Shout Out!

So it’s that dreaded time of year… tax time.  As a small business owner taxes kill you.  All you ever do, it feels like, is pay taxes… quarterly, monthly, then lucky you yearly.  Next time you go to ask for the raise( because you are so deserving) please keep in mind that if we give you more money we also give Uncle Sam more money and sometimes we don’t have enough for both!  But that’s another story…

I was putting together all our tax info and part of that is our 1099 list.  Of course, the 1099’s went out in January but I still have to provide (another) list to the tax people. As I’m putting together this list I start reminiscing about the people that work for/with us.  Some of them have been around since almost the beginning, some are brand new, some have come to us through Brian’s classes, and some come and go as they need extra work.  The great thing about this is that over 50% of them are full-time comic people.  They may not just work for us but they work in the industry as a full-time job.  Others work part-time for “the man” and part-time for us.  This flexibility is perfect for us and for our industry in general.

I’ve talked about before how our industry tends to be secretive (and I still don’t know why) but I also think everyone deserves credit.  Brian & I obviously can’t do everything on our own and our clients know that.  We also can’t give individual credit to each of our employees (or ourselves) since all our names wouldn’t fit on the title page!  What we do is offer people a variety of projects to work on that you might not have gotten on your own.  We offer to take care of all the trafficking, all the billing, and getting the gig.  You get to flat or color as much or as little as you want.  We have a system of checks and balances that leaves the clients (& we hope) the employees happy.  As for quality control, Brian oversees all the art that comes through, he makes sure everyone is following the script, everyone matches everyone else, and it all looks pretty.  I make sure the deadlines are met and that everyone has what they need to complete the project.

This system works for us but, as I said, it doesn’t really give credit to all the hard work that everyone puts in. So since I had to put the list together anyway, here is a shout out to those who currently work for us.  There have been many more who come and go but this list is for anyone that has worked with us in the last year.  Also, I’ve tried to come up with approximate dates to when they started with us–might have gotten some of those wrong, sorry–if there are two dates they took some time off then came back.  I should also say the many (if not most) of these people are uber talented and also pencil, ink, work on their own projects, do graphic design, make websites, etc.

David Bryant, 1999

Mike Worley, 1999

Steve Cobb, 2001, 2009

Brett Smith, 2001, 2008

Mark Sweeney, 2003?, 2008

John Wilson, 2003

Bill Farmer, 2005

Dan Neumann, 2005

Robert Snyder, 2005

Dustin Yee, 2005

Stephen Downer, 2007

Stephanie Letterson, 2007

Lisa Moore, 2007

Jana Siefkas, 2007

Megan Spence, 2007

Chris Summers, 2007

Travis Walton, 2007

Joseph Baker, 2008

James Darden, 2008

Phil Good, 2008

Dan & David Kemp, 2008

Donnie Nichols, 2008

Marcia de Piedade Nunes Patricio, 2008

Kevin Volo, 2008

Eric White, 2008

Ray Dillion, 2009

Davi-Ann Farmer, 2009

Joe Lampone, 2009

Diego Lopez, 2009

Milen Parvanov, 2009

Sapphire Trickett, 2009

Sylvia Moore, 2010

A couple of interesting tidbits… Donnie Nichols & Jana Siefkas are my parents, they wanted to learn to flat so we taught them (& gave them computers & bought them Photoshop) and now we pay them… wait did that work out right?

Dave Bryant & Mike Worley have been with us since the very beginning, they worked with Brian in the basement of our townhouse in Overland Park, KS from just about the first gig on.

Steve C & Brett were part of the first crew that worked in a studio with Brian when we moved to AZ.

We thinned down for awhile and then we started up the studio again, Dustin was a part of that wave.  He lived here in AZ for awhile then when the studio went virtual he moved to other parts.  Poor Dustin, also gets left in charge when Brian & I are out for whatever reason.  Unfortunately for him, I’ve taught him my part of the job and now he gets stuck with it sometimes.

There have been many others come and go over the years, this is just those working for us currently (or within the last year.)  Flatters are interesting, almost everyone of them (except John, he’s been with us steadily for seven years) have stopped flatting at some point and come back.  The great thing about flatting is that you can walk away, do something else for a couple years, then fall right back into it.  We have students who slow down during finals or mid-terms but work extra during the summer.  We have some who have kids and only work with they are napping or whatever.

Coloring is also flexible but not as easy to fall off the earth for a few years and then jump back in.  Takes awhile, it seems, to get your groove back on. 

We have had a few unsuccessful stories… some who only wanted fame, some who only wanted to steal our clients, some who wanted more money for less work (don’t we all!), some who couldn’t take the deadlines, and some who burnt out.

Majority, we’ve had great times.  Some I know personally (& could recognize in a crowd) some I see once a year at Con & some I’ve only ever seen there FB picture.  Most everyone that we work with is reliable, dependable and willing to help out whenever needed.  If we didn’t have such great help we could never meet the deadlines and get the clients we do.

So instead of grumbling about the tax man, let’s turn this into a celebration & shout out to all that help Hi-Fi run smoothly.  (Can you see the Michael Bay scene in your head–flags waiving, big music crescendo, people kissing and crying.)

Sincerely, thanks to everyone past & present who have been a part of Hi-Fi.

Kristy Miller

VP, Development

Hi-Fi colour design