Twenty-something entrepreneurs: The buzz of cool stuff

For Andrew Wall and Jaime Mierau, starting a media business was a chance to grow creatively and “do cool stuff.”

by Wally Kroeker

It’s a frosty day in Winnipeg, with the temperature minus 29. Massive mounds of snow are piled around Manitoba’s majestic limestone Legislative Building. Inside, Andrew Wall, television script in hand, is poised at the foot of the great staircase, flanked on two sides by huge bison statues. His partner, Jamie Mierau, adjusts his video camera. An actor rehearses her lines.

It’s hard to imagine that only a few years ago Wall was selling kitchens in Calgary and Mierau was inching his way up in Toronto’s film industry.

Though still in their 20s, Wall and Mierau look professional and very much at home. They are part of a burgeoning media production industry in central Canada. One regular client describes them as “my Spielbergs” (referring to legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg).

Television and video is their creative outlet. They work with corporations, broadcasters, ad agencies, non-profit groups and film production companies.

They are small, as production houses go, but with their youth that means they can be “agile, cost effective and true to our creative vision.” So declares their web site (www.454media.com), adding, “Our clients appreciate that we. . . bring new ideas, color, surprise, humour and energy to their projects. It’s what gets their message noticed and remembered.”

Not only that, they are having fun, and that’s not to be taken lightly. Work has to mean more than just a paycheck. They want a creative outlet, even if it means taking risks. They don’t want to cling to a safe career path.

“It troubles me to see people not having fun at their work,” Wall says.

Wall grew up in an entrepreneurial atmosphere. His father, Fred, was involved in real estate development and plastics manufacturing. “Being in business for yourself was not a foreign concept,” says Andrew.

His first summer job was grinding plastic in his father’s factory. Then he worked at a Winnipeg steakhouse.

“After high school I was lucky enough to work summers at Palliser’s new Genesis Division, which had a younger management group that was open to new ideas. Things were growing rapidly and this meant new openings.” Wall worked his way to corporate receiver and later to a full-time job in purchasing and costing.

He moved to Calgary and found a job with Legacy Kitchen Designs where he was involved with producing several hundred kitchens a year.

While he found the construction industry chaotic, he had the good fortune to be mentored by “phenomenal” owners Russ Dyck and John Buller.

“I don’t think I’ll ever have two greater bosses in my life,” he says. “They cared deeply about their staff and were also very committed to their faith. There was no division between their faith and their work. Russ and John exemplify what Christian businesspeople working a crazy industry should be.”

Meanwhile, Wall’s friend Jamie Mierau moved back to Winnipeg where the film industry was starting to blossom. Wall joined him and they started their own media company.

Mierau had some training and experience, but Wall had to pick up his film expertise as he went along, which put him in good company. “The best film people in Winnipeg are self-taught,” he says. At that point his higher education was a year and a half at Canadian Mennonite Bible College (now Canadian Mennonite University) and University of Manitoba.

From the start, Wall and Mierau took their own approach to entrepreneurship. They weren’t simply starting a business to make money. “We saw an industry and a situation where we could be creative and develop our talents,” Wall says. “We were doing it for the chance to do cool stuff.”

The digital revolution and consequent availability of affordable production equipment gave them a boost. They bought their own camera and editing suite to ensure full creative control. They rented space in Winnipeg’s funky Exchange District, which put them in the heart of the city’s film industry and right beside Frantic Films, a leading production company that would become a client.

They called their company 454 Media (after a legendary automotive engine).

Their first job was a television commercial for a local restaurant. Next came a commercial for a vinyl company.

Pino Pisano was the man who spotted their names in the Startup Business column of the local newspaper. As executive director of Winnipeg Aboriginal Sports Achievement Centre (WASAC) he needed a promotional video about aboriginal youth.

He called the fledgling filmmakers, and after one meeting they were hired. They went on to make three WASAC videos to promote role models and possibility thinking among aboriginal youth.

Despite being young and green “they captured that beginning stage,” says Pisano.

Wall and Mierau astutely kept overhead low by renting lights, microphones and dollies. Winnipeg’s rising status in the film industry meant supply houses stocked everything they needed. “This also allows us to be far more flexible,” says Wall. “We are not limited by our gear.”

Nor by titles. If you phone and ask for the president, either one might answer. Mierau likes the shooting and broadcast design. Wall handles the business, writing and editing.

More television has come their way, including the shooting and post production of a TV series. They’ve also done corporate commercials as well as “A Day in the Life of MBCI” for a local Mennonite school.

They are becoming well acquainted with the youth gang culture in their efforts to encourage aboriginal youngsters to see they can have a better life than gangs offer. Their most recent project is a short piece titled Inspire, the story of an aboriginal youth with a troubled background who was headed for gang life. By chance he attended a WASAC camp where his life was changed.

“We can’t keep that video on the shelves,” says Pino Pisano. “We’ve moved 200 of them since August.”

One copy went to Stan Keyes, Canada’s Minister of State for Sport. When he showed it to a group of government leaders “there wasn’t a dry eye in the place.” Keyes sent his copy farther up the chain to Paul Martin, who has since become prime minister, and who is on the national steering committee for aboriginal sports.

The partners have also done work for local school divisions to promote greater parent involvement and instill pride in the lives of young people.

“Quite simply, they have a gift,” says Kevin Chief, an Aboriginal Community Networker for the River East-Transcona School Division.

He explains that there is a huge explosion, almost a diaspora, in the aboriginal community as fewer of the young people stay in First Nations or Metis communities. Growing numbers are leaving the urban core for other parts of the city, and teachers need help understanding this new cultural presence.

Wall and Mierau have produced film shorts of varying lengths to visually illustrate the new sense of hope that is emerging. When Chief was invited to speak at the Manitoba Aboriginal Youth Achievement Awards, the most prestigious aboriginal event in the province, he used their Inspire video.

In coming months Wall and Mierau will work in one of Manitoba’s prisons as they prepare another video on gang life, this one for the Manitoba Metis Federation.

A key to the success of these shorts is the twenty-something approach. Wall and Mierau still understand the youth culture, and adapt their films in a way that communicates. “They are very sensitive, and relate well in a non-judgmental way,” Chief says.

From a business standpoint there’s a clear win-win element. Their productions spark lasting change in their intended audience, and help the sponsoring agencies secure vital funding.

“Our work is based on people speaking honestly and candidly, with very little narration,” says Wall.

Sometimes the partners have to persuade clients that less can be more. Inspire, for instance, is only six minutes long. “People come to us with plans for a 20 or 30-minute production, and we know it’s too long,” says Wall. “We talk them down, sometimes to just a couple of minutes. The kids just won’t watch something long. No message should take more than eight minutes to tell.”

Along the way the partners have learned diplomacy. If a client seems bent on a certain direction, Mierau will say, “We can try it that way.”

“It’s very important that we communicate effectively,” says Wall, “because lives can be changed.”

Last year 454 Media was honored with three nominations by the Manitoba Motion Picture Industry Association for the 2003 Blizzard Awards in the category of best corporate video. They’ve also won Prairie Music Awards in 2002 and 2001.

Last fall Wall participated in a MEDA convention seminar titled “Starting Out in Business: Or, If I Knew Then What I Know Now.” He devoted one section to telling other aspiring businessfolk about “things that suck” and “things that rule.”

Leading the former was slow-paying clients. This was a big disappointment to him, especially in the early days of tight cash. “The bigger the corporation, the worse they are,” he says.

On the positive side was the freedom and flexibility of running their own business. Then there’s the buzz of seeing their work on television. He also loves the challenge of finding solutions to people’s communications problems.

“We’ve also gotten to meet some unbelievable people, like CEO’s, CFO’s, film stars William Hurt and Judd Hirsch.” Wall was also one of the last people to interview Canadian media mogul Izzy Asper just before his unexpected death last year.

Looking back from vantage point of four years, Wall and Mierau say not all of the advice they received from their elders actually worked for them.

Like the importance of pounding the pavement, a virtual truism of business. Out of more than 200 contacts in the early days, only one turned into a modest job worth $500. In fact, Wall thinks the relentless cold calls may have slowed their progress because of the taint of many other fly-by-night start-ups that populated the media business for a time.

They learned to be patient, cultivate relationships and work on developing their talents. Fortunately, their overhead was low so they could survive the lean times.

“Ours was a very unique blend of contacts, talent and motivation,” says Wall. Then he adds, “And having faith that the breaks would come.”

Pino Pisano would add integrity and character. He describes Wall and Mierau as “great listeners” who “won’t just echo you” but offer forthright counsel based on their convictions. He says they also have a great commitment to quality, “not just the bottom dollar.”

They don’t just rush to get the production in the bag, he says, but are constantly asking “are we touching lives?”

Christian faith “has to be a part of work,” says Wall. The film industry has its own set of ethical challenges and “we have at times had to make judgment calls. Would we work on a lottery commercial? A project that represents lifestyles that we don’t agree with? We have been lucky to not have had too many problems like this. The music videos we have worked on have been clean, with positive messages.”

On the downside, “there can be some very strong and negative reaction to Christianity within the film industry.”

Wall donates a portion of his time to local non-profits like Trinity Television. When time permits, he and his wife, Johanna, plan to develop biblically-based film shorts with an inspirational edge.

Where will 454 Media be 10 years from now? “Hopefully we’ll still be making films and being challenged creatively,” says Wall.

“And, of course, still having fun.”