Production Insurance Demystified: Cover Your Butt on Location

We all know that filmmaking isn't always glamorous, and that's especially true when it comes to insurance! After producing over $300k of work on Tongal, we’ve learned a thing or two about production insurance which we would like to share with the community.

Why do you need production insurance?

As filmmakers, you need production insurance in order to rent equipment, book locations, and to protect yourselves from financial catastrophe. If you ever try to secure permission to film in a public park, or go to a rental house and checkout a $100,000 camera package, you won’t get very far until you show them your proof of insurance. More important, insurance protects you from risk. As independent producers we assume a tremendous amount of risk during production, as no one wants to be left holding the bag if you accidentally burn down a location. That’s where insurance comes in.

What kind of insurance do I need?

Perhaps the most important point to understand about production insurance it that there is no such thing as production insurance. It’s just a lingo we use in the industry to describe a package of distinct types of insurance which each cover a different kind of risk.

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Take a look at this sample ACORD certificate and follow along:

• General Liability: This is the most common type of insurance. This coverage protects you from claims around bodily injury or property damage. For example, if during filming a bystander trips on a cable and falls, or you accidentally set fire to a location, this should cover you. A typical amount of coverage is $1,000,000.

• Automobile Liability: This coverage is often required if you rent vehicles in production. For example, you need this if you rent a grip truck or star wagon. Your personal car insurance will almost certainly not cover a claim if you are operating a vehicle for business.

• Worker’s Compensation: This covers accidents to your cast and crew (it’s important to understand that General Liability coverage does not protect you here). For this type of coverage, you typically have to hire your cast and crew as employees and go through a payroll company, so this one is quite a bit more complicated for small-time producers.

• Inland Marine: This is your equipment insurance. A policy can cover gear that you own, gear that you rent from others, or both. A deductible applies with this type of coverage.

Where do I buy production insurance?

There are many insurance brokers who cater to the film and video industry. You can purchase production insurance for long-term projects, feature films, or — more relevant to Tongal projects — for “DICE,” which stands for Documentaries, Industrial, Commercials, and Educational films.

The broker will then send your proof of insurance, sometimes called a “COI” or “Certificate of Insurance” or just a “cert.” Your broker can generate individual COIs listing your rental house or location owner as Certificate Holders, providing proof to those concerned parties that you are indeed covered. 

How much does it cost?

Shop around. You should get quotes from a few reputable brokers and go with whoever offers the best customer service at a competitive price. The biggest driver of cost is whether you purchase a Short Term policy or Annual policy. If you are only producing one or two projects per year, go with short term. If you anticipate three or more projects in a 1-year period, an annual policy is probably a better deal — and if you have an annual policy, you’re always covered, so this is one less thing you have to setup for each individual project.

The exact cost will depend on the budget of your projects, coverage amounts, deductibles, and other factors. For ballpark reference, you can get an annual DICE General Liability policy for around $2,000 per year, and an annual Inland Marine policy with $50k of owned equipment coverage for around $750 per year.

Gotchas.

As with any insurance, the underwriter will likely look for any possible way to get out of paying a claim. So you need to make sure you have all your production paperwork in good order — film permits when they are required, signed rental contracts for all your gear, etc. And make sure the name on your insurance policy matches the name of the person or entity that is actually producing the project.

Also lookout for the common “Theft From Unlocked Vehicle” exclusion. Make sure your Inland Marine policy covers theft of property from a vehicle regardless of whether the doors are locked or not (they may insist on physical signs of break-in). In the chaos of production, what if someone leaves the doors unlocked for 5 minutes and a case full of prime lenses goes missing? You want your expensive gear covered at all times.

Lastly, many policies don’t automatically cover fun things like stunts, filming over water, or with a drone. So read the fine print and ask questions.

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Note From Tongal: “Production Insurance Demystified" is part of a series of Tongal Community-written blog posts that were originally sourced in the Tongal Blog Open Call Project. Read more Tongal Community-written posts here and then Pitch us a topic you'd like to write about for the Tongal Blog!

The advice presented is provided by seasoned filmmakers. However, neither Tongal nor the filmmakers are offering advice as insurance professionals, so please contact your local insurance agent for any questions you may have before purchasing insurance.