and the car was under tight security protected against nosy paparrazzi’s. The journalists were so creative, that they hired apartments from local people, paid them handsome fee just to obtain few shots of unveiled car. The film crew luckily succeeded, though few shots which were not very good, appeared the next day in some newspapers.
Slide 8
Quite an interesting story goes with well known French Director Claude Lelouch. In 2001 Claude Lelouch had a script about clever thief who was robbing expensive jeweler's shops.
The thief was played by English actor Jeremy Irons and the script was cleverly written, so there would not be a conflict of interest for a prestigious company to be associated with robbery. The Director had in mind famous French jewelers CHOPARD. When I came on the board of the project, I suggested Italian jewelers BULGARI. It took some small persuasion but Claude Lelouch agreed, especially when Bulgari provided not only full support but also some fee for placement in the film. Bulgari also supported the premiere of the film, which was shown in 2002 in Cannes at the closing ceremony.
Slide 9
The difficult tasks of product placement in the feature films are when the film company or the studio have their own brands, like SONY/COLUMBIA Pictures, who obviously branding their own electrical products of SONY, but even in these situations exceptions can be made. PARAMOUNT Pictures were working on two “TOMB RAIDERS” pictures starring Angelina Jolie. In the first installment of the movie, they used SONY products but when I came to the project, our Agency had a very lucrative deal with another Japanese electrical goods PANASONIC, but they wanted a complete deal to use their products exclusively. It was a very hard negotiation not only with the production but also with Japanese firm as they are quite bureaucratic and in need of many approvals. At the end of the day, the deal was sealed, all products including TV sets, monitors, latest navigating system, video, computers and mobile phones were exposed in the film and endorsed by Angelina Jolie. It was a great and successful achievement.
Slide 10
We were talking here so far about contemporary films, which is the most usual placement for the products, especially products which are going to be released around the film premiere. To me, personally, one of the biggest successes was the involvement in the period picture “THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA”. The film is set in 1870 in the fictional opera house in Paris with some scenes set in 1919.
The story involves ‘Hero’ chandelier. After reading the script, a brilliant idea struck me to place a chandelier as product placement. Swarovski, the world’s leading producer of cut crystals for fashion, jewellery and chandeliers agreed to placement in all three categories-jewellery shop in 1919 with period jewels set with Swarovski crystal stones and their famous logo placed on the shop’s sign, crystals on all costumes for which Costume Designer Alex Byrne was nominated for an Oscar but most importantly the awesome ‘hero’ chandelier, 17 ft (5.18m) high, 13.2 feet (4m) wide, with some 20.000 full cut Strass Swarovski crystals, weighing 2.3 tons was built upon design of Production Designer Tony Pratt, who also was nominated for the Oscar for his sets. The chandelier, and not only one was built in Paris by leading chandelier manufacturer, Tisserant.
Another reduced size of chandelier - a third size of hero chandelier was built for filming the scene in perspective and a final crash, due to weight of the hero chandelier. The real chandeliers were obviously not used for the crash scene. Swarovski also provided full transportation and assembly of both chandeliers for the filming.
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Slide 11
I can talk about product placement much longer and use many examples of fantastic collaborations between the film makers and manufacturers but I would like to close this lecture on the positive note about product placement.
During my own experience dealing with product placement, there have been 3 major benefits:
- Manufacturers by using the film as their advertising platform are helping filmmakers reduce the budget and market the film with their involvement either providing products or with financial support.
- The filmmakers are in advantage of using the latest products and their technology without spending further money.
- The negotiations with manufacturers or product company goes even behind the scenes, which means that the production is benefiting from products for the cast and crew. Some of the products as beverages, mobile phones, monitors and even cars can be provided to the production during filming free of charge or with low costs depending on the particular deal and exposure in the film.
