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DICE/Annual Productions
Program Summary
Provides the full spectrum of insurance coverages for Annual Productions and DICE risks.
Eligible Productions
There are over 50 types of eligible productions including commercials, music videos, short films, feature films, and webisodes.
Coverages
Available coverages include:
- Inland Marine: Rented Equipment, Owned Equipment, Props, Sets and Wardrobe, Negative & Faulty Stock, Third Party Property Damage, Extra Expense, Office Contents, Cast, Worldwide & more
- General Liability: General liability (including increased limits), Stunt Buyback
- Automobile: Automobile Liability, Physical Damage
- Workers Compensation: Workers Compensation
- Excess Liability: Total policy limits available up to 10,000,000
Cast Extra Expense (Now Available)
Cast extra expense is now available for production programs. Coverage options include blanket coverage with sickness (no medicals required), blanket coverage without sickness, and family bereavement.
Cast limits available are 100%, 75%, 50% and 25% of Gross Production Cost.
Stunts, Animals, Precision Driving (Now Available)
Stunts, animals, and precision driving scenes are now available as a buyback option for the DICE/Annual Productions program.
Multiple scenes can be declared to a single production and quoted online.
Film Schools
Program Summary
The Film School program provides production insurance for student projects that are sanctioned by the school.
Description
The Film School program is designed specifically for film schools at universities. This annual policy provides a comprehensive basket of coverages for school sanctioned productions.
This program is flexibile enough to allow for small film schools with just a few students up to large film schools with hundreds of students. Over 50 types of production are eligible.
The program is available to U.S. film schools. Student projects are covered while the student is enrolled at the school and project is sanctioned by the school. Productions must take place in the U.S. and/or Canada.
Coverages
Available coverages include:
- Inland Marine: Rented Equipment, Owned Equipment, Props, Sets and Wardrobe, Negative & Faulty Stock, Third Party Property Damage, Extra Expense, Office Contents
- General Liability: General Liability (including increased limits)
- Automobile: Automobile Liability, Physical Damage
- Excess Liability: Total policy limits available up to 10,000,000
Eligibility Requirements
Cover the projects of students that are sanctioned by the school while the student is enrolled at the school. Production activities limited to the United States and Canada.
Note
Stunts are not available for film schools. If a student has a production with a stunt, separate coverages may be purchased outside of the film school policy covering that production.
Foreign Productions
Program Summary
Provides the full spectrum of insurance coverages at competitive premiums for foreign productions of any budget, up to 12 months in duration. Single Production and multiple production (annual policies) are available.
Available for U.S. based production companies shooting outside the US.
Eligible Productions
To be eligible for Foreign Production Package, the production must:
- Shoot outside the US.
- Not have stunts, pyrotechnics or underwater activities.
Coverages
Coverages available through the Foreign Production Package include:
- Rented Equipment
- Props, Sets and Wardrobe
- Negative & Faulty Stock
- General Liability
- Contingent Automobile Liability
- Automobile Physical Damage
- Workers Compensation
Movie Boat
Program Summary
A comprehensive marine property & liability insurance program that provides coverage for filming boats, barges, platforms, marinas, docks, wharves and piers.
Coverages
Coverages available through the Movie Boat program include:
- Hull & Machinery
- Protection & Indemnity (Including Jones Act)
- Charterer’s Legal Liability
- Towers Liability
- Wharfinger’s Liability
- Excess Liability
- Owned & Rented Equipment
- Negative/Faulty Stock
Production Portfolio
Program Summary
Provides the full spectrum of insurance coverages at competitive premiums for productions with budgets up to $15,000,000 and duration up to 18 months.
Eligible Productions
There are over 50 types of eligible productions including commercials, music videos, short films, feature films, and webisodes.
Coverages
Available coverages include:
- Inland Marine: Rented Equipment, Owned Equipment, Props, Sets and Wardrobe, Negative & Faulty Stock, Third Party Property Damage, Extra Expense, Office Contents, Cast
- General Liability: General liability (including increased limits), Stunt Buyback
- Automobile: Automobile Liability, Physical Damage
- Workers Compensation: Workers Compensation
- Excess Liability: Total policy limits available up to 10,000,000
Cast Extra Expense
Cast extra expense is now available for production programs. Coverage options include blanket coverage with sickness (no medicals required), blanket coverage without sickness, and family bereavement.
Cast limits available are 100%, 75%, 50% and 25% of Gross Production Cost.
Stunts, Animals, Precision Driving
Stunts, animals, and precision driving scenes are now available as a buyback option for the Production Portfolio program.
Multiple scenes can be declared to a single production and quoted online.
Short Term Productions
Program Summary
Provides the full spectrum of insurance coverages at competitive premiums for productions with budgets less than $1,000,000 and duration up to 60 days.
Eligible Productions
There are over 50 types of eligible productions including commercials, music videos, short films, feature films, and webisodes.
Eligibile productions:
- Have a budget of not more than $1,000,000
- Shoot only in the US or Canada.
- Do not include any Live Gangster Rap Music or involve any Adult Content.
Coverages
Available coverages include:
- Inland Marine: Rented Equipment, Owned Equipment, Props, Sets and Wardrobe, Negative & Faulty Stock, Third Party Property Damage, Extra Expense, Cast
- General Liability: General liability (including increased limits), Stunt Buyback
- Automobile: Automobile Liability, Physical Damage
- Workers Compensation: Workers Compensation
- Excess Liability: Total policy limits available up to 10,000,000
Cast Extra Expense
Cast extra expense is now available for production programs. Coverage options include blanket coverage with sickness (no medicals required), blanket coverage without sickness, and family bereavement.
Cast limits available are 100%, 75%, 50% and 25% of Gross Production Cost.
Stunts, Animals, Precision Driving
Stunts, animals, and precision driving scenes are now available as a buyback option for the Production Portfolio program.
Multiple scenes can be declared to a single production and quoted online.
Annual Production Insurance (DICE)
DICE stands for Documentaries, Industrial, Commercial, and Educational Films. DICE production packages insure multiple productions over the course of the year. While the term DICE may confuse you and lead you to believe that only Documentaries, Industrials, Commercials & Educational production are covered, that’s not the case. Our DICE program can cover ANY type of production including feature films & TV series.
Short Term Production Insurance
If your production is lasting less than 2 months chances are you qualify for a short term production insurance policy. These types of policies usually last no more than 60 days and are priced based upon the amount of days on the shoot, the budget, and the specific requirements that you may be entered into with your shooting location and/or Equipment Rental Houses. Unlike DICE Insurance policies Short Term Production Insurance is only applicable to a specific production. For instance if your production company is involved in producing Sitcoms for Television and you plan on producing 3 different TV Series over the course of 18 months, Short Term Production Insurance should not be purchased.
International Production Insurance
Are you going to be filming outside of the United States or Canada? If you are leaving the country its imperative that you obtain a foreign production insurance package. Your standard production insurance coverage that is purchased here in the United States excludes coverage for foreign operations. Call or text us today and we can insure your film shoot that is outside of the country. Oh, and almost forgot make sure you have the equipment coverage you need when you are far away because some insurance carriers may not cover that equipment. You can call us to get your equipment covered while you are far away, too!
Recording Studios Insurance, Pre-Production Studios Insurance, Post Production Insurance
Are you a company or an individual that works on post production for the TV or Motion Picture industry? Or maybe you own or rent a recording studio? Our agency has the full suite of coverage that will help your business focus on what’s important….your business. This program takes into consideration many facets of pre and post production including Recording Studio Insurance, Animation Insurance, Audio or Sound Engineer Insurance, plus countless more sub categories are possible.
General Liability Insurance
Commercial General Liability for production companies protects you against third party bodily injury & property damage claims that are brought against you during a film shoot. General Liability Insurance is very important and is often required by your filming location and other vendors. The cost of this insurance is rated based on your annual gross production cost (GPC) of your production company. General Liability Insurance only applies to those who are not part of the event or production i.e. third parties. A cool feature of General Liability that not many people know is the coverage pays for your defense costs when suit is brought against you.
Rented Equipment Insurance
Our agency can provide rented equipment coverage for various type of equipment that you rent either on a short term or long term basis. This protects you against all risk of direct physical loss, damage or destruction to camera, camera equipment, sound, lighting and grip equipment; owned by or rented to you and subject to policy exclusions. Coverage can be extended to cover mobile equipment vans, studio location units or similar units. Please be aware that there is no coverage for equipment or property due to mysterious disappearance and shortage of inventory.
Third Party Property Damage Insurance
This coverage can sometimes be abbreviated as TPPD. Third Party Property Damage Coverage for Events and Productions is insurance that covers others peoples’ property while it is in the care, custody, and control of the Production Company or Event. TPPD really applies to structures in relations to your production like studios, homes, outdoor property etc…Third Party Property Damage for Productions or Events can be purchased with limits up to 10,000,000.
Props Insurance, Sets Insurance, and Wardrobe Insurance
What kind of property will your production be using during the course of the shoot? We are not referring to covering buildings or equipment during this section but what about the clothes that are worn by the actors? This coverage provides coverage for props, sets, scenery, costumes, wardrobe and similar property against risk of direct physical loss, damage or destruction occurring during the production. This type of coverage: Props, Sets, and Wardrobe Insurance can be applied to most DICE Productions, Short Term Productions, and most often to Theatrical Performances.
Negative Film Insurance, Videotape Insurance, Faulty Stock Insurance, and Digital Image Insurance
This coverage is available in any of our production insurance programs. Please take a moment to think about how a loss to your footage would impact your production and the continuity of your production business. The types of media that could be insured under this entertainment coverage provision could be (but certainly not limited to : Raw Film Stock, Video Tape, Actual Film Stock whether or not the film has been developed, Video and Audio Tapes in various formats, Sound Tracks, Tapes and digital images. These items can sustain damage caused by or resulting from fogging or the use of faulty materials (including cameras and videotape recorders); faulty audio equipment; faulty development of the film or stock; faulty editing or faulty processing for many different reasons (please refer to policy); and god forbid the accidental deletion of filmed material. Although this coverage is usually comprehensive it is critical that you know exactly what the exclusions are. We can also include camera operator error into this coverage type.
Hired and Non Owned Auto Liability Insurance:
Does your company use your personally owned vehicle for your production company? Do you rent grip trucks or use other peoples’ vehicles during your film production? Rental Vehicles that you rent under your business name will require hired and non-owned auto insurance liability. If you have employees’ that are using their own personal vehicles for the production then you would need to carry this hired and non-owned auto insurance liability for producers. Hired & Non Owned Auto Liability protects the assets of the business when operating vehicles not specifically owned by the business. This HNOA coverage can typically be packaged along with the production policy that includes General Liability Insurance.
Hired Car Physical Damage Coverage
If you are renting a vehicle, borrowing a vehicle, or using your personally owned vehicle for your production or event what happens if you wreck the vehicle? We know that hired and non-owned auto insurance only applies to the liability that you pose to others, so how does your hired/borrowed vehicle’s damage get fixed? The only way to get the damage fixed on a hired or borrowed vehicle is by purchasing the Hired Car Physical Damage Coverage.
Cast Extra Expense Insurance
Cast Insurance or Cast extra expense coverage is an option for most all production programs. These options include blanket coverage with sickness (no medicals required), blanket coverage without sickness, and family bereavement. To put it simply if you have a cast member that becomes ill and cannot make it to the shoot that day, this coverage will activate and pay the production company for expenses surrounding the cast member not being able to perform their duties.
Stunt Insurance Including Pyrotechnic Insurance and Driving Scene Insurance
Stunt insurance can be applied for both Annual Productions and Short Term Productions. Our agency has recently expanded its spectrum of eligible productions that involve stunts. We can provide insurance for pyrotechnics during an event or production, demolitions during film shoots or contracting work, explosions for stunt sequence, and not to mention car races/scenes along with motorcycle chases have all been added to our portfolio of eligible stunts. As always we have been able to also provide insurance for fight scenes, falls, the use of blanks, and aerial scenes. (See drone insurance, too).
Workers Compensation/Employers Liability Insurance
You are required by law to carry workers compensation insurance for your production company if you have employees. There are two coverage parts to this type of insurance:
- Workers Compensation- this coverage will pay for any medical bills resulting from accident, sickness or even death. Depending on the carrier this coverage can also pay lost wages direct to the employee.
- Employers Liability- this coverage protects the employer from their liabilities involved with their employees. For example, if an employee is injured and brings suit against their employer due to “unsafe work place” this liability protects the employer in court and paying for defense costs and damages.
One of the biggest issues we find as an agency is when production companies hire subcontractors. According to state labor laws, anytime there is an exchange of money for services that person is eligible to receive Workers Compensation benefits, even if you’re a subcontractor. A best practice is to have your subcontractors invoice your production company for their work done while also providing your production company with a certificate of insurance naming you as additional insured.
Excess Liability Insurance/Umbrella Liability Coverage
Excess & Umbrella liability policies are very important to any business. Umbrella policies are issued to provide limits in excess of an underlying liability policy i.e. General Liability, Auto Liability and Employers Liability. An excess liability policy is no broader than the underlying liability policy; its sole purpose is to provide additional limits of insurance. This type of coverage is usually required by equipment rental houses, studios and venues.
Errors and Omissions Insurance for Production Companies
What happens when your production company accidentally captures a major household brand in a filming scene? Did you have contracts signed to allow your production to use that name brand? Errors & Omissions (E&O) protects filmmakers from lawsuits pertaining to theft of idea, copyright infringement, libel, slander, invasion of privacy, defamation, product disparagement, trade libel, infliction of emotional distress, right of publicity, outrage and outrageous conduct, false light, wrongful entry, false arrest or malicious prosecution. Basically, issues may arise from the content of the film or frivolous allegations. As an added bonus, this coverage will cover the attorney fees and legal costs in order for you to be vindicated.
Employment Practices Liability Insurance
This type of liability insurance is utilized and activated during the employment process as well as the hiring/firing process. EPLI Coverage can also apply to circumstances when other employees discriminate against fellow employees. Usually the types of Employment Practices Claims seen are workplace conduct claims, discrimination claims, wrongful hiring and firing claims, failing to promote, and the inappropriate and unwanted sexual advances of a manager or employee, just to name a few. Although you can purchase this coverage as stand-alone we usually see EPLI covered under Directors and Officers Insurance and even under Business Owners Insurance Plans.
Guild Travel Accident Insurance
SAG AFTRA and other union guilds require that your provide Travel Accident insurance if you are utilizing their personnel. The guild policy provides coverage for travel to and from the production site. For Guild members, it also covers hazardous activities that are performed in association with the production and that are part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Some hazardous activities include: pyrotechnics and exposure to explosions, high jumps and falls, acrobatics and in some cases events that involve high trapeze acts.
