Hi guys, this is Siza. I'm the head of production at Enflesh Films and this is my first blog post!

Just a little introduction about how I got here with Enflesh…

I was in my third year of varsity studying Motion Picture and majoring in Producing when I met Midiane. It was a busy day in Lakeside Mall and I was walking around on my lunch break, extremely frustrated with the lack of vegetarian additions to the menus at any of the restaurants I usually frequent. Going down the elevator, I saw a familiar face. A young and handsome black man approached on the other side of the elevator with a companion. “Zethu!”, I screamed, beyond excitement. A large exotic-looking, equally handsome man conversating with him looked up, startled.

We stood, in the midst of all the hype and mayhem that is Saturday shopping and recalled good times as I was introduced to Zethu’s friend and realized the warm feeling within the pit of my belly was a growing liking to Zethu’s Egyptian crony. “We’re shooting a music video” said this gentle spirit, I later found out that he went by the name Midiane, and I immediately felt my face light up. Little did he know that the for the past three years of my life, I had been groomed and trained into a full fledged Producer. We agreed to meet up that evening at my place.

I don’t know what it is about pap, it’s like a test of one’s womanhood, the deprivation of this ability is crippling if one is left with much to be desired. I was sweating over a hot stove, trying to produce the best meal I could concoct when there was a knock on my door an there they were; Zethu and Midiane. Little did I know that my future stood right on my doorstep.

Unfortunately, the music video didn’t happen due to lack of communication with the artist’s parentals and the lack of…  management of the artist. Midiane and I found a smooth and effective working style and got attached. The warm feeling in the pit of my belly was now piping hot. Honored and pleased, Midiane found it within himself to share his dream of Enflesh with me and the rest is history… in the making.

I'll be writing a lot more from now on. Stay tuned!

This blog was conceived a while after I bought my camera, but today's post is a commemorative piece really. This is my setup – the equipment I use right now for filming.

This is my vidcam – a Canon MD120. Has all the outputs I need, would have been very handy to have a headphone socket to monitor sound, but I'll live. Shoots in widescreen, good battery life, and in my yeti-size hands, it fits snugly.

I got this about 2-3 weeks ago and christened it, shooting the documentary about the Matsuri Festival at the Japanese School here in Johannesburg. (Blog post soon to follow!) It was really easy to use, inconspicuous whilst moving through the crowds, and found it easy to shoot using the regular viewfinder rather than the battery-hungry LCD screen.

Now, the really cool stuff. On Monday, I bought two new pieces of kit:

1) a Joseph Uni-directional condenser zoom mic. It has a muffler for when shooting out in windy conditions and stands so it can clip to a tripod or my next, more advanced vidcam. (At this point, generous donations are muchly appreciated.)

After my experience with editing the One Guy and His Shisha documentary (my first documentary, blog post to follow about that as well), I realised that you can never sacrifice or be complacent about sound. So, now with this and some practice, I'm looking forward to some cleaner, more slick sound.

2) an Ergo Rest Multi Tripod. The selling point about this tripod is that you can use it in your car to get that ubiquitous driving-by-your-subject-matter shot. It clips snugly to a partially rolled down window and then grips to the inside of the door. It also doubles up as a stand for my new mic.

I've even figured out how to film while holding the mic fastened to the tripod! Guerilla filmmaking to a whole new, self-sufficient level.

My upcoming shoot is the planned docu on the Apartheid Museum that I'm pitching for tiva. So, I can't wait to get my setup going for that!

What do you think of my setup? Any suggestions? Experiences shareworthy?

Let's confabulate. (Fancy word for talk. Shush, it's good to expand your vocab)