Issue your own certificates, and schedule the stunts everyone else excludes.

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 cover or animals are scheduled onto it individually.

Without it — One renewable policy across every production in the year, instead of starting from nothing on each project.

General liability

Third-party bodily injury and property damage — the line nearly every contract names by default.

Without it — No location permit, no studio access, no rental house will release gear without it.

Inland marine & equipment

Tools, equipment and property in transit. It picks up exactly where commercial property stops, which is the moment the item leaves the building.

Without it — Rented camera, lighting and grip packages are your responsibility from the moment you sign for them.

Third party property damage

Damage to property in your care while you are shooting on it — 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 — General liability excludes property in your care, which is exactly what a location is once you are shooting in it.

Props, sets & wardrobe

Physical loss of the things built or bought for the shoot — sets, props, costumes, and rented furs, jewellery, art and antiques, which sit on their own sub-limit because their values are nothing like the rest.

Without it — Sets, costumes and rented jewellery are built or hired at real cost and are not equipment.

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 — A card fault or a processing error does not cost you a drive, it costs you the shoot day again.

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 cover attaches.

Without it — A principal who cannot perform stops the production, and the schedule keeps costing money.

Stunts & pyrotechnics

Cover for productions running stunt work, vehicle action or pyrotechnics. The standard production policy carries a printed stunt and pyrotechnic exclusion, so this is not a limit that quietly sits there — the production has to be scheduled and underwritten before the exclusion comes off.

Without it — The standard production form excludes stunts and pyrotechnics by name — this is the one that has to be underwritten rather than assumed.

Animal mortality & injury

Death, illness or injury to animals working on a production, and the extra expense of shooting around one that cannot perform. Excluded by name on a standard production form alongside stunts and pyrotechnics, and scheduled the same way.

Without it — Animals are excluded on the same endorsement as stunts, and a horse that cannot work costs you the day as well as the animal.

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 — Crew injuries on set are frequent enough that no legitimate production runs without it.

Commercial auto

Vehicles the business owns and the people who drive them for work.

Without it — Production vehicles, cube trucks and picture cars are all business use.

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 or streamer takes delivery of a finished film without it.

Umbrella & excess liability

Extra limit stacked above general liability, auto and employers liability. Usually the cheapest million dollars on the policy.

Without it — Studios and networks routinely require limits well above a primary policy before they will contract.

Can I issue my own certificates?

Yes, and this is the part that changes how a production runs. You get a login and issue your own certificates — for the rental house, the location, the municipality, FilmLA, the City of Los Angeles — at the moment you need them, including the city and special-form certificates that have their own required wording and that a generic certificate will not satisfy. No email to the broker, no waiting for a callback at six on a Friday when the truck is loading Saturday morning.

Can you cover stunts, pyrotechnics and animals?

Yes, and it is worth asking every broker you speak to, because the standard production policy excludes all three by name — the exclusion is a printed endorsement on the form. Those exposures are covered by scheduling the production that carries them, with the stunt, the cast and the animals declared in advance. So the answer is not that our policy quietly includes them; it is that we underwrite them deliberately. Tell us before the shoot rather than after.

Can I get a certificate for a single shoot?

Yes. Short-term production policies are standard and can be written for a single day, a single project or a season. What we need is the shoot dates, the locations, the crew size and the value of the rented equipment. If you shoot regularly, an annual production package is usually cheaper than the third short-term policy and lets you schedule new productions as they come up.

Do you only insure productions?

No. The same market writes the businesses around production: rental houses, rigging and grip installation, and live music and festivals. They are related risks with genuinely different shapes — a rental house is insuring equipment out on hire rather than equipment on set, and a festival is a crowd and a build rather than a crew — but they are placed in the same corner of the market and by the same people.

What is E&O and when do I need it?

Errors and omissions covers claims arising from the content itself: copyright, trademark, defamation, rights clearance. Every distributor and every streamer requires it before they will accept delivery, and it is normally the last thing a producer discovers they need. It is worth pricing while you are still in post rather than after a deal is signed.

Does my policy cover rented equipment?

Only if it is scheduled properly. Rental houses require a certificate showing the equipment value with them named as loss payee, and the limit has to actually cover the package — a policy written for a $50,000 kit will not release a $250,000 one. Tell us the rental order and we will match the limit to it.