FROM THE GUIDE · SHOOTING IN THE U.S.

Film insurance in the US: the certificate every location will ask a European producer for

The certificate is requested 48 hours out. The policy has to exist long before.

If you are producing from Europe and the script takes you to the United States, insurance rarely comes up in the first budget conversation. It comes up later, as a request from a location. And when it arrives, it arrives with a short deadline.

This article answers one question: what insurance will a U.S. location ask a European production for, and when should it be ready? It comes from chapter 13 of our guide to shooting in the U.S.

What a location actually asks for

Serious locations typically request a COI, a certificate of insurance, and, where required, endorsements evidencing additional insured status. In other words, the location wants to see the insurance on paper, in the form it asks for, before the crew walks in.

This is not a formality at the end of the process. In the guide, the space’s insurance requirements sit inside location management, next to owner approval, power, parking, neighbor impact and permit jurisdiction. Scouting finds the image; management makes it shootable. Insurance is part of what makes it shootable.

The usual package

The guide describes the usual package in four parts:

1. Production general liability.
2. Workers coverage, as the jurisdiction and the employment relationship require.
3. Camera and lighting equipment.
4. The script’s special coverages: vehicles, drones, water, minors, effects, work at height.

The last item is where the script and the policy meet. One of the questions in the guide’s decision tree for producers is exactly this: closures, stunts, drones, minors, picture vehicles, water? If the answer is yes, the consequence is insurance and special permits. A scene that reads as a creative choice in Europe reads as a coverage question in the U.S.

The guide also puts certificates of insurance and vehicle insurance below the waterline of the cost iceberg: the part of an American budget that Europe usually doesn’t see when it budgets crew, camera, lighting, locations and transport.

Why it shows up 48 hours out

The European producer discovers this world when the property manager asks for the certificate 48 hours out. By then the location is chosen, the schedule is built, and the paper doesn’t exist yet.

The guide’s translation exercise shows why. “We want to shoot here” sounds like a creative sentence. In American production it means: owner, permit jurisdiction, certificate of insurance, parking, holding, neighbors. None of these answers is a no. All of them are a price and a calendar.

Two of the red flags in the guide point at the same gap: no American insurance broker on the project, and nobody knows who issues the certificates. If either one describes your shoot, the 48-hour request is on its way.

When to sort it out

The guide’s realistic timeline, which it presents as an operating example rather than a universal rule, places insurance at T minus 8 weeks, together with budget lock, key crew and scouting. Certificates per location come at T minus 2, with technical scouts, the transportation plan and the call sheet routine. The insurance comes first; the certificate for each location comes last.

Insurance also needs money early. Before the first slate, location deposits, rentals, permits, insurance, transportation and petty cash have already claimed money. It belongs in the funding schedule, not only in the budget.

Documentary: insuring what the plan doesn’t know yet

Documentary turns the logic around. The best opportunities often come on short notice, and the policy can’t be sized only for the plan on paper.

The guide makes the same point about locations. On a documentary, saying yes to a place on a few hours’ notice means knowing when paper is needed and when the space’s permission plus live insurance is enough. Agility isn’t the absence of structure; it’s structure preloaded.

Who holds the policy

In the structure the guide describes, the European production company remains the owner of the project and its copyright. The American service entity signs locally with vendors, locations, crew, insurance and payroll. That is why a production service brings the certificate already solved: its American broker and master policies already exist.

Three questions before you lock a location

1. Who is the American insurance broker on this project, and who issues the certificates?
2. What does this location ask for: a COI and, where required, additional insured endorsements?
3. Does the script include vehicles, drones, water, minors, effects, work at height, closures or stunts?

Go deeper

This article comes from our free guide, Shooting in the U.S. without learning American production during the shoot. It covers immigration, permits, unions, insurance, payroll and how the American budget reads, with field notes from real productions. In Spanish: Rodar en Estados Unidos.