OREANDA-NEWS. March 01, 2011. While movie fans can’t wait to see what film will be awarded the Oscar® for Best Picture, Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, the leading insurer of Hollywood films for more than 85 years, is unveiling its riskiest film of the year, reported the press-centre of ROSNO.

This year it’s the action packed movie "Salt," featuring Angelina Jolie as Evelyn Salt, a CIA officer accused of being a Russian spy who must prove her innocence. Jolie performed her own stunts, including fight scenes, riding a motorcycle, jumping off a bridge, and handling a number of weapons.

"Whenever an actor chooses to do their own stunts it increases the film’s risk because you have an actor doing that rather than a professional stunt person," said Lauren Bailey, vice president of entertainment at Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company. "These types of scenes contribute appreciably to a film’s overall risk and Fireman’s Fund helps by creating solutions to cover specific exposures".

Fireman’s Fund helps production companies manage unexpected risks by working closely with the studios to ensure the safety of all participants while still achieving the director’s artistic vision.

"Part of my role as a risk services consultant is to work with movie studios to analyze scenes that include stunt work, explosions, chase scenes, weapons and more, to ensure the safety of the cast and crew," said Paul Holehouse, entertainment risk consultant at Fireman’s Fund.

"Delays can cost a production millions of dollars if a cast member becomes injured and is unable to work, which can cost up to USD250,000 a day for a big budget film", Bailey added.

From independent films to blockbusters, Fireman’s Fund insures 80 percent of all U.S. films. Fireman’s Fund offers the following types of insurance coverage to help movie studios protect themselves from a variety of insurance risks and liabilities to their cast members, crew and the production process during the filming process:

Cast coverage pays for the costs incurred by the production company in the event of the unavailability of a declared artist due to illness, injury or death. Essentially business interruption coverage for the production company in the event of an artist’s unavailability due to covered perils.

Props, sets and wardrobe coverage pays for the losses, damages and destruction related to the property, sets, wardrobes and equipment of the insured. Generally, it is related to items "in front of the camera".

Extra expense coverage pays for the production company’s losses incurred by "things," including sets, equipment, and location.

Third party property damage coverage pays for the insured’s legal liability for real property (filming locations).

Miscellaneous equipment coverage pays for losses or damages related to items "behind the camera" including cameras, sound equipment, lighting, etc.

Faulty stock coverage pays for the cost to reshoot or correct unacceptable footage due to the inadvertent use of faulty raw stock, faulty equipment (including cameras, sound, etc.), faulty processing by the lab, and faulty editing by way of damage accidentally caused by the editor’s handling of the negative.

Negative coverage includes all risk coverage that excludes the perils named above in the faulty stock coverage, with other limitations.

Comment on cinema insurance in Russia by Mr. Vitaly Ous, Director of ROSNO’s Financial Risks Insurance Department

Though the domestic cinema industry is far away from the Hollywood in many respects, the Russian cinema producers have been displaying real professionalism in recent years, evidenced by the blockbusters (yep, that’s the relevant word) they have made. As any professional activity, the Russian cinema production needs a professional insurance protection, which is already represented with various insurance propositions in the Russian insurance market. And, taking into account the available state programs contemplating support and financing for the domestic cinema industry, the issue of obtaining such protection becomes twice as important. Nevertheless, while the level of penetration of insurance services in this industry is quite low, an adequate insurance protection is provided mostly for the movies with foreign participation. Average insurance amounts in the Russian cinema production insurance market range from 2 to 5 mln US dollars, while highly expensive movies made jointly with Western film companies are covered for as much as 20 mln US dollars. According to our estimates, the capacity of this insurance market segment is in the range of 5 to 10 mln US dollars, which is a significant amount, given the limited number of insurers able to insure such risks.

In Russia, cinema production industry risks were first covered about 10 years ago. As any other type of insurance with its clear specifics, this requires creating a separate insurance product based on the products offered in the developed insurance markets, primarily the U.S. and Western Europe. ROSNO developed such an insurance product in 2002. It covers all segments of the cinema industry — from production of advertising trailers and TV series to art films, documentaries and globally sold big budget movies. Insurance coverage can be provided at any stage of movie production, namely preproduction, production and postproduction stages. Each stage is notable for its nuances: accident and sickness insurance coverage of production unit personnel; insurance coverage of third party liability; insurance coverage of lease-related liability and liability for copyright violation; insurance coverage of negatives; insurance coverage against cancellation or postponement of cinema production and, indeed, insurance coverage of additional expenses which may arise in course of cinema production.