Granada Uk and Insurance

[Stephen Murphy]

For the UK op's amongst us.

I'm supposed to be starting a Granada drama tommorrow, dayplaying as B Cam/Steadicam, and ive just been told that Granada has a policy to NOT insure equipment rented from individuals, i.e steadicam or crane owner/ops. Apparantly they will only insure equipment coming through the camera rental company - sounds like the same problem the US boys are having with the studios right?

This is the first time ive come across this, and having never worked for granada before im kind of at a loss for words. The PM is trying like hell to get an insurance cert for me because ive refused flat out to appear on set without one BUT it doesnt look like hes going to have much success. According to Aeon (the insurance co.) they had the same arguement with an op in the uk last week, and he was forced to turn up with on his own insurance. Obviosuly i have my own insurance policy, but i dont want to have to use it when the production company should be covering it.

Is there anybody on this forum who has been through this with granada?

 

 

Sincerely,

[IanMcMillan]

Hi there Stephen,

Long time no chat. Sounds like a tough one. Of course you have your insurance, we all do. Perhaps we need to re write the rental contract to reflect that if the Production does not insure the equipment it will be responsible for all repairs and rental coverage while it is unavailable or replacement if stolen from a premises with security supplied by production. I know that is what they used to insure against originaly but now they seem to think that we should wear it. I know my insurance never covered loss of income while something was being repaired.

I recently did 3 months on an Aussie show called Mc Leod's Daughters as Camera operator. No steadicam as such, but i did about 5 days with a local rented in rig. As I am a company I had to show them a 20 Million dollar Public liability policy. Public liability!!! Please. I am not supplying any gear so the only threat to the public or rest of the crew is if they trip over me.

 

Sorry Stephen, I am rambling. Glad to hear the PM is with you. Perhaps you write a rental contract as I've suggested and turn up tommorow and don't work until it's signed. The director will be extremely frustrated lookeing at a steadicam and operator he can't use until a sign of and that is always good leverage.

 

all the best mate

 

macca

 

BTW, what's the show so we can keep an eye out for it?

[Stephen Murphy]

Just to tidy this up - Granada refused point blank to insure my ear and i refused to come out without insurance. At the 11th hour the solution we came to was for me to rent my gear to the camera rental company they were using and they would rent it to the production - under these circimstances the gear was considered insured. Makes no sense to me whatsoever but it worked for their accounts department. Just as well because i took a fall during the last shot of the day - no damage done but it could have been nasty; nastier still with no insurance! So if you're doing a granada gig in the future be warned.

Hi Ian, nice to see your still in the game!

[Thomas English]

point taken.

 

Any granada gig s, everyone should do as Stephen did, adventually they will get tired of asking for favours from the camera houses and go back on the decision made by a stuffy accountant turned executive.

 

Where the hell is Bectu?

 

Thomas

[Eric Young]

point taken.

 

Any granada gig s, everyone should do as Stephen did, adventually they will get tired of asking for favours from the camera houses and go back on the decision made by a stuffy accountant turned executive.

 

Where the hell is Bectu?

 

Thomas

Presumeably, they will only take it up if they hear about cases starting to affect BECTU members? Maybe Stephen can forward the details to BECTU, even if he isn't a member, so at least they are aware of it?