As a film producer, having the right insurance policy to cover your productions can make a tremendous impact on your ability to keep your producers, film crew, production gear, and filming locations protected from liability claims. The two main types of production insurance include short-term production insurance and annual production insurance. As no two film projects are exactly alike, it is important to consider what unique risks you face, how long it will take to complete filming, and the number of films you produce each year.
What Is Short-Term Production Insurance?
Short-term production insurance enables film producers the ability to acquire insurance coverage, even on a tight budget. This type of insurance can cover all types of film, video, and digital production work. It may include a variety of policies designed to protect against all types of risks. Generally, short-term insurance will include commercial general liability to satisfy location requirements and hired and non-owned auto insurance for physical damage to rented vehicles. Your short-term production insurance may also include workers’ compensation, which is necessary to protect your cast and crew against illness or injury during the filming process.
What Does Short-Term Production Insurance Cover?
With short-term production insurance, your project is covered from certain liabilities up to a specified amount. The main difference between short-term production insurance and annual policies is that short-term insurance covers your products on a project-by-project basis. In comparison, an annual production insurance policy provides coverage for a one-year period. There are dozens of eligible productions protected under short-term production insurance, such as commercials, training videos, reality series, infomercials, short films, music videos, webisodes, and feature films. To be eligible for short-term production insurance, your project will usually need to have a budget of less than $1,000,000 and have a time span of 60 days or less.
What Is Annual Production Insurance?
If you have multiple production projects planned over the course of the next 12 months, an annual production insurance policy may be the right choice for you. This type of policy is known as DICE, which stands for documentary, industrial, commercial, and educational films. Annual production insurance will generally include a wide range of policies, such as commercial general liability, vehicle physical damage, third-party property damage, and coverage for sets, props, wardrobes, and various other items that would need to be covered during the filming process. Annual production insurance is most commonly used by active production companies that shoot numerous times during a single year.
What Does Annual Production Insurance Cover?
There are a number of circumstances in which an annual production insurance policy may be best suited for you. If you own an established production company, obtaining an annual policy is a must. You may also want annual production insurance if you own equipment that you rent out to productions, if you undergo four or more productions a year, or if you are producing an independent film. Annual production insurance can be used for a wide range of production types, such as music videos, commercials, short films, corporate videos, documentaries, and educational films, among various other projects.
When to Choose Short-Term Production Insurance
Maybe you are working on a television commercial that spans just 30 seconds, but you want to have proper coverage for your staff. This is the only project you will be working on this year and you need insurance that is inexpensive and temporary. In this type of situation, short-term production insurance may be a good fit for you. In fact, this type of insurance is suitable for any film producer who does not yet want to make the commitment to an annual policy or a film producer who is new in the business and is unsure of the timeline of his or her future projects.
When to Choose Annual Production Insurance
Annual production insurance is best suited for film producers who are working on several projects at a time or who plan to work on multiple projects during the year. An annual production policy is also a wise choice for film producers who own their own movie production companies and want the reassurance that their staff is protected from all types of events. Say you are making a documentary that requires extensive research and interviews. This type of project will likely take you more than 60 days to complete, which is the average cut-off for short-term production insurance. In this case, an annual production insurance policy is the best option.
Where to Acquire a Production Insurance Policy
Making the decision between short-term production insurance and annual production insurance is not always cut and dry. It is important to consider your unique projects to evaluate which is best for you. For more information about short term or annual production insurance or to acquire a policy to protect your production, contact the production insurance brokers at MFE Insurance.