Updated: August 29, 2026
The venue emails two days before the shoot asking for a certificate of insurance naming them as additional insured. Nobody on the production has one, the office is closed, and the location is booked for Thursday. This is one of the most common ways a Miami video shoot loses a day, and it is entirely avoidable.
Insurance is unglamorous producer work. It is also the paperwork that decides whether you get into the building.
The policies that come up on a video production
Production insurance is not one product. It is a set of coverages, and different jobs need different combinations.
General liability. Covers third party bodily injury and property damage. This is the one venues, hotels, office buildings and the City of Miami ask about, and it is the baseline for almost every shoot. Requested limits vary by venue, and larger properties often ask for more than the standard policy carries.
Equipment coverage. Covers owned and rented gear against damage and theft. Rental houses will not release a package without proof, and a rented cinema camera represents a lot of money sitting in a van.
Workers compensation. Required when you have employees, and the rules around crew classification are worth getting right rather than guessing at. This is a question for your insurance broker and, where classification is unclear, for an employment attorney.
Errors and omissions. Covers claims arising from the content itself: rights, clearances, defamation. Broadcasters and distributors typically require it. Most corporate work does not.
Auto and hired non-owned auto. Relevant the moment production vehicles or personal cars are used for the job.
Drone coverage. Aerial work is usually excluded from general policies and needs a specific endorsement, alongside the pilot certification the flight itself requires.
The certificate of insurance, and why it takes longer than you think
A certificate of insurance is a one page document proving coverage exists. Venues rarely want just the certificate: they want to be named as additional insured, which means the policy extends to them for that shoot.
That endorsement takes time. Your broker has to issue it, and turnaround runs from a few hours at a responsive agency to several days at a slow one. When a venue asks on Tuesday for a shoot on Thursday, you are relying on someone else's queue.
Ask for the certificate requirements the moment a location is confirmed, not when you are packing. What you need from the venue is their exact legal entity name, their address, the limits they require, and how they want to receive it. Getting the entity name slightly wrong is the single most common reason a certificate gets rejected and has to be reissued.
Annual policy or shoot by shoot
Short term production policies cover a single project and suit an occasional shoot. An annual policy costs more upfront and pays off once you are shooting regularly, mostly because certificates can be issued immediately instead of a policy being written from scratch.
The break even point is lower than people expect. If you are producing monthly, the annual policy usually wins on both cost and speed.
What Miami adds to the picture
A few local realities affect this more than they would elsewhere.
Permitting. Filming on public property in Miami, Miami Beach and the surrounding municipalities generally requires a permit, and permit applications ask for proof of insurance with specified limits. Each municipality runs its own film office with its own requirements, so check the specific jurisdiction rather than assuming one set of rules covers the county.
Hurricane season. Between June and November, weather cancellations are a real scheduling risk. Standard policies do not usually make you whole for a postponed shoot; that is a production contingency question, not an insurance one. Build the cancellation terms into your client agreement instead.
Water and boats. Anything on or near the water introduces exclusions. Marine work, dock access and boat based coverage are specialist areas, and a general policy often does not extend to them.
Heat and long days. Crew safety incidents in August are not hypothetical. Insurance is the backstop; the actual protection is planning, which our note on set safety on a Miami shoot covers in detail.
Who carries the coverage
This is where responsibility gets blurry, and blurry is expensive.
If you hire a production company, they typically carry their own policies. Confirm it, and ask for the certificate rather than the reassurance.
If you hire freelancers directly, coverage does not automatically follow. A freelance operator may carry equipment coverage on their own kit and nothing else. Whoever is contracting the shoot generally needs to hold the general liability.
If you are a client hiring a Miami crew, ask three questions early: who holds the general liability, what limits does it carry, and can a certificate be issued naming our locations. Our comparison of hiring a production company or a freelance producer covers how this differs between the two models.
A practical checklist before the shoot
- Confirm every location and identify which need certificates.
- Collect exact entity names, addresses and required limits from each.
- Request certificates at least a week ahead, earlier around holidays.
- Check rental house requirements and get their certificate issued separately.
- Confirm drone coverage in writing if aerial work is planned.
- Verify permits for any public property, per municipality.
- Keep digital copies on the phone of whoever is running the shoot, not only in an inbox.
The last point matters more than it sounds. Building security asks at 6am, and the person who can find the PDF is the person who gets the crew inside.
Working with a producer who handles this
Insurance, permits and certificates are exactly the kind of work a producer exists to absorb. When we produce a shoot in Miami, that means requirements are collected when locations are confirmed, certificates are requested with room to spare, and permits are filed for the right municipality rather than the one that seemed likely.
If you are planning a shoot and are not sure what your locations will require, send us the list and we will tell you which ones need what, before you are two days out and calling a broker. See our production notes for more on how shoots are organised, read about the crew roles involved on our about page, or get in touch with your dates and locations.
Frequently asked questions
How much does production insurance cost in Miami?
It varies with coverage type, limits, crew size, equipment value and the nature of the shoot. Get a quote from a broker who works with production rather than a general commercial agent, since the classifications differ.
Does my client's insurance cover my shoot?
Generally no. A client's policy covers their operations, not your production. Some corporate clients will add a vendor to their policy, but treat that as the exception and confirm it in writing.
Do I need insurance for a small shoot with one camera?
If you are on someone else's property, they will probably ask for it regardless of crew size. Venue requirements are about liability exposure, not about how much gear you brought.
How far ahead should I request a certificate?
A week is comfortable, two is safer around holidays. Same day requests sometimes work and should never be the plan.