Most easily forgotten parts of film production that most amateur filmmakers tend to forego and not care about is film insurance. But just so you know, if you want to be considered and treated as professional, then you must have some kind of film insurance. Now, film insurance for short films can be hard to find compared to features, but they also tend to be cheaper. How they work is basically by protecting you from being sued or owing someone a bunch of dollars if they are injured on set or have their properties damaged whilst working on your set. For example, let's say Bob works on Jamil set as a dp, but he's pissed off because one of Jimmy's production assistants accidentally dropped his 20 K camera lens, let's say now he turns to sue Jamil for the full amount and the replacement of which if you don't have insurance, you would have to pay that full amount Now, if you have film insurance, not only are you shielded from the upfront costs, but you only pay less than what is expected while your insurer pays the full amount.

In general, there are different types of insurance including liability insurance, equipment, insurance, location insurance, basically, anything that could potentially become a lawsuit can be insured. Well, almost anything. So here is some insurance document samples I have for my short film. This one here is for general liability, insuring for damages up to a million dollars. In general, you basically sign an application form, filling out the details of your production, submitted to insurance broker, pay a premium, and then you should be getting your certificate of insurance. You don't have to get too crazy with this.

Just basic general liability. We do Now, some locations might require additional insurance but usually for short film, all you need to do is to show your certificate of insurance to the location manager or building owner and you should be good to start negotiating. Alright, so for your next steps, you put all these papers documentations and permits to the actual production of your story and last, the pain of documentation is over for now