Error and Omission Insurance

[Alphie]

Anyone here had to get this? How much does it cost? How involved is it to get this? We are working on two distribution deals and both require this (and our budget is stretched BEYOND zero). Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Eric

 

[mr-modern-life]

If a distributor wanted your film, and you had no budget for it, wouldn't they pony up for E&O?

See I'm not sure. The issue here is that the market is flooded with product and it get's tighter and tighter to make a profit (damn that affordable, unelitist technology) and there for companies now tend to write in that you need E&O and in fact it should form part of your budget.

Which is funny because a lot of films dont have a budget!

 

[CootDog]

It might not be my place to speak on this subject since I haven't distributed anything. I would think that even if your budget is $5,000 and you get picked up to be distributed, you could work a deal with the distro to have them absorb the costs. Some may not even look at it unless you have it, others may work with you. It all depends on the distributor YOU choose to work with. If they feel your film will make them money, then they should be willing to work with you to comply with certain requirements and protections.

 

[directorik]

If a distributor wanted your film, and you had no budget for it, wouldn't they pony up for E&O?

I'll just add a little to what Coot said.

That's a huge IF. There are very few "Clerks", "El Mariaci" or "Open Water"'s out there. A movie a distributor is willing to spend a LOT of money on to get it out there. Yet there are a lot of no budget movies that get DTV release. Sometimes - MOST of the time - the decision is going to come down to "which two of the five good movies we have here are we going to spend money to distribute?"

But yes, Media Hero, if your movie is that good - so good that a distributor will cover all your legal costs because they KNOW they will recoup - then they will pony up the money.

 

[mr-modern-life]

Alas as Direcorik says that is not often. The best bet is to try and convince them to of set the cost against sales or make sales elsewhere to cover the cost. The biggest issue here is that the US sales is one of the biggest and in term of profile def one of the best.