I won't be writing this post with any happiness or excitement, as much as I should when I want to be promoting this blog. However, this subject has defined the last 10 months of my running of Enflesh Films.

Enflesh Films started out just me and my desire to get involved in the film industry. By chance, I met Siza, now head of production, in February 2008 and we started working very closely together. By July last year, Pride had joined us a freelance marketeer and it was looking promising. As we approached our first two paid professional gigs, covering end-of-year shows for belly dance schools, we had three new members: Vije as head of cinematography, overseeing Sanya and Thulani as new camera operators. I was also introduced by Siza to Jemma, a freelance animator who expressed interest in working with us. She worked on our company logo Our first milestone was our first staff dinner at Trump's, a tasty steakhouse in Nelson Mandela Square. I was quietly glowing with pride. Enflesh had human flesh, other than my own, workin together. We had Luntu briefly with us at the 2nd belly dance gig, but we parted ways as he pursued his own production company. December 2008 saw us at 7… only until mid-month. In an exhausting and involved saga, Pride left us.

We grew more in 2009. At the first ever company gettogether, Danny Brocklebank and Kay Carmichael joined us as sound engineer and animator, respectively. We also had Seema, our in-house photographer and producer-in-training. The event had all the trimmings of a burgeoning company: good food, a PowerPoint presentation, a good venue, and palpable excitement as I took people through the year's plan for Enflesh Films.

The next part of the year was the Producer Ballooning. Siza brought to the company 2 new producers, Phophi and Tee, of AFDA fame. I was now finally be able to delegate work down through Siza and get each producer to specialise in a certain field or on a certain project. The e-mail output spiked. More meetings. Ayanda Nyikana joined us as a Producer and hit the ground running; I may have mentioned before that she had tried out as a presenter back in 2007.

During the Ballooning though, there was a slow Deflation. The realities of startups started bubbling to the surface. Danny and Kay left. Although never official, Jemma disappeared as she got increasingly more busy with her AFDA responsibilities. Vije went off to pursue Vimage Media, a growing photography agency based in Pretoria. The workload increased on Siza and I. Phophi disappeared and we ceased the business relationship. After deliberation, multiple attempts, and a lot of patience, Tee was relieved of her duties. We weren't getting anywhere.

By June this year, we were down to 3 dedicated members: myself, Siza, and Ayanda. Thulani and Seema are still involved but on a on-demand basis. Sanya is still around. But day-to-day, it was us three.

We're now in August and it's down to me and Siza. Ayanda resigned a few weeks ago, abruptly and with an explanation that still hasn't settled well with me. The company get together and the dinner at Trump's are distant, almost mythic memories.

Were we perfect employers and all mentioned heartless, selfish employees? No. No. People just wanted to get paid. They all nodded their heads at the various meetings, get togethers, when we talked about the business model in detail. But in the end, they still expected payment; some were more vocal about it than others. Some would throw their toys out of the cot and others would just disappear or get busy. For months, I struggled on whether they didn't listen or I was being vague and ambigious. Or, they just didn't care and wanted to get paid regardless of how rosy or amazing the business model was. All involved assumed the usual: we work on a project. We get paid. And we are all freelancers. Huh? No. You're employees. What? Kiss my ass, Midiane. I'm a freelancer. More misunderstanding and confusion ensued as we spent hours and e-mails and meetings, clarifying people's intentions and in the end, they just walk away. Some jilted us at critical times with clients involved. And some just walked away.

I didn't know what to do. Where I could have lied and promised payment when there was often little upfront money on the projects we were pursuing, that seemed like a short-term, unethical approach. I tried to incentivise the work during the Ballooning: a share of the final money made. No. That didn't work either. People didn't want to spend any money from their pockets. That grated me. I thought you did that when it was something you loved, but perhaps that's just me. And in time, especially as we did the Tiva shoot, that's what it turned out to be. Just me.

The root of the problem was that I had developed the initial business model on staff coming together on a common vision, being driven by a passion for film, and working together until the business becomes profitable and we all get paid. We all make Enflesh Films our day job. All I needed from people on the team was just that hard work on the projects in the pipeline and sure enough – it was being done out there, so not impossible – we would get there.

Almost 2 years on from the inception of Enflesh Films, we're not there. We're still quite a way away. We have a website, a growing showreel, experience with people, equipment, suppliers, clients, a company logo animation, various projects in the pipeline, various partnerships and preferential relationships with partners… but ultimately, we don't have a steady income stream yet and we don't have 1-3 substantial projects or films under our belt. It makes for the uncomfortable but stark reality of business in the film industry

Hiring, retaining, and developing human resources at a startup film production company is a bitch.

They are endeavours that require a lot of effort, constant communication, management, and careful setting of expectations. It requires that you never assume you are on the same page as your employee. You never assume or expect some loyalty from the people with whom you work. Unfortunately, in our experience, people's loyalties lie with the paycheck and exposure. Passion doesn't pay all bills. In these tough economic times, people want safe bets and will pass up passion for the mindless job, pouring coffee for a primadonna lobotomoy case with a Red camera, shooting a concept film about cows being slaughtered. Why this and not your project? Because that pay will them and yours won't. No amount of driving home passion for film will undo the elegant simplicity of those economics.

The people I've worked with so far varied in their capacity to understand the dynamics of a small company with little regular income. They have approached Enflesh Films as they would with Barloworld or Edcon: give me the means to do everything, I ain't spending shit from my own pocket. This point alone sparked many substantial and heated debates between Siza and I. I didn't expect people to be like me, a company owner, the brainchild, but it may involve a phone call. A few text messages. Driving here or there.

Last night, I drove all the way into Soweto to pay a cinematographer after they demanded that I pay up, as much as we had agreed that their work on the last Tiva.tv shoot would be paid when the client pays out. I had a rare moment of clarity with that situation; I put down 2 options. Take the money now and you'll never work with me again. Or, wait for the money like everyone else, stay on our database, and I'll make sure you only come on for the gigs where I can pay you upfront. 2 guys were demanding payment. One got paid last night. It's bye bye to him. The other, after demanding and spraying, changed his tack and said that he'll wait.

I can summarise the last 2 years in managing HR into the following points:

• Be very wary of hiring your friends. When it goes bad, it goes bad. Document everything on paper; verbal agreements can be easily rewritten in people's minds later.
• Be thankful when you meet someone who works on passion. Be shrewd when they work on cash only. Never mix the two.
• Learn key skills yourself. Never feel like you can't do a shoot because you can't get a dope cinematographer or sound guy. Go out, study, learn, and practice cinematography, operating a camera, and sound. Corrolary: No one is indispensable.
• Finally, never do business with friends without paperwork in place. It's amazing how friendship evaporates when it comes down to cash.

Put down your thoughts and experiences in the comments. What do you guys think?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 4:03 am and is filed under Analysis, Running a Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.