Before Hiring Actors, Casting The Products

2010-04-14 (수) 12:00:00

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It’s no longer just about selling the script. It’s creating a brand.

LOS ANGELES - Jordan Yospe had some notes on the script for “The 28th Amendment,” a thriller about a president and a rogue Special Forces agent on the run. Some of the White House scenes were not detailed enough, Mr. Yospe thought. And, he suggested, the heroes should stop for a snack while they were on the lam.

“There’s no fast-food scene at all, but they have to eat,” he said.

Mr. Yospe was not a screenwriter, not a producer, not even a studio executive. No, Mr. Yospe was a lawyer with the firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. He was meeting with the writer-producer Roberto Orci, who co-wrote “Transformers” and “Star Trek,” to talk about how to include brands in “The 28th Amendment.”

In the past, studio executives made deals to include products in films. Now, with the help of people like Mr. Yospe, writers and producers themselves are cutting the deals often before the movie is cast or the script is fully shaped, like “The 28th Amendment,” which Warner Brothers has agreed to distribute.

Now, having Campbell’s Soup or Chrysler associated with your project can be nearly as important to your pitch as signing Tom Cruise.

“The cost of movies is going up, and that really drives almost everything,” said Jack Epps, the co-writer of “Top Gun” who is chairman of the writing division at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. “If you want to catch an executive’s attention right now, it’s not just selling the script, but you’re showing them how to create a brand.”

For the moviegoer, the shift means advertising will become more integral to the movie. The change may not be obvious at first, but the devil is going to wear a lot more Prada.

Manufacturers can stipulate that a clothing label must be tried on “in a positive manner,” or candy or hamburgers have to be eaten “judiciously.” A liquor company might sponsor a film only if there is no underage drinking or if the bar where its product is served is chic rather than seedy.

The more intricately a film involves a product, the more a brand pays, offering a few hundred thousand dollars to several million a film. Writers say this helps them work in brands gracefully, rather than finding out later that studio executives have jammed in products at the last minute. “The pressure to integrate is always there,” Mr. Orci said. “It’s got to be done realistically.”

So writers are taking charge. In the 2009 film “Up in the Air,” Jason Reitman, the writer and director, wanted a real hotel brand for his frequent- flying character. As a Hilton HHonors Diamond V.I.P. member himself, Mr. Reitman urged the studio to make a deal with Hilton, which offered free lodging for the crew, sets and promotions of the film on key cards, in-room televisions and toll-free hold messages.

Hilton worked with the production company to make sure things like staff uniforms and hotel shuttles were portrayed correctly.

Deals like that mean lower-budget movies like “Up in the Air” can be made. They also mean movie viewers are increasingly paying to see more elaborately constructed advertising.

That is one reason screenwriters’ groups like the Writers Guild of America-West have objected to the practice, and some writers are worried about further product placement. “I think it’s lazy writing,” said Mary Gallagher, a screenwriter and instructor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Product placement certainly is not new ? the Lumiere brothers agreed to include Lever Brothers’ Sunlight soap in the 1896 film “Washing Day in Switzerland.” But it has become more aggressive on television, where Mr. Yospe wedged brands into shows like “Survivor” and “The Apprentice” while he was general counsel at Mark Burnett Productions.

Mr. Yospe will strike a few types of deals. One is a straight payment, usually in the mid-six to mid-seven figures. The second is a barter arrangement, where, say, a hotel puts up the cast and crew in exchange for being featured in the film. In the third kind, companies help market the film, as Hilton and American Airlines did for “Up in the Air.”

“People were blaming me personally for ‘Apprentice’ destroying television with so many brands,” Mr. Yospe said. “You start running out of things creatively to do if you have no resources, no money.”

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD