Guides
Who Issues Commercial Videography Permit Requirements
Commercial videography permit requirements come from the city, county, state or federal agency that owns the ground: MOME, FilmLA and the Chicago Film Office.
What to take away
- Commercial videography permit requirements come from the city, county or state agency that controls the ground you stand on, not from a national body. A park, a sidewalk and a private lobby can each have a different issuer.
- Fees, lead times and insurance minimums differ sharply between Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, so a single national budget line does not work.
- Most cities require a certificate of insurance naming the city as additional insured, and the required limit is a fixed number written into the permit rules, not a ballpark. Ask the issuer for the exact figure before you order the certificate.
- Shooting without a permit can end the shoot on the spotcrews are stopped, gear is packed, and the day is billed to the client anyway.
- Small shoots are often exempt. The exemption is usually defined by crew size and equipment footprint, not by whether money changes hands.
Who has jurisdiction over a commercial shoot
A permit is a permission slip for a specific patch of ground. In New York City, the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) issues permits for commercial filming on city property, and its permit page sets the application route.
The same shoot on a sidewalk in Burbank answers to Burbank, and a shoot in a state park answers to the state agency that runs the park. Private property is its own jurisdiction: a hotel lobby, an office atrium or a mall corridor is permitted by the property owner or the building manager, not by a film office, and a signed location agreement usually stands in for a permit.
Federal land adds another layer. National Park Service units issue their own commercial filming permits under 36 CFR 5.5, the application goes to the superintendent of that park unit, and it is separate from anything the city grants. A videographer who has cleared the city can still be turned away at a trailhead.
The general structure of these permits is described in Wikipedia's overview of film permits, which is useful for understanding why requirements cluster around street closures, parking and pedestrian control.
What a compliant application carries
A complete application is a package, not a form. Cities ask for the same categories of information even when the forms differ.
Compliant Application Package
- Shoot dates, hours and rain date
- Exact locationssidewalk, park, street segment
- Crew size and vehicle list
- Activity descriptioninterviews, drone, lighting
- Proof of insurance and location agreement
- Certificate of insurance naming city
- Payment of application and parking fees
- Certificate of insurance with the city named as additional insured
- General liability limit at or above the city minimum
- Auto and workers compensation coverage where the city asks
- Names and phone numbers for the on-site point of contact
- Payment of the application fee and any parking or street-use charge
A permit is tied to the named production company and the named dates. Handing the shoot to a subcontractor without notifying the issuer can void it.
City-by-city differences that change the plan
Los Angeles, New York and Chicago diverge on who issues the permit as much as on fee, lead time and insurance. FilmLA administers film permits for the City of Los Angeles, for unincorporated Los Angeles County and for many of the surrounding jurisdictions, so most LA-area applications start there. New York City routes commercial filming on city property through the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, and Chicago's requests go to the Chicago Film Office.
Beyond those three, the rule is jurisdiction first. San Francisco films are permitted through the San Francisco Film Commission. County ground — an unincorporated area or a county road — answers to the county film office or the county public works department, and state land answers to the state agency that owns it: California State Parks issues filming permits for park land, while the California Film Commission handles filming on other state-owned property.
Fees follow that split. Some issuers publish a fee schedule, most quote per application, and the ranges below are planning notes rather than quotes.
Permit Differences by City
Los Angeles
- Lead time
- 2-10 business days
- Fee range
- Low hundreds
- Insurance
- Millions in liability
New York
- Lead time
- Several days to weeks
- Fee range
- Varies by borough
- Insurance
- Certificate naming city
Chicago
- Lead time
- A few business days+
- Fee range
- Flat plus per-day
- Insurance
- Certificate, sometimes bond
New York states its rules more precisely than the ranges above. A required filming permit for DCAS properties — the city's Department of Citywide Administrative Services buildings — carries a non-refundable $3,200 fee that must accompany the MOME application, payable by certified bank check to the New York City Department of Finance, and before any activity begins the applicant must provide a certificate evidencing commercial general liability of not less than $1,000,000 each occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate. General city film permits are priced separately: the film permit fee is based on the start and end date of your project's permit requests.
| City | Typical lead time | Illustrative fee range | Insurance note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | 2 to 10 business days | Low hundreds for a small crew, more with street or parking control | General liability commonly required in the millions |
| New York | Several business days to weeks | $3,200 for DCAS properties; otherwise by borough, size and whether parking is reserved | Certificate naming the city; general liability of $1,000,000 per occurrence, $2,000,000 aggregate |
| Chicago | A few business days and up | Flat application plus per-day charges for larger footprints | Certificate and sometimes a bond for street use |
Two practical consequences follow. First, a shoot booked on Thursday for the following Monday is often impossible in a large city. Second, insurance is the slowest item to obtain, because a broker has to issue the certificate and the city has to accept it.
What happens if you skip it
Non-compliance has a concrete cost. A park ranger, a police officer or a building manager can stop the shoot, and the production loses the location and the daylight. The client still owes for the day, and the videographer absorbs the reputational damage.
Some cities also issue citations with fines that scale with the size of the crew and the number of repeat offenses. A second violation in the same year costs more than the first.
There is a quieter failure too. A permit obtained for four people does not cover eight, and an officer who counts the crew can shut the set down even though a valid permit exists.
Where permits sit in the paperwork stack
Permits are separate from business licensing and separate from tax registration. A videography company can be fully licensed and still be unpermitted on location. The 1099 vs W-2 crew classification guide matters here because the crew size on the application has to match who actually shows up.
New York is worth studying in detail because its insurance and permit requirements are stricter than most, as covered in the MOME permits and insurance guide for New York shoots. Drone shots add a federal layer that city permits do not replace, explained in the FAA Part 107 rules breakdown.
When a client asks why a permit costs extra, the answer is a line item, not an argument. The quote template with priced examples shows how to present it.
