In the new age of digital acquisition, what does that mean for your insurance? Does negative insurance cover you if you are shooting direct to disk and the drive melts? An article in StudioMonthly a few months back touched on the growing confusion and problems with production insurance.

With the emergence of tapeless image capture and online asset management, however, many production houses are not getting what they require from their policies. Some claim that today’s insurance is dated and does not reflect the needs of production in an ever-growing digital environment. In fact, it seems that producers are either not covered entirely, or they’re paying big bucks for coverage that doesn’t apply to them.

Unfortunately, most production companies don’t realize this until it’s too late. “They’re not necessarily covered on certain line items, mostly because the language on policies does not reflect the changes in production from year to year,” says Guerard. The larger problem, however, is how insurance wholesalers are packaging and selling policies in the first place. The bottom line is that many production houses are getting a bad deal — and they’re overpaying for it.

Worried that you may be paying, and overpaying, for insurance that doesn’t insure you? Never fear. Jerome Guerard, VP National Entertainment Insurance, is here to answer your questions, no matter how simple or complex. So fire away!