The Front Row View (entertainment insurance blog)
How a specialized film insurance broker can help your production
2 July, 2024 • David HamiltonHow a film insurance broker helps A broker will help identify the risks associated with a production. Once the risks are identified, the risk can be transferred to an insurance company for a fee or premium. The film insurance broker negotiates the lowest possible premium and the broadest coverage available in the marke...
How can a film composer or film producer avoid copyright infringement for music?
25 June, 2024 • Byron PascoeHow can a film composer/producer avoid copyright infringement for music used in a film production? Byron Pascoe: The way to avoid copyright infringement with respect to music in productions is to not infringe someone’s copyright; i.e., to create original music. It’s as simple as that. There are only so many keys, chord...
What role do music credits play with regard to film producer's E&O insurance?
28 May, 2024 • Byron PascoeByron Pascoe: Whenever I watch a production, I read all the credits. It’s important that we review credits and recognize all the people involved in any kind of production. With respect to music, it’s important that each song is referenced in the credits if you have told someone you’re getting the rights from that you’r...
What are considerations around singers performing music in a film?
1 February, 2024 • Byron PascoeByron Pascoe: When singers are singing a song in a film, the first point is that if you’re a producer and you have someone singing in a film and it’s actually them singing (not a recording) a song that exists, you need permission to use the composition in the film. If you are recording someone singing a song in a film,...
Who can give consent to have music be in a film?
4 December, 2023 • Byron PascoeByron Pascoe: There’s a pretty broad range of types of people and companies who can give consent to have music in film. Approximately 100,000 songs are uploaded to Spotify every day; there’s a lot of music that’s out there. Most music that is created and put out there in the world is created by independent artists who ...
How do fair dealing and public domain apply to music used in a production?
1 November, 2023 • Byron PascoeByron Pascoe: It’s a general misconception that if only a few seconds of a song or stock footage clip or anything is used, that it’s OK to use; that’s just not accurate. I hear a lot, “Well, if I only use 10 seconds of this thing, is it OK?” And my answer always is no. There’s no “10 second rule”; it’s not like a sandw...
What’s a music exclusion in the context of producer's E&O insurance?
12 October, 2023 • Byron PascoeByron Pascoe: A music exclusion essentially means that you have a producer’s E&O insurance policy but music is not included yet. So, sometimes you need to have E&O well before you know what music is going to be in your film and before you have consent from the music owners to use the music. For example: if some...
How does SOCAN play a role in helping a film producer ensure that they have their bases covered?
1 September, 2023 • Byron PascoeByron Pascoe: SOCAN is an organization of nearly 200,000 members in Canada, fully composed of music writers and publishers but mostly composed of writers. And when writers write a song, whether they’re a beatmaker or producer or lyricist or rapper, etc., they register themselves as a SOCAN writer member, and they shoul...
What about when film producers are unable to obtain music rights?
22 June, 2023 • Byron PascoeWhat about when you have bargained for music rights but were unable to obtain them? Byron Pascoe: Producer’s errors and omissions (E&O) insurance applications have a lot of questions and they are important questions to consider. Oftentimes, I suggest to producers that before they start filming or planning anything,...
Subscribe to get the latest blog posts delivered to your inbox.
Browse by topic
- Abuse insurance (5)
- Actor body insurance (5)
- Aircraft insurance (3)
- Altman & Company (5)
- Animal insurance (3)
- Art school insurance (9)
- Automobile insurance for films (7)
- Band tour insurance (14)
- Bar mitzvah insurance (2)
- Best of (66)
- Camera insurance (15)
- Cast insurance (19)
- Certificates (3)
- Concert insurance (8)
- COVID-19 (19)
- Cyber insurance (4)
- Dance school insurance (7)
- Defamation insurance (6)
- DICE insurance (17)
- DigiGear (46)
- Directors & officers insurance (4)
- Disgrace insurance (2)
- Documentary insurance (32)
- Event insurance Canada (35)
- Event insurance US (31)
- Extra expense coverage (9)
- Fair use/fair dealing (11)
- Festivals (11)
- Film equipment insurance (28)
- Film insurance broker (112)
- Film insurance broker (US) (12)
- Film insurance claims (51)
- Film producer's E&O insurance (75)
- Film production (61)
- Film school insurance (12)
- Host liquor liability (7)
- Intern rights (4)
- Key person insurance (4)
- Legal expense (5)
- Music school insurance (6)
- Musical instrument insurance (35)
- Office contents insurance (5)
- Party insurance (10)
- Photography insurance (42)
- Pyrotechnics (6)
- Rental houses (14)
- Rights of privacy and publicity (11)
- Script clearance reports (13)
- Short film insurance (61)
- SPFX insurance (6)
- Stunt insurance (9)
- Sustainability (5)
- Theatre insurance (13)
- Third party property damage (5)
- Title reports (11)
- Trademark (5)
- Venue insurance (27)
- Wedding insurance (33)
- Workers compensation (4)
- All