What Do Videographers Do for Insurance?

[JonathanLB]

I'm just wondering because I was thinking if I had to go in that direction, I mean rather than a more full-scale production company, if I were to be more of a one-man company type of thing, I couldn't possibly afford almost $8,000 a year in full production insurance.

Videographers can't really afford that either can they? I mean say someone who films events, concerts, weddings, whatever. Could you possibly get away with just an owned-equipment insurance policy? Like you pay $500 to $1,500 a year to insure the equipment you own, but not all of the bells and whistles that go with production insurance? Of course without a general liability policy and all of that, you won't be able to rent locations and rent additional equipment, most likely, but let's say you don't care about that, you have your lighting kits, you have your cameras, you're just doing lower end work anyway, would you really need a full production insurance policy like that? Just curious.

The only part of that I wonder about is what happens if you hire someone to help you out, a sound guy, a grip, etc., and you don't have a workers comp policy for the company. Perhaps if you're hiring them as independent contractors you just assume they need their own policies, etc. Or you only work with people who do have those, etc. I don't know. Just curious what videographers or single owner-operators do?

 

[pmark23]

In my part of the woods there's no such thing as equipment or even liability insurance. I just do without and be careful. In more than 10 years have never had anything broken or anyone killed/maimed (yet!)

 

[mainstreetcm]

Most of the small time guys are shooting on $1000 and lower cameras and are using lighting and sound equipment that probably totals another $1500 combined. Do five weddings, concerts, whatever at $500 a pop and you have already covered your equipment costs plus some.

On top of that I purchased the extended warranty plus damage coverage from the retailer when I bought my camera. I'm covered for water damage, impact damage, defective equipment, but not theft. It cost me an extra $250 and its good for five years.

Lastly, when I need help they bring their own equipment and do their own thing. I work with people who have similar shooting styles as me so I don't need to tell them what I want or need. In addition if we are filming in a church for a wedding and my guy slips on a wet floor isn't that the locations fault and not mine?

 

[JonathanLB]

haha

haha

That's funny about equipment, well uhh I never thought of it that way. If I went the one-man band kind of way, I'd still probably be taking $15,000 of equipment to a shoot, at least $10,000, with camera, P2 cards let's say, tripod, a basic lighting kit runs a few grand, a laptop runs a few grand, etc. But sure that makes sense if your equipment isn't all that valuable, I guess what is the point.

Though regardless of what neck of the woods you are in, within the United States at least, you can absolutely get coverage for whatever you want. I work with Wells Fargo Insurance Services and I'm covered absolutely anywhere I shoot within the U.S., and I'm covered for up to 30 days at a time shooting in foreign countries as well. So even though they are based in Sherman Oaks, you can certainly call 'em up and get coverage wherever you happen to live, which is great.

As for the slipping the floor issue, well I'm pretty sure you are correct, I mean I'm not a lawyer though so I don't know if they could also say that they were under your direction for the day or if you were paying them, whether that would also make you liable for them, but you'd think if you had a good relationship with the person, even if they were sue-happy, that they'd be more likely to sue the location for simple practical reasons -- they slipped at the location, and the location likely has a lot more money to pay them off than you do! haha.

So basically what it sounds like is if you're operating at a lower level, not really doing full scale productions, then you basically can get away with or chance not having full insurance coverage a lot easier. I think you kind of have no choice though too, because if you were making $300 per gig or even $1,000 for a gig plus editing let's say, you can't really afford $8,000 insurance per year, because that's almost $700 per month, which could be a week's work of work.

If I ever went that direction I'd probably just have equipment insurance in case of theft or damage, basically. That'd probably be worth it, especially if I picked up a few Scarlet cameras and all. I wouldn't want to be uninsured for all of that.

I'm just renewing my current insurance for another year, it hurts, lol.