Entertainment Industry

Can I purchase Insurance for a 1 (One) Day Production?

Of course, you can purchase One day Film Shoot Insurance. We can customize Production policy to fit your individual needs when you need our help most. Keep in mind sometimes these types of policies can be very limited with their change-ability and their ability to add other types of coverage. If you think you need a more robust production insurance plan, maybe a 1 day policy isn’t the best coverage for your film shoot.

I am trying to put a budget together for a film I’m doing next year. How much would the insurance be for a $1.5 million dollar feature?

Budgeting for insurance is a must for film budgets big and small. If you have a film that could have a budget from $10,000,000-$100,000,000, the premium for the insurance should be less than 1% hopefully. In our experience with this approach we are typically able to provide many additional essential coverages very specific to your industry.

How much does ultra low budgie production insurance cost?

There are some insurance companies that will charge as little as $125 for a film production policy. Keep in mind that these extremely low premiums have heavy coverage restrictions in place; for instance if you have a ‘cheap’ production insurance policy and then realize that you need to rent a $5,000 camera, the coverage you bought for the film may not be changeable. Thus, because you are already in the middle of production, you need to purchase a 2nd production policy just so you can continue the principal photography. This preceding example was the best case scenario when such a change needs made. Our suggestion is to contact each location, production studio/venue, or equipment rental house and get a copy of their certificate requirements. We offer free consultation on adequate insurance limits as it relates to any specific certificate needed. Let us know how we can help you with your next project.

How often do you see production insurance claims?

In our experience, you should not be experiencing any insurance claims if your insurance premiums for the project are under $15,000. If you are paying $15,000 in insurance premiums, the film’s overall budget being north of $100,000, we expect claims to occur. The typical claims we see are damage to rented equipment and fender bender type of incidents relating to rented grip trucks and vans. Again, accidents and unforeseen events are the usual reason for insurance, so crashing the Tesla in your movie is not a claimable event unfortunately :).

What is California Assembly Bill 5 (AB5)?

CA AB5 is a bill popularly known as the ‘gig worker’ piece of legislation. This bill went into effect on 07/01/2020 and has a major impact on the film and entertainment industry. This bill, passed in California, essentially mandates that any ‘gig worker’ used in a production shall be deemed as an employee by the production company. In so doing, workers compensation is required for the respective ‘employee.’ Now, there are some key components that must be considered in order to properly determine whether the ‘gig workers’ need included under the production company’s workers compensation policy or not:

• The worker is free to perform their services without any control or direction from the company – If yes, could be a ‘gig worker’ and not an employee.
• The worker provides the same service for various companies when not working with said production company. Meaning, the said production company is not the sole source of revenue for the ‘gig worker.’ If yes, could be a ‘gig worker’ and not an employee.
• The ‘gig worker’ performs tasks that are typically considered outside the production company’s usual scope of business. If yes, could be a ‘gig worker’ and not an employee.

What is Section 107 of the Copyright Act?

Otherwise known as the Fair Use Doctrine. If you remember the acronym ‘PNAE,’ you will be well on your way to knowing more than most about fair use. Purpose, Nature, Amount, and Effect.

What would E&O cover for our production business?

Depending on the insurance company, in this case let us discuss United States Liability Insurance Company, located in Wayne Pa. Coverage such as intellectual property, patent infringement, and other creative types of material is included under the professional package policy, referred to as a microtek pak (that’s what USLI calls it).

Intellectual Property Insurance & Patent Infringement Insurance & Personal Injury Insurance as seen under the microtek pak is almost always extended but only when the production company gets written releases with respect to material that is used that is not created originally.

Confused, yet? We feel the same way.

Anything you create that you claim as your own must in fact be the case. If you create something that needs a release, like a backing audio to a sizzle reel, you must get a release from the owner of that audio, or the creator of that audio. If you fail to get a release signed by the appropriate entities, you are certainly exposing yourself to a lawsuit. If you have done the proper leg work and had releases signed, an E&O policy from USLI would help defend you and pay up to the policy limit.

If you did not get the proper releases signed and you knowingly didn’t get them signed, then some if not all of your policy limits could be in jeopardy. Aggravating the case would be if you intentionally withheld the information for the purposes of deceiving and blah blah blah. Being dishonest for the purposes of insurance gain calls into question all of your coverages. Such is the case across the board with all insurance whether its production, business, home, auto, or life insurance.

Honest mistakes happen all of the time. Even though you did your best to prevent something from happening, sometimes you can’t prevent someone from claiming they thought your character looked like them. Wasn’t there a Seinfeld Episode about Elaine and a Mannequin? Perhaps you used a city or location in your production that could be viewed negatively towards a group or, etc. Such honest mistakes are precisely what Errors and Omissions insurance (as with this case specifically) covers.