Preparing to film a short - question about insurance

[Xendar]

Hi guys,

I'm currently in the process of finally getting around to casting for a short film I'm going to make in the coming months. What I'd like to know is what type of insurance is needed? Obviously I can insure my kit but I'm not that clued up on what type of insurance is required to cover actors and crew. I'm guessing that I need some type of public liability insurance. Plus, I'm not sure what insurance companies to approach.

I seem to remember Chance mentioning insurance on here in the past, if you're reading do you have any advice?

[jungleguy]

public liability insurance is always a good starting point. this will include cover for if you injure JO PUBLIC

[Nigel]

Here in the USA I always ask for an insurance cert before I walk out the door with any of my gear. I make sure that the company not only faxes me a copy but then sends a hard copy too. The basic set up is 100,000USD in rental coverage and 1,000,000 in liability. If they are only renting from me and not from a house then I will oonly demand 50,000 in rental coverage.

It can be a decent slice of pie when it comes down to it but well worth it to cover your ass. If you want to be really covered you would start a production company and run everything through it to distance yourself further.

Good Luck

[miker]

I think Chance uses Culpeck cos he tipped me off about them.

I think PLI came in at around ?300UKP for the year.

[Chance1234]

i do indeed use culpeck, and another recomendation is AON which are located at pinewood studios.

its all fun until someone looses and eye and you cant afford to pay for a new one.

[curtinparloe]

AON are good, when I had one of my car smashes they sorted it all out with no hassle [img]smile.gif[/img]

[richard.fisher]

According to the law, you MUST have BOTH public liability insurance AND employee liability insurance. There's little point contacting any large highstreet insurers as they will just pass you around the various departments, and you'll have to explain what you are doing to numerous people who don't appreciate/understand before being told that they probably can't help you. You are probably better off using a company that specialises in the entertainment industry. A couple of names have been mentioned before. I think the cheapest I found was a company in Essex called Visual Media Insurance Management (01708 524 416). I paid ?236.25 for one year of combined cover. The other thing to check is how much public liability cover you need. Most places will offfer you either ?2,000,000 or ?5,000,000. I took out the ?2,000,000 policy, as the ?5,000,000 policy was about ?100 more. But before I did I checked that the lower policy would satisfy the requirements of the locations we were filming in. Local councils will have specified a minimum of cover they will require of you (BFOs - borough film officers - will know this information), and it likely to be a minimum of ?2,000,000.

[richard.fisher]

Quick addition: periods of cover less than one year are often much more expensive. i.e if i remember correctly it is about ?100 a day, so if you plan on shooting on more than 2 days in the next 12 months, it's not worth it.

[untamed_aggression]

Interesting thread... I thought getting insurance would be much more expensive...

I've pretty much got permission to shoot at the old warehouse where I work (although I asked six months ago when I intended to shoot, so I should really ask again).

I've been informed that I need insurance, but I'm not sure what kind. I'm gonna ask again tomorrow.

It's not a public place, the only people on set are gonna be myself, possibly a DP and three actors. I'd say there's gonna be probably 3 lights at the most.

What say you?

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ October 13, 2006 11:22 PM: Message edited by: Untamed Aggression ]</font>

[miker]

I thought you were at Uni or whatever? Won't their insurance cover your production?