Jamie Shepard and Mark Milshteyn Author Production Insurance Primer for IDA’s Documentary Magazine
Jamie Shepard and Mark Milshteyn recently penned a legal FAQ featured in the Spring 2026 issue of the International Documentary Association’s Documentary Magazine. In the primer entitled “Legal FAQ: Don’t Roll the Dice—Insure Your Production,” they underscore the importance of protecting film productions through core insurance coverages, including DICE, general liability, automobile liability, umbrella liability, and workers’ compensation.
When producing a film, many incidents can occur, ranging from a person falling ill to equipment malfunctions; proper insurance helps account for and absorb such risks, ensuring a production doesn’t collapse. One major policy the article highlights is DICE, short for documentary, industrial, commercial, and educational insurance, which Jamie and Mark refer to as “the heart of production insurance.” They emphasize that this policy, unlike liability insurance, “is primarily concerned with damage, delay, and disruption to the project.” They continue to provide practical insights into other coverages vital to production, warning producers to be mindful of the standard 12-month policy term to avoid coverage lapses. Jamie and Mark caution, “Coverage should ideally extend through delivery, as abandonment claims can arise in postproduction.”
The article further delves into the claims submission and determination process, should these policies become applicable, encouraging productions to seek production legal counsel. They explain, “Unfortunately, we’ve all heard too many horror stories about how long producers and filmmakers spent quibbling over an insurance claim that was ostensibly not controversial. This often occurs because of a misunderstanding in the policy language or in what was needed to support the claim. The aid of counsel instantly mitigates those pitfalls.” Concluding the primer, Jamie and Mark advise filmmakers, “Film production insurance isn’t about disaster expectation—it’s about disaster preparation. These policies exist so that when something inevitably goes wrong, the project doesn’t end.”
Read the full article featured in IDA’s Documentary Magazine.