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, 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.

Yospe was not a screenwriter, not a producer, not even a studio executive. No, 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.”

These days, having Campbell’s Soup or Chrysler associated with your motion picture 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.”

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