Off-topic question -- please post it in a new thread. Thanks,

Cool links Richard, but I didn't see anything even remotely related to accidental product placements like the beer sign in question. I also have to question whether large companies even bother sending cease and desist letters over things like that. You'd think we'd be hearing all kinds of anecdotes if that were the case.

Marco,

See my new thread "Will I Get Caught?" for my thoughts on why you don't often hear about the little guys.

The other post speaks primarily to intentional use. Incidental and accidental use are always iffy. Like I said in my earlier post. Driving past a McDonalds, or getting into a Ford Mustang are low/no risk. SETTING the film in a McDonalds or claiming all Mustangs are hazardous are a huge risk. The devil is in the details.

Again, if you can avoid, remove, alter or minimize, do so.

On a side note, I've always wondered if Criterion had to secure a release for the very prominent use of a bottle of Johnny Walker Black in the DVD edition of the orignal version of Diabolique. You might say that product played a crucial role in that movie. ;)

if they're neon signs a little electrical tape can go a long way. Just think back to your younger days when a "B" became an "A" by just blocking out the bottom portion of the letter. Of course I never did that, but I know people who did...

Do a search on my name and "incidental reproduction." I've discussed this a lot, here. Short answer: reproducing ambient music in this context will be copyright infringement, absent a fair use defense.

Opa!
 

Hey Nick!

That's a perfect example of "Greeking"!

RB

I'm always fond of checking out the creative greeking done by the art department on the various shows I work on. I recall a massive front loader used in one scene having the brand name"Caterpillar" writ in large letters down the side; it became "Oaterpillar" with a bit of black tape...!

If you take a look at the shot from "Scrubs" on my DP reel (here), around 2:15 in or so, check out the bottle on the left side of the screen--it might look like it says "Corona", but read again...

My favourite set sign in a bar was in Blade II but it didn't appear in the theatrical cut. If you watch the DVD commentary the very entertaining Guillermo del Toro keeps on referring to a sign they had over a peep show hallway called "F---ingham Palace". It sounded like they had a gas making that movie.

That's a funny one! On "Office Space", the art department surprised Mike Judge with the sign (quickly glimpsed in the movie) of the main character's apartment complex: "Morningwood Apartments". He loved it.

The Simpsons used Morningwood Penetentiary in one episode. You like gag signs, that's the show for it.

Just out of curiosity how did they get away with a moview like "Supersize Me"?

I've wondered that too. Maybe he got away with more because it was a documentary? Also, imagine if McDonald's had sued. They would have looked like they were trying to censor the movie. It would have been a PR disaster. They were obviously very afraid of that movie.

The discussion so far has been pretty much spot on to what we found, the one thing mising tho is any discussion of how to get the clearances rquired to be able to show the logs/containers. It took us 2 -3 weeks to collect the clearances we needed from brewers etc when we began filming the The Underground TV. Most of the major brewers we dealt with had an agency which handled their product placement. We contacted several dozen different companies for permission and had no refuslas. The releases were everything from a couple of relatively simple paragraphs to three pages of requirements. ( And the three pages were pretty simple to comply with in our case - excessive drunkenness, drugs and other illegal activites, bad light were all prohibited ) The toughest part was tracking down the agent for specific products. None of the clearances cost us anything and of course with our 400,000 home TV market, we didn't even consider asking for a placement fee LOL...
Start out with the corporate web site - that is where we found most of the initial information about who to actually contact for the clearances. And when you find one of the agencies, ask them if they know who handles product xxx. We found a couple of agencies that way also.
If I remember correctly, Miller Brewing and Pepsi were both handled by Davie-Brown entertainment http://www.davie-brown.com/ so there is one to start out with.
It's not all that difficult, it should be just one more step in your pre-production process to ensure your projects success

I am not a lawyer (I haven´t seen "Supersize me" either), but it´s a documentary, and as long as the filmmakers can prove what they claim, McDonalds can´t hurt them.

The following is just my opinion, one fact and a sigh...
I personally think that if you stick a huge neon sign up somewhere high on a pole in a city (or crowded area), it´s your wish for that sign to be seen, in real life, film or photos, and it´s you who must blame yourself for any use of your sign... In Norway where I live, whoever put that sign up has no court case whatsoever! (And Norway is not a banana republic without copyright laws.)