Written by on Sep 12, 2011. Posted in Incentive News

Terror insurance designed to encourage location shoots in Israel

Filmmakers can get terror insurance in a bid to encourage them to film on location in Israel, according to the Associated Press. Israeli authorities are trying to open up the country’s screen industries so the policy provides coverage against terror attacks and acts of war disrupting filming.

Israel obviously contends with negative publicity on a regular basis and one of the results is that many big-budget productions choose to double countries like Morocco and Malta in order to minimise production risks, rather than shoot in cities like Jerusalem. High-profile examples have been Steven Spielberg’s Munich and Marc Forster’s upcoming World War Z.

It’s absurd. Movies set in Jerusalem are filmed in Malta, Morocco and Greece. If they think it’s expensive and dangerous, they won’t want to come.

Yoram Honig, Israeli filmmaker

Yoram Honig is an Israeli filmmaker and spoke to the news outlet: “It’s absurd. Movies set in Jerusalem are filmed in Malta, Morocco and Greece. If they think it’s expensive and dangerous, they won’t want to come.”

The Israeli industry recognises that it doesn’t offer the cheapest production costs in the region, so the terror insurance policy is being viewed as a way of making international producers less nervy about an Israel shoot. There is the danger, however, that the very existence of the policy could also fuel concerns about the country’s day-to-day security situation.

Israel is certainly making efforts to form connections with the world’s major filmmaking industries. A delegation of Bollywood producers was recently invited to take part in a location scouting trip as part of the Jerusalem International Film Festival.