LOS ANGELES — “He’s not selling out, he’s buying in,” says the slogan for “POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,” Morgan Spurlock’s whimsical documentary about product placement in movies and television shows.
Not one to leave a dollar on the table, at least when it comes to financing films, Mr. Spurlock now plans to help the rest of the documentary world buy in. NEXT
MY COMMENT :
This article is clearly pointing out the dilemma that most media are facing : New ways of financing. The idea of the film director is simple, using product placement in documentaries. Product placement is a form of advertisement where branded goods or services are placed in a context usually devoid of ads. Movies, music videos, and tv shows are using this process of advertising.
According to the author of the article " Documentary makers are perennially starved for cash, particularly when it comes time to distribute a movie that may have cost relatively little to make. But companies may also have something to gain from an association with reality-oriented filmmakers who often pride themselves on speaking truth to power. " For these reasons, product placement will help the documentary industry grow, or at least end the struggle of some documentary directors to find financement for their work.
However, documentaries are based on real life events, and knowing that some companies are using product placement, can be seen as a loss of independence for the documentary industry.
What do you think about financing documentaries with product placement money? Would documentaries be able to keep their objectivity and their original idea? Would some trust issues be involved?
RépondreSupprimerI think that financing documentaries with product placement is a good deal for both the advertisers and the filmmakers, that found difficulties to find financement for their documentaries. However, and as I mentioned in my comment product placement can be seen as a loss of independence for the documentary industry. For the viewers, trust issues are going to be for sure involved, since the money injected by companies in documentaries will somehow force the filmakers to act subjectively in some cases.
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