Ep. 49 What sort of insurance does your documentary production need?

Welcome back fellow filmmakers, and hello to any new aspiring creators who are just starting on this exciting journey. 

Making movies is really fun and rewarding, but to make sure you have a safe space to work in there is one very important topic we have to discuss… Insurance!

Don’t click away!!

Trust me, I get it. The word sends a shiver down our spines and makes the hairs on the back of our neck stand up. But, it is a vital part of the filmmaking. 

It can very tempting to cut corners when it comes to insurance, especially when the likelihood of something going wrong seems slim. But, as the old saying goes: Better to have it and not need it, then need it and not have it.

 

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome back, my fellow filmmakers, and hello to any new aspiring creators who are just getting started on this exciting filmmaking journey. We are deep into pre-production and we are slowly but surely making our way to the big premiere screening of your film. Now, if you haven't been following along with this, the pre-production part of the series, be sure to go back a few episodes and explore the other topics once you've listened here. The um informations episode by episode, so it doesn't really matter where you dip in. But so far the series on the Moonshine Moonshot has covered ideation, creative idea making, development. And now, as I said, we're deep into pre-production. Look, making movies is really fun and extremely rewarding. But nobody I know has ever said, I want to be a filmmaker because I love dealing with insurance. And nobody I know starts chats about the best insurance deal they got for their film and how great it was to talk E and O the other day. But as dry as it is, today I am talking all about insurance. Please, you do want to stick around. And I said do want, not don't want, you do want to stick around and hear what I've got to say because it will save you money and potentially a career-ending lawsuit. So don't switch off in just 10 minutes. I'm gonna take your interest in insurance from meh to oh yeah, I've got that sorted. And that's what I want. So stick around now. For those of you who are not familiar with this podcast, I'm Sue Collins and I'm part of the team behind Moonshine Agency. We're an impact film production house producing films that have positive social impact. Impact films are films that are designed to take an audience from passive viewing to being an active participant. In other words, it gets them doing something, getting involved, and being part of the solution. Now I have recognised that learning how to craft films is a very challenging process. And when I was just starting out, it was incredibly hard to find information and learn about filmmaking without formal study or without being under the wing of a really good mentor. So avoiding the pitfalls, being pigeonholed, running out of funding, or simply not understanding the business side of the industry has meant that over the years I've seen many people and people with a lot of talent simply give up or move on to more stable work. So my hope is to see the industry thrive here in Australia and beyond. And I recognise that to do that, I need to be more open with my skills sharing. So that's why I've decided to share more of what I've learned through many years of filmmaking through this podcast, The Moonshine Moonshot, and with online courses at the Moonshine Communications Academy. So make sure you check out the Academy, particularly the resources section, where you can access free downloads like check sheets and ebooks. And if you haven't come across them already, there are some great online courses available through the Academy, such as Define Your Ideal Audience, which helps you figure out who your project is best suited to well before you even roll a camera, and that is gold for any film marketer. So, with no further ado, let's talk about today's topic of insurance, which is a vital part of producing a film. I'm gonna kick off with a bit of a cautionary tale, because it can be very tempting to cut corners when it comes to insurance, especially when the likelihood of something going wrong seems incredibly slim. But as the old saying goes, better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. And when I was at uni, which we're talking quite a while ago, I think it's 20 years if I'm being truthful, I worked on a fellow student's short film. Being that I was from a theatre department, it was a great experience and I learned so much about producing films just from that one small placement alone. Now, on this film, one of the tasks I had was to find a production runner, a volunteer no less, because let's face it, it was a student film and there was no budget. But for whatever reason, it was proving a very hard task because no amount of tempting free donuts and coffee could entice anybody to help with the role. Not surprising, really, because one of the key tasks for the runner was to take the rushes to the lab at the end of each shoot, and it was a one-hour drive in heavy traffic, so a two-hour return trip. Now I finally found a willing person, only they didn't have a car, which was not ideal. So the director, and the director was the person whose film it was, offered to loan her car to the runner for the week of the shoot and get us out of the jam. I said, Great, does your car insurance cover someone other than you driving the car? Because let's face it, when you only have third-party car insurance, often it doesn't cover for somebody else to drive your vehicle, it covers you alone. But the director said, Yeah, yeah, no problem. And I went, well, great, Bob's your uncle. Except that one evening in heavy traffic, the runner rear-ended the car in front of them. Yeah, no one was hurt, thank goodness, but there was damage to both vehicles. Long story short, it wasn't just a question of how much the excess fee was, because it turned out that not only did the director not have insurance to cover the runner driving her car, she didn't have insurance at all. Yeah, you can see me doing my palm slap to the head. It was a costly and bitter end for all those involved, which was so disappointing because it could have been easily avoided. So, in my opinion, the place to begin these discussions is early into pre-production, as early as possible, because not only does this give you time to work out what you need and who your insurance needs to cover, but it will also allow you to find the most cost-effective cover possible. For example, there was this little known about pandemic that hit in 2020 that greatly affected our productions at Moonshine Agency. Now, understandably, all of our flights and all of our plans were cancelled. But we had insurance that had been organized and we pay an annual insurance, travel insurance. And before anything, you know, really unfoiled, we were able to get all of that uh reimbursed through travel insurance because we were lucky enough to have pandemic covered in our travel insurance. So this is why today we are going to talk about the different insurances involved in making a film. The absolute must-haves, the kind of case dependent, and the why didn't we make sure we had insurance for that? Must, must, must. Alright, now you can also catch up on the companion video over at YouTube if you prefer to watch this where Mike and I chew the fat around this topic. But I'm glad to have you here on the podcast. So stick with me if you've got time to listen. Now, an absolute must when shooting on location is public liability insurance. If you're already working on a tight budget, the last thing you want is to be paying the bills for someone who tripped on your extension lead and their injury means that they can't go to work and earn their living anymore. Yeah, you'd be liable not just for their medical bills, but for lost income and potentially much more. Yeah, yikes. And that is essentially what public liability insurance covers you for. So being in the public means lots of things happen that are completely out of your control. And although you may do absolutely everything correctly and you might be a health and safety Nazi, but things can still just go wrong. And always remember, regardless of your insurance, if you're not working safely and legally, your insurance still may not cover you. So the point before about doing everything by the book when it comes to health and safety, that's just another no-brainer. Just do it. But public liability insurance is something that you are always asked for if you're going to go for any kind of location permits or if you're working out in the world. So most public liability insurance cover needs to be for around 20 million, which sounds extreme, but when things go wrong, they can be insanely expensive. So highly recommend public liability insurance. And if this all seems a bit overwhelming, don't worry, you can actually employ someone to know all of this information for you. And that person is called an insurance broker. Now we have an insurance broker and they are worth everything we get from them because an insurance broker is kind of like a travel agent of insurance, meaning they work out what you need, compare the prices, organize, and eventually they'll take a commission, which is so worth it because when something goes wrong, they can actually handle the application and just that paperwork alone can be really, really time consuming. And they can also look through all the you know red tape that's you know, well, I'm saying red tape, but what it really is is that there's a lot of legal jargon in the policies, and it really helps to have someone else who understands what it all means. So when you're taking out the insurance, you actually can understand what you are insured for and what the cover does not cover you for. So as the saying goes, hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Now, if you're making a film, the chances are you're also handling a lot of different equipment. Now, losing equipment or having it get damaged isn't just expensive, but it can also be incredibly time consuming. And it can also really unravel overseas shoots. So having insurance there to cover an incident means that you can get back into production without too many consequences. You know, say you know one of your cameras in a very unfortunate situation, it gets stolen, you can go and rent a camera knowing that insurance is going to cover you. So that is why equipment insurance is really important. Also, just even if you're not shooting overseas, you're just shooting at home or in your workplace. You know, some insurance covers um breakage and damage. So it is well worth looking into equipment insurance. Now, speaking of consequences, another insurance you might come across is called E and O, and it means errors and omissions. Whether you need this particular insurance or not can be dependent on the content of your documentary, especially if your documentary is diving into some pretty controversial topics or you've got high-profile names or companies, because essentially it covers you if your film accidentally quotes inaccurate information, defames somebody, or it includes factual errors. So it is absolutely best to speak to your lawyer as to whether you need EO insurance for your film. It might be a requirement of your investors as well, or it simply could be completely irrelevant depending on the topic of your film. So I absolutely think you should check that one with your lawyer. But generally, I'm, you know, on the side of you probably don't need it unless your film is, yeah, as I said, really got high-profile people, or I don't I don't know how easy it'd even be to make an EO insurance claim, but it's definitely an option and it's something you should explore. So talk to your production lawyer about that one. And regardless of whether or not you take out EO insurance, my advice is to do your absolute best to fact-check your film's content and avoid defaming people or providing inaccurate information within your film. Just because your interviewee said it, whether they're an expert or not, it does not mean you can publish it without making sure the information is correct. You are still the one publishing that information. So you need to be able to back your sources and believe in what they're saying, and then that's where EO insurance could be on your side. So bake that one into your budget if you think you need it. Now talking insurance when working on a creative project can be a complete downer. But if you don't consider it and something does go pear-shaped, it could mean the end of your production. So not only do I recommend taking out all these insurances, or as I said, checking with your lawyer to see which ones you need, but it really investing the money into making sure you have the best possible cover, leaving room for a potential disaster just is not worth it. Make sure your insurance covers the things that you need to be insured for. Not just half the things you need to be insured for, but everything you need to be insured for. And that is also where your broker can really help you with this. So, one last thing, when you're just starting out in filmmaking, it is very common for your cast or crew to be volunteers. Remember way back when I was talking student film, everyone was a volunteer. So, depending on your location, you know, where you are in the world, it sort of changes the types of insurance you need and who will be covered. So it's really important that you speak with your insurance broker or your lawyer about exactly what you need in your location when it comes to volunteers to make sure that they're covered as well in case things go wrong. So what's next? Oh my god, yeah, my eyes are glazing over as I think through all of this because reading insurance policies is the last thing you think of when you want to make a film. If this was a bit grueling for you, then please don't worry because next week we're moving on to location scouting, which is so much more fun, and there's a lot more to it than just looking at scenery. So it's exciting to be able to see exactly where your film will take place. And I'm gonna talk you through some of the key things you need to look out for when you're planning your shoots. So if you're looking for more information, please check out the resource page on Moonshine Communications Academy. And I would be so happy if you could subscribe to this podcast because it helps me to understand whether you're enjoying the content, and uh then I can make more content that you're gonna enjoy. So don't hesitate to message me on any of the social platforms as well, and you can find everything you need in regards to contacting me over at moonshinecommunicationsacademy.com. So I'll be back next week talking all about location scouting. Happy filmmaking!