Two days, one location, and the same certificate a feature has to produce.Founded by an Emmy-nominated television editor.
Music videos and short-form commercials carry full permit and location requirements on a schedule and a budget built for neither. We place them anyway.
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 music video production 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 — An annual package beats per-project coverage the moment you shoot more than a couple a year.
General liability
Third-party bodily injury and property damage. It is the line nearly every contract names by default.
Without it — Permit offices, locations and studios all require it named before you can shoot.
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 — Hired camera, lighting and grip are your responsibility from collection to return.
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 are employees for the shoot days, and states do not make an exception for short schedules.
Props, sets & wardrobe
Physical loss of the things built or bought for the shoot: sets, props, costumes, and rented furs, jewelry, art and antiques, which sit on their own sub-limit because their values are nothing like the rest.
Without it — Wardrobe and set dressing are often borrowed or hired and are in your care while they are on set.
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 — The location is handed back at wrap, and damage is billed to the production.
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 — Labels and platforms require it before they will accept delivery of the finished piece.
Commercial auto
Vehicles the business owns and the people who drive them for work.
Without it — Unit moves and picture vehicles on a one or two day schedule are still commercial use.
“Kevin and his team at Boring are amazing! As a small business, having a partner like Boring we can rely on is crucial. We use them for business insurance and I couldn’t recommend them more!”
What the insurance company will ask about your music video production 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 music video production clients ask us.
We shoot a handful a year. Annual policy or per project?
Annual, in almost every case, and the break-even is lower than people expect, commonly around three or four shoots. Per-project coverage has to be arranged each time under deadline, costs more per day, and leaves you unable to say yes to a job that lands on Thursday for a Monday shoot. An annual package with a declared estimate turns the insurance from a blocker into an email.
The label sent insurance requirements. Why are they so large?
Because they are written for the label’s exposure rather than for your budget, and they are usually the same document handed to a feature. They are also rarely negotiable, since the person sending them has no authority to vary them. The practical route is an annual policy sized to meet the largest requirement you are likely to see, so it is already in place when the document arrives.
Do we need a permit and does the permit need insurance?
Almost certainly yes to both, on any public location. Every major jurisdiction requires a film permit for shooting on public property and every one of them conditions the permit on a certificate naming the authority. The limits differ sharply between them, and in Los Angeles they even differ between the City and the County for the same activity.
What does a music video production insurance application ask for?
The applications for music video production 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.