Nobody lets you shoot until they have seen the certificate.Founded by an Emmy-nominated television editor.
We insure feature films, independent and studio: the production package, the errors and omissions distribution requires, and the permit certificates that gate every location.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
We were editing television long before we were insuring it.
Kevin Kelsey
Founder | Principal Agent
IATSE Local 700 member
Boring’s founder, Kevin Kelsey, edited television for fifteen years before he sold a policy. He was Emmy-nominated for The Muppets Mayhem, cut Shark Tank, Big Brother, Dancing with the Stars and Wheel of Fortune, and handled compliance and risk for some of Hollywood’s largest production companies. So the person building your coverage has been on a crew list, dealt with the permit offices, and met network and streamer requirements from the production side, rather than working from a rate manual. He also builds post-production software. Manifest Post is the board episodic post teams use to track every episode, and B/side is a video editor for people who cut together. He holds a number of patents on that software. So he knows the post side of a production as a vendor to it. We insure productions from Los Angeles to Atlanta, New York and Toronto, with worldwide and foreign production coverage.
The work is placed with the markets that actually write film, television and live entertainment — Zurich through ISC Entertainment (formerly Abacus), Philadelphia Insurance Companies, Take1 and Alive Risk — rather than with a general small-business carrier asked to try.
Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.
Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.
What feature film businesses actually need.
Production package
A single renewable policy covering every production a company shoots in the year, rather than one policy per project. Productions carrying stunts, cast coverage or animals are scheduled onto it individually.
Without it — The core form: equipment, sets, props, extra expense and the perils that stop a shoot.
Cast insurance
Pays the cost of shutting down, recasting or reshooting when a scheduled principal cannot perform through injury, illness or death. It is rated per person and requires the cast member to be named and usually examined before coverage attaches.
Without it — A principal unable to work is the loss that halts a picture, and financiers require it named.
Negative film & faulty stock
Covers reshoot costs when the footage itself is lost or unusable: damaged media, a camera fault, or a processing error. The loss is not the equipment, it is the day of shooting that has to happen again.
Without it — Loss or damage to the footage itself, which has no replacement cost and cannot simply be reshot cheaply.
Media errors & omissions
Covers claims arising from the content itself: copyright, trademark, defamation and rights clearance. No distributor or streamer accepts delivery of a finished film without it.
Without it — No distributor accepts delivery without it, and it has to stay in force for years afterwards.
General liability
Third-party bodily injury and property damage. It is the line nearly every contract names by default.
Without it — Every permit, location agreement and studio lot requires it named before you arrive.
Workers compensation
Required in almost every state the moment you have employees. Priced on payroll and class code, which is why the class code is worth arguing about.
Without it — Cast and crew are employees for the schedule, and the unions verify it.
Third party property damage
Damage to property in your care while you are shooting on it, meaning the location itself and the fixtures in it. General liability excludes property in your care, custody and control, which is precisely what a location is.
Without it — Locations are handed back at wrap and damage found afterwards is the production’s bill.
Completion bond
A guarantee given to the financier that a picture will be delivered on schedule and on budget, with the guarantor entitled to take over the production if it will not be. It is not insurance: the beneficiary is the financier, not the producer.
Without it — Institutional finance and gap lending generally will not close without a guarantee of delivery.
What the insurance company will ask about your feature film business
We read 5 applications the markets use for this kind of business and pulled out what they actually ask. Have these answers ready and a quote takes a day instead of a week, because nobody has to come back to you for the missing piece.
About the business
- How would you describe what your production company does
- When did you start this business
- What type of business structure do you have (sole owner, partnership, corporation, or LLC)
- What is your owner's name and title
- How many productions do you make in a typical year
How you operate
- What is the highest budget for any single production
- Do you use written contracts with independent contractors and freelancers
- Do your contractors have to carry their own insurance, and if so, what are the minimum amounts
- What is your experience level in this business, in years
- Who are your five largest clients, and what did you pay them or charge them
Safety and controls
- Do you review all content for copyright, trademark, and legal clearance before airing or distribution
- Do you get written releases from people whose names or likenesses appear in your productions
- What do you do to make sure independent contractors produce quality work
- How do you handle and respond to complaints from clients
Your history
- Has your company changed names, merged with another company, or been acquired in the past five years
- Do you have any previous insurance claims from the past three years
- Who was your last insurance company and what was your policy number
Money and people
- What is the total production budget for all your current projects
- Do you encrypt your laptops, phones, backup drives, and other devices that hold company or client information
- Do you accept credit card payments, and if so, how many transactions per month
Have these ready
- Your previous insurance loss runs (claims history from the past three years from your current or former insurer)
- Your most recent audited annual financial statement
- Written contracts you use with independent contractors and freelancers
- Information about your five largest clients including contract amounts and length of agreements
You answer what you can; a licensed agent fills the rest with you.
What our feature film clients ask us.
When do we need the insurance in place?
Earlier than most first-time producers plan for. Location agreements, permit applications and studio bookings all require a certificate before they will confirm, so the policy has to exist during prep rather than by the first day of principal photography. Cast coverage in particular needs medicals arranged, and that is a lead time rather than a phone call.
How much of the budget should insurance be?
It varies with what you are shooting far more than with the number: stunts, aerial work, water, animals, period vehicles and international travel all move it, and a talky drama and an action picture at the same budget are not comparable. The more useful discipline is to price it from the actual script breakdown rather than as a percentage, because the percentage rule of thumb is what produces a shortfall on the shoot with the most exposure.
Do we need errors and omissions if we have no distributor yet?
You need it before delivery, and you should do the clearance work during post regardless. Underwriters want chain of title, releases, music licenses and a legal review, and assembling that under a distribution deadline is where productions lose weeks and leverage. Buying late is also more expensive than buying on time.
What does a feature film insurance application ask for?
The applications for feature film businesses ask about 4 things above all: how would you describe what your production company does; what is the highest budget for any single production; do you review all content for copyright, trademark, and legal clearance before airing or distribution; has your company changed names, merged with another company, or been acquired in the past five years. Have your previous insurance loss runs (claims history from the past three years from your current or former insurer) and your most recent audited annual financial statement ready and a quote takes a day instead of a week.
Commercial insurance is 96% of what we do — it is not a department here, it is the whole business. Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.
Handed a lease, a vendor packet or a client contract with insurance requirements? Paste it into the COI Requirements Decoder to see what each one means for your business, or read what the requirements mean.