What You Should Know About Film Production Insurance
By covering a certain amount of value, film production insurance can help protect your project or company from related liability.
Since no two projects are the same, a good insurance policy is tailored to your production company’s needs when it is purchased.
If it’s an annual policy, then all production insurance policies need to be tailored to fit the company needs, or short term film production policies should fit the project.
A film insurance policy provides entertainment production coverage based on the best offerings from insurance companies. Most services are offered worldwide so even a producer in France can get coverage.
Generally, a solid policy will not only protect against any working vehicle accidents, but also from injuries on set related to liabilities.
Policies also cover “loss and damage,” theft of both owned and rented equipment, and can protect a producer from other copyright infringement or libel claims.
The difference between annual and short-term production insurance
Short-term production insurance can cover your productions project-by-project covering as little as one day of production or more (although it is recommended that you also get coverage for your prep days as well).
If you will be shooting multiple times during the year, then you might want to consider purchasing an annual policy that will cover all of your projects at the same time. Active production companies, typically use annual policies for their productions.
It is always a good idea to get a quote for both short-term and annual production policies when comparing insurance policy prices. Policies purchased for longer periods are not much different in price than short-term policies, so getting a year-round production insurance policy may be best for you if:
- you own a production company
- You rent out equipment that you own to other production companies
- you work as a freelance producer and have four or more productions per year
- you are producing an independent film
What you should know about hiring an insurance broker
Without an insurance broker, you won’t be able to obtain a video production insurance policy. It doesn’t matter if you go to a brokerage house in person or purchase short-term production insurance online, you will still need an insurance broker at the end of the deal.
However, using a broker to buy an insurance policy is not like hiring a real estate agent to purchase a house; you can only use one broker at a time. That’s one reason why it is so important for you to choose the right broker, another reason is that your policy, rate, and coverage are only as good as your broker. It is also good to deal with someone you are comfortable with in case any problems should arise and brokers will talk to you either online or by phone.
In addition, always ensure you are working with an entertainment insurance broker as you can’t use just any insurance broker. They must specialize in either production or entertainment policies, specifically since they understand the business more and will be able to assist you better.
