Off the Wall Question

Mind you, I speak from absolutely no experience or even knowledge on the subject. Zip. Nil. Nada.

But I contend that the budget is set and the product placement royalties are used to offset the financial risk to the studio itself. Also it eases the pain if the film goes over budget.

I imagine no director would willingly take on product placement but will work it in as best they can as a matter of necessity. And perhaps they DO demand a cut of that money, either personally or for the film- for the effort and compromise.

More than anything, I wanted to respond because this is a great film that's nearly 40 years old and needs the board to remain active.




Aye. The haggis is in the fire for sure.

Last year I was lucky enough to be present at a screening on Silent Running where Douglas Trumbull did a superlative introduction and Q&A.

One thing he mentioned was the involvement of Dow Chemical. Because of its manufacture of napalm and agent orange, and the use of them in the Vietnam War, Dow was not exactly a popular company at the time. They were approached to provide styrene for sets and props and you can see their logo quite prominently in the film - you'll notice it on the containers in the cargo hold. In return Dow got some good publicity in a film targeted at a youth audience (with an environmental message - quite at odds to what their products were doing in South East Asia).

This, I recall, was done so they wouldn't have to spend some of the budget on them - basically they got the stuff for free, possibly outside of studio control.

It's possible the same was true for American Airlines. If anything, the budget was increased by these deals.