What safety precautions should I take while shooting my independent film?
When shooting an independent film, they have to be insured. Actors aren't going to want to work on an independent film set that's not insured. If you're shooting in public places, wherever you get your permit to shoot is probably going to make sure you're insured. So in terms of security and safety precautions, if you are the producer or the director of an independent film, you have to be in charge of that, it's part of the responsibilities, and that's the difference in an independent film as opposed to a studio film. The studio has people that take care of that, everything's union, they shoot it on their lot sometimes. But with an independent film when you're out there in the streets with the people shooting on the fly, gorilla filmmaking, you've got to be very mindful of those things that cause any type of small. These are not only very dangerous but it could actually ruin an independent film because it would just suck the life out of it and all the resources and all the money. On a big studio film if an accident happens, they're usually able to regroup and continue on with the filmmaking. For example, in Panic Room, Nicole Kidman was cast in the lead but she shot about ten days and she broke her leg on set. What did they do? They kept going, they recast the part with Jodie Foster and the movie went on to make a hundred million dollars and it was a huge success. But if that had happened on an independent film, chances are that would have been the end of that independent film.
