Does anyone know where to get Insurance?

[Adam Deierling]

In the new year I am looking to shoot a short film. I heard that I should probably get insurance (Gear/liability). I did a little research online and found a company called Film Emporium. Has anyone used them? Their website is http://www.filmemporium.com.

Thanks!

Edited December 23, 2014 by Adam Deierling

[Guest]

If you're renting gear from a rental house and also need property damage insurance, you're best to use one of the major film insurers. CHUBB is one such company, and they have short shoot and low budget packages. You typically don't deal with the insurers directly, you normally use a broker who shops your project around to get the best price.

 

R,

[Phil Rhodes]

Depends where you are (which the OP doesn't mention). I've found the "major film insurers" to be impossibly expensive. Aon in the UK wanted £5000 to insure a couple of days' short film shoot. A smaller organisation which specialised in short filmmaking provided insurance for £250. Of course you can always nitpick the level of cover, but really what was happening was that Aon are used to insuring multimillion-value productions with six-figure premiums, and £5k was simply a small number someone made up more or less at random becuase they weren't used to dealing with £10k shoots.

 

Making it possible for ultra-low-budget, short filmmakers to insure their productions is something that should be vigorously applauded.

 

P

[Bill DiPietra]

If you're renting gear from a rental house and also need property damage insurance, you're best to use one of the major film insurers. CHUBB is one such company, and they have short shoot and low budget packages. You typically don't deal with the insurers directly, you normally use a broker who shops your project around to get the best price.

 

R,

 

Wouldn't big film insurers be more geared towards big budgets?

 

I recently finished a short and the big bonus was that I didn't have rent since I used all my own equipment. So all I bought was the accidental injury package. But yes, you should have insurance.

 

Take a look at Athos ( I dealt with them and they answered every one of my questions (and I had a LOT, since I'd never bought production insurance before.) It wound up being very reasonable.