We had the chance to speak with Peter Carr, Executive Producer and co-owner of Massïf, about the importance of persistent communication with employees while navigating the changing work environment and how implementing a virtual component can increase connectivity with clients.
Over the past year, work environments have had to change drastically. How has your agency taken employee feedback, coupled with what’s appropriate for the company to create a work plan going forward?
The lockdown situation certainly impacted on the everyday office staff especially early on when most struggled with how to effectively work from home and not knowing what the future had in store for them. The initial first three months were the hardest when production came to a standstill. Staff were naturally scared about the virus and job security and so we had to regularly engage with them and be transparent about our plans to reduce costs in order to sustain business without affecting them. Of course, it was completely unknown to us as to how long we’d have to shut down production in the early part of 2020, but we were quick to put in place a plan that would ensure the company could continue paying full salaries for some time without any work coming in before we would have had to consider any drastic actions that would impact anyone’s jobs. We also had to care about many of our film crew that we hired on a regular basis, all of whom are freelance and only earn project by project. We immediately created a fund to support a lot them who just needed to put food on the table.
We were fortunate to have recovered all of our cancelled projects and were back in production within three months of the initial lockdown. We quickly made up our losses, which reassured our staff that things would be okay. By then we had learnt how to efficiently work from home and run our film shoots remotely with clients not in attendance and the more shoots we did, the better we got at it. We also had to learn how to shoot with less than forty-five people on set due to the limitations on gatherings. Staff had to double up on jobs, which wasn’t easy on them. We recovered well and had a productive year, which settled all the staff insecurities.
I guess the hardest part for everyone was not being able to just sit and chat informally about life and thrash out the ideas for the projects in the old ways. It was much harder to extract the creative thoughts and ideas that used to evolve from the little spontaneous conversations in the office or at the coffee shop next door. In saying this, we all seem to have adapted to the changes in the way we now work. It’s already become normal.
We have always had an internship module where we allow young up and coming production staff and wannabe film directors to come into the office and watch and learn from the experienced pros. Most of the youth in our industry learn from watching their mentees in action. For the past year this has been impossible to maintain but now that things are opening up, this will become a priority for us.
How has the changing work landscape affected the way pitches and campaign briefs are approached and conceptualized?
Fortunately, in film production we were already accustomed to working out of the office for the most part of our day to day lives - other than when we’re in the thick of pre-production for a film shoot when we need to have briefing sessions and meetings with the agency and key crew - and so it’s really only this part of the process where we have had to adapt. I think the hardest part was, and to some extent still is, that we need to engage personally with the creative team at the ad agency at briefings and presentations. Face to face discussions in a boardroom or over a beer after work are often where the creative ideas and relationships develop. Doing this over a Zoom call is difficult but we’re starting to see that agencies (our clients) are a lot more open to keeping their lines open for creative discussions.
In what ways has this impacted the work-life balance of your employees and what steps have been taken to mitigate that?
It’s all about keeping constantly in touch with the employees in checking that they are okay not just in their work but importantly in their social and family lives just as we did in the office corridors. Many were affected by Covid either by having personally fallen ill to the virus or who lost friends and / or family to the virus. We needed to be there for them at all times. In many ways we have gotten to know our staff a little better by being exposed to their pets and families during our virtual gatherings.
It’s very easy to slip into a two-dimensional world when we only speak to each other via a computer screen, but I guess we are fortunate to be in the world of film production where we do still get together on a frequent basis whenever we’re on a film set.
Given that each work environment can look a bit differently, what has helped in creating a cohesive working relationship with clients?
In the past it was hard to get some clients to give you their time for a meeting. They are now travelling less and far more available for discussions and meetings – and when we’re filming, we are finding the decision-making clients are now much more in attendance (albeit via Zoom). We are in fact all much more connected and much closer to them than we ever were.
What changes that have been made over the past year do you see sticking around for years to come?
I think we’re going to continue to mostly work from home. The past year has made many of us realize how much we used to waste on massive offices and unnecessary expenses that go with it, including travel. We have come to see that we can still produce the same quality work without a lot of the old traditional fluff. Clients who used to insist on face-to-face meetings are no longer expecting of this.