Usually 1 million dollars liability is required. sound crazy? welcome to "low" budget film making. I got my insurance at film emporium. they are out of New York, work very quickly and were no hassle. be prepared to carry work comp if you are paying anyone and equipment insurance if you going thru a rental house.

for a 21 day shoot with 3 paid employees cost me about $2500.

good Luck!

Where are you?
Just go to your local film commission and they can hook you up with insurance folk. The million dollar thing is typical. Since you're doing a no/low budget i doubt you'l have employees, but you will need to add equiptment ins before a rental house will hand you anything, if you go that route.

Because I've been working in LA so long, I can get almost everything for free (or nearly so), but my most costly expense for a small weekend shoot was insurance (the rental house that I always use was even willing to give me a full 35mm camera package for free, but no equipment insurance, no dice. Not really a bad investment if you think about what happens to your savings, house, car, if someone drops a camera and lens valued at $100,000). Many small production companies buy insurance for the year (it's not that much more expensive than insurance for three days). See if you have any friends with production companies willing to let you work under their banner. Besides the insurance thing, it makes it easier to do a million other things without filling out tons of paperwork. You'd be amazed at how many production companies there are out there that only work part time.

"On a good gate, that's a wrap."

Thanks for the advice. With no employees and no rental insurance, since I own my equipment, the quote for 3rd party liability was about $800. I guess I can always film in my living room. Lame.