Film Product Placement – Is it a solution for Film Finance?

Film Product Placement – Is it a solution for Film Finance?

Maximize Film Product Placement With Susan Ashbrook

Film Product Placement – Is it a solution for Film Finance –

Special interview with Susan Ashbrook

 

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Introduction To Film Product Placement

 

Ever since I saw Malcolm Spurlock’s movie “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold”, I have been thinking about product placement as a possible source of finance for films.

 

Now love his ideas or hate them, I think one thing is for sure, product placement is here to stay!

 

I wanted to know how effective it is and how we can use it correctly so that we do not cheapen our masterpiece movies and so after looking for the expert in product placement, I came across Susan Ashbrook.

 

Susan has years of experience in the business both with product placement and celebrity placement and this small book is a transcript of the interview between her and I.

 

It is completely unedited and will give you an incredible insight into the world of sponsorship marketing from a very unique point of view.

 

This is the 3rd ebook (transcript) in my series about film finance and film finance topics designed to give film producers, directors and anyone involved in raising money for movies new ideas and concepts to help them achieve their goals.

 

Enjoy and I would love to hear from you if you have comments about this interview.

 

Tim Bennett

 

 

Film Product Placement

With Tim Bennett

And Susan Ashbrook

 

Film Product Placement and celebrity product placement…It seems to be one of the latest crazes in advertising, but does it really work?

 

Tonight, we have a very special guest; Susan Ashbrook and we’re gonna discuss ‘Will Work for Shoes’.

 

Very amazing title and we’ll find out what’s that all about soon.

 

How to maximize film product placement and celebrity product placement?

 

And I’m very happy to introduce my special guest.

 

We’ve only just met recently. I found her in Amazon she’s an author of the book ‘Will Work for Shoes’.

 

Please welcome Susan Ashbrook. Hello!

 

Susan: Thank you Tim. Nice to meet you.

 

Tim: And you too.

 

I’m actually very excited to meet you and there was something about your book cover and something about your smile that sort of got me interested.

 

Very nice smile and I’d been kinda really looking forward to this conversation more than some of the others for some reason I don’t know why. I just was really excited to meet you.

 

So welcome to my radio program which I call ArgonTV (previously AwesomeFM) and it’s a place where if you’re here you’re already qualified as awesome.

 

So welcome…

 

Susan: I like that.

 

Tim: It was actually inspired by a friend of mine called Brian Ridgeway and he is a mentor based in Hawaii and he was talking about personal development and he said “Ladies and gentlemen, please stop listening to ShitFM and start listening to AwesomeFM”.

 

And I said “ooh can I use that.?”

 

So, AwesomeFM was born from that and we’ve interviewed over the last year a number of you know amazing people.

 

And this is a new series that I’d been starting and it’s all geared towards movie industry to help independent directors and producers.

 

And one of the topics I want to talk about was film product placement and I came across your book which talks about celebrity product placement.

 

And I felt that’s an amazing subject. I’m very interested to know about that.

 

But before we go there, maybe you could just introduce yourself to the audience just a little so we know who you are. I give you the floor.

 

Susan: Sure. Well. I’d been involved in product placement for over 20 years in Hollywood. and although I’ve done a variety of product placement over the years, I kind of really specialize in fashion and fashion brands but I have done product placement for Hasbro Games and MasterCard and you know a variety of products and I really, I think the thing about working in Hollywood that I’ve learned over all these years is the philosophy of just asking.

 

You know, it can’t hurt just to ask. I think of the famous story about the movie E.T. and about how Steven Spielberg approached Mars Candy and they wanted to use M&M in the movie and they met with Mars Candy and Mars Candy said well you know we have to read the script and you know all that stuff but the director hates it you know he hates, either you have faith in me or you don’t you know.

 

So Spielberg went to Hershey and kind of had Hershey Kiss in mind but Hershey’s loved this project and said this is a family film it seems really great what do you think about putting Reese’s Pieces in the film and Spielberg said yes and you know the rest is history.

 

You know we see E.T. and of course you know we remember the alien eating Reese’s pieces.

 

Tim: I remember going to the cinema to watch that movie.

 

Susan: Yeah.

 

Tim: And when it came out it was like an amazing movie. The special effects were just awesome. I remember it so clearly.

 

Susan: Well that certainly is a classic example of how product placement can work and you know, you think of the James Bond movies, well those movies are incredibly expensive film.

 

They’re filmed in exotic locations and those movies are usually very much branded entertainment.

 

You know James Bond, the car he drives, pays.

 

The alcohol he drinks, pays to be a part of that movie and in fact in this particular movie “Sky Fall”, the last movie it had an interesting twist because we always think of James Bond as drinking Martinis and Heineken Beer paid to be involved in the James Bond movie and so he drink beer this time.

 

Tim: Wow! That’s a real new development.

 

Susan: Yeah.

 

Tim: And so where are you right now? You’re based in Florida, is that right? Or?

 

Susan: No. I actually am in Los Angeles. Tim: OK

 

Susan: And I founded a company called Film Fashion many years ago and I was fortunate enough to sell it a few years ago and I took this time off to write the book ‘Will Work for Shoes’

 

Tim: Yeah

 

Susan: And my idea of the book was, after a little research, I realised that there wasn’t a book out there that told you how to get in touch with a celebrity and the book really is just basic simple fact about, how to get your product in touch with the celebrity, how to outreach to celebrity, how do you get in touch with the celebrity. And I give you all the stuff.

 

Tim: Amazing. I was IN LA about six years ago and it was an interesting place. I wouldn’t say it was my favorite city but it was kinda, a very interesting place.

 

Do people really need to be in LA or the Hollywood area to be successful with movies and the stars and celebrities or can it actually happen anywhere?

 

Susan: You know, I think a lot of movie-making does happen in Los Angeles.

 

There is exceptions of course but you know I think a lot of, it is easier to take meetings, and you know make contact with people you know socially and we all like movies.

 

Tim: Yeah

 

Susan: So, you know you go to movie screenings and that sort of thing and it is easier to meet people living in Los Angeles.

 

Tim: Awesome. And what kind of, whom you’ve met, who you have worked with over the years?

 

Susan: You know, I’ve worked with over 5000 celebrities over the years

 

Tim: I want your list of names and addresses.

 

Susan: Yeah. You know, I remind myself that I am in a service business and because my niche, my specialty is fashion, my role is to make celebrities look good.

 

Tim: Yup.

 

Susan: And not that they need a whole lot of help but my clients tend to be brands like, I’ve worked for Ralph Lauren, Escada, Chopard, Harry Winston, some very, very big companies and it’s a lot of fun.

 

Tim: Very nice.

 

And when you were a little girl, was this your dream or was it something that you fell into as the years went by?

 

Susan: Yeah. I have an interesting story about that.

 

When I was probably about 12, I heard an interview with Marilyn Monroe on the radio, I believe that was. And reporter asked her what she wore to bed at night. And she kinda winked and she said “Well I wear Chanel No.5.” And I heard that and I thought “what the heck is that, Chanel No.5? Oh My God!”

 

You know, I was, she was like an idol to me.

 

Tim: Yeah

 

Susan: Like many people.

 

And so I saved my babysitting money to purchase Chanel No.5 and that was really my first experience with how a celebrity could influence and make you part with your dollars.

 

She influenced me to buy Chanel No.5 and if you’ve ever smelled that perfume it is one strong perfume for a young girl to be wearing. So you know that was really my early start when I recognised that celebrities could influence me.

 

Tim: Well I guess that very neatly takes me to the very first question I was going to ask you. And that is Does Film Product Placement and celebrity product placement really work?

 

Susan: I believe it does. Obviously I’m in that business and some of the early examples, again this is fashion related, in the 1930’s Clark Gable in the film ‘It Happened 1 Night’ went without an undershirt.

 

He was shirtless and that scene in the movie caused a recession in men’s underwear.

 

It was so powerful.

 

Men certainly realized they didn’t have to wear undershirt.

 

Tim: Yeah.

 

Susan: And Clark Gable didn’t wear one and hey that was good enough for other men.

 

So there are specific examples, there was another early example with Clarence Brown and Joan Crawford and it caused him to sign her in a film called ‘Letty Lynton’ designed a dress that focused on making her waist look small and she had kinda fluffy shoulder pad and that was the first time women saw shoulder pads and suddenly every women wanted something with shoulder pads because that made their waist look small too.

 

So these are very specific examples.

 

Also the hat industry. You can imagine of course in the 30s or 40s, hats were a part of a man’s accessories.

 

But over the years that died off and until celebrities started wearing hats and the hat industry really credit celebrities to reviving that business.

 

Their sales have increased 50% because someone like Justin Timberlake wears a lot of hat.

 

Tim: Yeah. That’s really interesting.

 

And we’re talking about 2 different time zones here.

 

Like the Marilyn Monroe and the Clark Gable time and today’s time.

 

I remember as a kid, watching TV, adverts for example, where they say product A is so much better than product B.

 

Do you think that the audiences have changed a lot now and what we believe and how we believed it has changed as well or are we still open to the very obvious?

 

Susan: I think we still are open to the obvious.

 

You know, I know, hey I’m a savvy, knowledgeable person I know what happens with celebrities and product placement but I still am observant and notice things like in movies, you know, what beer they’re drinking.

 

You know, what, you know another example is the MAC computer.

 

You know Mac does not pay to be in any kind of movies or television but they will give production companies a computer.

 

So, you know, having read that, suddenly whenever I’m watching TV or looking at a new movie it’s always a Mac computer.

 

Tim: Yeah.

 

Susan: So you know, that influences a lot of people.

 

Recommended Reading

 

Tim: Interesting. And that reminds me not to ask Mac for cash, I guess.

 

One of the conversations, I had a conversation with Tom Malloy, about 2 weeks ago and we were talking about product placement a little bit, how do you convince a celebrity or a potential client that the movie or the product that you’re going to produce that they’re going to be part of is actually gonna be seen and liked by anybody?

 

Now If I’m gonna give you say a million dollars towards your movie, for example, how can you convince me that people are actually gonna see it, do you need to have some kind of business plan in place to present to them or how do you go about it?

 

Susan: Yes. I think you do need to have a business plan in place and I think it has to be a very distinct pitch.

 

Most of these people that you will be pitching are very busy so you get 5 minutes of their time.

 

You’re not gonna wanna waste it, you know saying well I grew up in North of London and then I went to blah blah blah and I, you know, No, it’s kind of the who are you, why are you calling, what you want and why the person should believe in you.

 

Tim: So you need really like the elevator pitch. the 5 minute.

 

Susan: You do.

 

Absolutely and I think also it’s important to keep things real. I write about in my book how if you’re approaching a celebrity about your product, remember that they’re really real people and so are producers and directors and anyone in Hollywood are real people and they may look busy and important but at the end of the day they put their pants on just the same as you and I and I think it’s important to find something about your movie that you think why are you approaching them in particular.

 

Tim: Yeah.

 

Susan: And you may.

 

The reality maybe you’re approaching hundreds of people.

 

But they don’t know that.

 

They just know that you contacted them and why them.

 

So you kinda have to make your pitch unique to them.

 

Tim: Interesting. Ok we’ve just got one of my friends who’s arrived, Tom Anthony.

 

Tom is actually an American writer and he’s based in Davao, we’re looking to do a project later on this year together and Tom do you have a microphone?

 

And I’ll open your channel, let’s see if I can. Hi Tom.

 

Tom: Can you hear me?

 

Tim: I can hear you loud and clear. How you doing?

 

Tom: Ok, very good. Very good. Yes. I have a little trouble connecting down here in the bundok.

 

Tim: ok. I’m gonna keep your line open.

 

Feel free to jump in with any questions you have and maybe you can mute yourself when you’re not asking questions because you got a little strange echo behind you.

 

Tom: Yup. Will do.

 

Tim: Good to have you here. How’s things?

 

Tom: Fine. Thank you very much. Looking forward to working together too.

 

Tim: I sure am too and I’m looking forward for the next Tuesday as well.

 

Tom: ok great.

 

Tim: Alright feel free to jump in. let’s move on Susan to my next question.

I specifically wanted to ask you about product placement to help financing a film.

 

You think product placement has a role in films these days?

 

Susan: Yes. Very much so.

 

The cost of any movie is you know is very very expensive.

 

So if you can incorporate getting something for free or getting someone to help finance your movie you’re ahead of the game.

 

I was thinking about the television series Sex In The City and the movie Sex In The City and you know fashion wasn’t a part of that series in the movie originally, but they hired a costume designer named Patricia Field and she realised that she has 4 characters.

 

4 women characters that were very different and that she could create their characters through what they wore. and you know, what she had in mind was very expensive so she’s based in New York and really connected to a lot of fashion businesses and she talks about how she begged designers to loan her things for the television series, the original television series, and later if you were a fashion brand you were throwing things at her, you were begging her, you were giving her things.

 

So I think you know when you introduced Tom as a writer I think as a writer if you’re working on a movie, you can write in brands and those are the brands that you would go to.

 

You know, either get donations for your movie or if, let’s say there’s a briefcase in the movie that is key to the movie then you have a chance of going to brands that make briefcases and say look your briefcase could be a character in this film but it’ll cost you, you know and I believe they will consider that.

 

Tim: Interesting. And one of the questions I was gonna ask you about that was do we make product placement a subtle part of the movie or does it work when it’s like really in your face.

 

There are movies that I know where it’s really over the top. Which is the most effective?

 

Susan: You know I really think it depends on the director.

 

Some directors really don’t care. you know, they don’t care about, they know that product placement is a key part of the movie, they understand that it helps get finance, it helps bring the cost down and there are other directors who consider themselves artists and they won’t be dictated by that.

 

Tim: Yeah.

 

Susan: So I think it really depends but perhaps when you’re writing it and you’re pitching it, it could be included in the movie because you’ll never know where things will go, you know.

 

Tim: Yeah. I was very inspired by Malcolm Spurlock’s movie, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. I don’t know if you had the chance to see that.

 

Susan: Yeah.

 

Tim: I’ve watched it about 5 or 6 times and a very inspiring movie. I don’t know if I want to make a movie quite like that.

 

But I found his whole approach be very interesting and those some very funny moments in the movie but I guess product placement is here to stay and celebrity placement

 

Susan: I think it is, I mean here in the US, there are various forms of product placement. you know I was watching the Olympics this past year and there was something called gorilla marketing that was involved, you know the athletes in the Olympics, the US athletes, are not, they’re amateurs so they’re not allowed to accept any kind of payment or sponsorship, yet every athlete that you saw at the London Olympics, they were wearing Dr. Dre’s Beat headphone.

 

And how that came about was he thought, well I’m just gonna take a house in London and invite the athletes to stop by and if they want to stop by and pick up a free pair of headset, I’ll give them a free pair.

 

Well all the US people were wearing them and then pretty soon the other athletes from other teams, China, they wanted to stop by the house too and pick up their free headsets and you know these were pretty awesome headsets.

 

They were pricey.

 

But the payback was tremendous.

 

He got millions, millions and millions of dollars of free advertising, before Olympic committee members recognized that, “Oh my gosh!

 

All these athletes are wearing branded entertainment. No, no they can’t do that.” You know.

 

Tim: Yeah.

 

Susan: It was too late then. You know.

 

Tim: How creative was that.

 

Susan: Yeah.

 

Tim: And I guess the cost to him as well was actually very low so great creativity there.

 

Susan: Very much so.

 

Tim : What are the benefits of product placement to everybody?

 

Like the benefits to the movie director or the project director, the benefits to the audience and the benefits to the celebrity?

 

Susan: Well I think we covered a lot of it. I think you know it does cut down the cost of the movie, contributes to the finance of the movie.

 

For the celebrity, I think, today’s celebrity likes to be involved with a particular product and I look at an actor like Ashton Kutcher who has a huge Twitter following and there are many brands that want him to be a part of their company.

 

Like he is an officer in, I don’t know if they have this in the Philippines, but Popchip

 

Tim: No.

 

Susan: He got some shares of that company so that he would twitter about the potato chips.

 

So celebrities, there’s a financial reward sometimes. If you’ve seen the commercial, I don’t know if you have this as well, but William Shatner does this commercial for Priceline.

 

And Priceline approached William Shatner originally about doing the commercial but they couldn’t afford him.

 

So they went back to him and said “well listen, we’ll give you some shares in the company if you’ll do the commercial.“

 

And he said ‘Ok, Yeah I’ll do it’.

 

Now it’s rumoured, he’s made something like $60 million so far

 

Tim: Wow, that’s incredible.

 

Susan: It’s kind of a great story of bartering and I think that that is how you have to think of product placement now is you’re bartering your services, your movie in exchange they’re gonna get something too.

 

Tim: Yeah, in fact that was actually gonna be one of my next questions, can you give us examples of product placement, but that really worked, but that was I think that was really a great example because there’s no money upfront involved for the company and the more that William Shatner puts into it, the more results he gets, by promoting the company, so it’s really a win-win system.

 

Susan: Yeah.

 

Tim: I like that. It’s really cool.

 

And now when we’re talking about product placement of celebrities and movies, presumably we can’t just walk up to somebody and say ‘Can you be in my movie?” or ‘Can you be in my project?’

 

How do you go about approaching someone? What’s the first step?

 

Susan: Well this is the part Tim where I tell you have to buy the book right?

 

Tim: Yeah.

 

Susan: Well I assume that you’ve developed good enough that you have a script that’s ready to go and you have a start date and you would be approaching their agents initially.

 

But there are actors that will take; I’m trying to think of an example for you where they take less money and they get more on the backend if a movie is successful.

 

Have you heard of that Tim?

 

Tim: No, I haven’t so what you’re saying is that they get a fee upfront but if everything goes well, they get like a bonus at the end of it.

 

Susan: Yes. yeah, and their fee upfront will be far far reduced.

 

Tim: Yeah

 

Susan: Than their normal fee because they like the movie.They think the movie could be a hit.

 

So if it is in fact a hit then they get points on the back end

 

Tim: Yeah. Traditionally, product placement is consumer goods or is it any kind of good, any product?

 

Susan: Traditionally, product placement is consumer goods.

 

Tim: And I don’t have any statistics and I don’t know if you do, but does someone holding up something really make a huge difference to the sale.

 

Like let’s say we get Justin Timberlake in and he holds something, do sales immediately increase, like dramatically or is it a slow build up or how does this work normally?

 

Susan: Yeah. Well again I’m well versed in fashion, I think, I don’t know if you’re familiar with Ugg boots Tim?

 

Tim: I heard of them. I don’t think we have them out here in the Philippines, but I’ve heard.

 

Susan: No, cause it’s probably too warm in your client climate for them.

 

But you know the company just kind of randomly sent them to celebrities and you know hope that they might wear them, and in fact they did wear them and the company exploded because of that. But I don’t know exact statistics that I don’t know.

 

Tim: That’s actually an interesting ploy. Just sending stuff to celebrities and hoping that they wear it. That’s kind of cool.

 

Susan: Yeah it is.

 

I think it depends on the price point.

 

You know if the cost is very little to make something then why not.

 

You know it goes back to my philosophy, just ask, and why, not try it. If your product is pricey then you can’t do that, you can’t afford

 

Tim: Yes I was gonna say, if Ferrari want to send me a car, I don’t mind.

 

Susan: Yeah, yeah exactly.

 

Tim: You know going back to something you said twice now, was about just asking.

 

You mentioned it once in the beginning of the interview and again now.

 

I was actually having this discussion yesterday with Gina who I spoke about earlier and I was actually saying how surprised I was that so many people like yourself just were very happy to become part of this series of interviews and discussions and she said to me ‘Well you had the courage to ask”.

 

How important is it just literally asking someone, you know would you mind doing this, or would you mind wearing this product during your next interview or something?

 

Susan: You know, I’ve made a career of it Tim.

 

I can tell you that it will work and you have to do a lot of asking.

 

But you know I was told by a record executive who’s a dear friend of mine that he shared that very early on his career he learned just to ask, it hurts no one, you know all they can do is say no.

 

Tim: Correct.

 

Susan: And so I really took that to heart and I encourage you and other film makers, why not try it, you know. You have nothing to lose.

 

Tim: No, absolutely. and you know I’ve been doing some asking recently and I got some great results and we’re just about to do a movie launch next Tuesday and you know I approached a few people and said can you help me out with some cash as sponsor and we’re gonna give them booths and they were very willing to join us and it was just a matter of asking.

 

And then that takes me to our next question as a matter of asking how, do we put together a product placement proposal?

 

Is it a one sheet of paper; is it a 20-page document?

 

What does it take?

 

Susan: I think initially it is a one sheet unless you have experience with something that you’ve done in the past along with statistics.

 

But if you don’t, I think it’s just a one sheet.

 

You know we talked about earlier about the company Redbull and how they had been approached by a lot of sporting events.

 

You know, basically they give away products and in exchange they would get film from the sporting events and Redbull thought we’re giving it away anyway, why don’t we do our own filming and so I think if you had let’s say you were doing a movie that’s just their cup of tea, I mean they’d be interested in giving you money it that was something that they could use.

 

Because what they do now is how they recoup their money is they sell downloads.

 

So if your movie is a sporting themed movie and your main character drinks Redbull and that makes him superhuman, you know they might be very interested in your movie.

 

They sell downloads, they license shows, TV networks, they’re on YouTube, they have 8 millions views from the last time I checked, probably more recently.

 

So, you know, that’s something to consider when you’re pitching product placement for sure.

 

Tim: That’s amazing. As a script writer I could make some very nice short proposal and make my movie based around product specifically and send it direct to the corporations involved.

 

Susan: Yeah.

 

Tim: Wow. Awesome. Well and I guess all these little secrets and tidbits that you’re sharing with us are part of your book, is that correct?

 

Susan:Tim you asked the perfect question.

 

Tim: The book is called ‘Will Work for Shoes’. I love the title. Susan: Thank you. And it’s on Amazon, easy to order.

 

Tim: I’ve got a link directly for everybody to go to and just so it’s a little easy as well it’s at Amazon Here and it’s on the screen right now.

 

And it’ll take you directly to the page where Susan has this book.

 

Do you wanna tell us a little bit about the book?

 

Because it sounds awesome, I wanna get a copy of it.

 

Susan: Thank you, I hope you do.

 

You know, I was fortunate enough to sell my business. I had a product placement company that I built and I sold it and I thought well you know over the years whenever I would travel and people would say what do you do?

 

And I explained well you know I’m kind of behind the scene and I work with celebrities.

 

They were fascinated by that, but the no.1 question they always ask me was well, ‘How do you get product to a celebrity?’ and when I did some research I was shocked that there wasn’t the book out there with just the very simple fact about how you do it.

 

And so I wrote a book, it’s a quick read, it’s very practical and it has lots of fun Hollywood stories in the book.

 

You know how to do it, success stories and a few stories about what went wrong, too.

 

Tim: Yeah, there was, I actually saw a reference about what do, you know I had a look through a book in Amazon and I saw something relating what to do when the celebrity don’t give you the product back.

 

Susan: Yeah

 

Tim: That’s interesting. I never thought about that possibly happening.

 

Susan: Yeah. Well it doesn’t happen very often, I can say that which is good news.

 

But you know, you have to be prepared for that too. You know, you do have business work, you have to have papers, let them know what you’re sending and that you want it back.

 

 

Tim:I think in any business, I know especially for me. I’m actually in the laser show production business as well, I’ve been working with lasers for 20 years in the Philippines, for 14 years in the Philippines, it’s very important upfront to tell people exactly what’s gonna happen so there’s no confusion.

 

Susan: Exactly. Don’t we all like that?

 

Tim: Yeah.

 

Susan: It’s a great way of doing business.

 

Tim: And it’s very clear.

 

You know, we normally have even just a small document to say, I’ll do this, you’ll do this and this is what’s expected.

 

No misunderstandings, please sign here. Is it pretty much the same in celebrity product placement?

 

Susan: It is.

 

And usually celebrities, we call them handlers, whether they’re their publicists, agents, managers.

 

Sometimes husbands or boyfriends get involved.

 

If they don’t ask what is expected of the celebrities then you need to do that.

 

I remember, I was doing an event with Hasbro Game and they had hired some celebrities to help promote the game and there was this one celebrity, it was raining that day and he did not wanna walk between one building and the next building without someone holding his umbrella. He couldn’t do it himself.

 

And it was like well you know that wasn’t in the contract that you need your own person to hold your umbrella.

 

You know, it’s silly but you know, you do have to sit down and be very clear about what’s expected.

 

Tim: That’s interesting, interesting.

 

Well, you know I really enjoyed talking to you and I’ve learned so much and I’m sure the listeners will also be very grateful for this.

 

Susan: Thank you.

 

Tim: Tom do you have any question at all while you’re here? If you’re still here?

 

Tom: Can you hear me? I was on mute. Are you there?

 

Tim: Great! We’re still here.

 

Tom: ok. Yes. Just a point, I was looking at product placement, I’m looking at integrating locations with brand logo’s into script, any comment about that?

 

Susan: That’s a wonderful idea. I think you might have missed the first few minutes of the.

 

Tom: Yes I did. Yes I did.

 

Susan: And you know I talked about the James Bond film and how they are very expensive.

 

And of course they have very exotic locations but usually the government or the city or the hotel where James Bond is gonna be, if it is prominently featured in the movie, they will donate that location or sometimes they’ll pay to be in the movie.

 

Tom: I’m looking at the sponsorship, where they will pay into the project.

 

Susan: Yeah. Exactly. Now it’s done all the time.

 

Tim: Tom is actually based in Davao, which is southern Philippines. And he’s fortunate enough to be in an area where the local government do actually do quite a lot for movie. Don’t they Tom?

 

Tom: Yes, that’s right. We’re looking to work closely with them not only in the PR area but for them to provide assets into the project at no cost.

 

Susan: Yeah, just ask. Have you seen the movie Argo?

 

Tim: Not yet, no.

 

Susan: Oh yeah well you know, in the movie I won’t give it away but they are hostages and the whole premise is that Ben Affleck’s character is going to rescue them by, he’s telling them that he’s making the movie and it’s humorous, and it’s real, it’s true and you know I think it goes back to Tom’s question about location.

 

People will love that.

 

Tim: Yeah. And I think if there’s one thing I picked up in this 40 minutes together it is Just Ask.

 

Susan: Yeah, exactly. Why not. They can just say no.

 

Tim: Absolutely.

 

And this, and my next movie that I want to put together.

 

I actually want to do it where I don’t use any of my own money.

 

You know, the last one I did, I used a lot of my own money.

 

The next one I want to use product placement, celebrity placement to finance it. And I would be just asking.

 

Susan: Good!

 

Tim: Good. Well, Susan, it’s been awesome having you on with us. Thank you very much for being here. I’ve really enjoyed talking to you. I’ve learned a lot.

 

Susan: I look forward to staying in touch Tim and seeing your next movie.

 

Tim: Great! And I hope you’ll come back again in the future and join us in ArgonTV.

 

Susan: Thank you. I’d be happy to.

 

Tim: Great. And I will give you a copy once we get the DVD of the current movie we’ve got. I’m with the guy called Ian del Carmen, and he’s my co-producer and director.

 

We’re gonna be launching it next Tuesday. I’ll send you a copy if you like when we get it.

 

Susan: I will love that Tim. Thank you.

 

Tim: Thanks. It’s got subtitles on it, so you’ll be able to understand it and it’s an awesome movie.

 

Susan: Good.

 

Tim: Well, thank you very much.

 

This is Tim Bennett and we have been live in discussion with Susan Ashbrook and she has the book ‘Will Work for Shoes’.

 

It’s an exciting read. I think and I’m certainly gonna get my copy. Thank you all very much for joining us.

 

Thank you Tom for being here as well.

 

Thank you to Jane, always supporting me.

 

This is Tim Bennett, you’ve been part of ArgonTV.

 

We’ve been talking to Susan Ashbrook about Film Product Placement.

 

We Want To Help ArgonTV

 

 

 

 

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