Eric Bricker – Director of “Visual Acoustics”

Even third graders like Visual Acoustics.

Of all the featured reviews, personal feedback and positive responses from various media outlets and audiences, director Eric Bricker points me to a series of quotes from 9-year-olds who unbelievably took in the fantastic documentary and even enjoyed an extended question and answer session following the viewing. Therein lies the ability of Bricker to captivate his audience with the work inside of famed photographer Julius Shuman.

Visual Acoustics follows Shulman’s work, noted worldwide for his stunning photographs of modernist architecture, especially in Southern California. Shulman’s personality and work is front and center in the movie and gave Bricker some incredible material to work with and also a level of reverence to reach for. It was a difficult tension, as Bricker tells us, but it’s something he handled well. In fact, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

SSv: Have you been pleased with the reception to Visual Acoustics so far?

Eric Bricker: I am. This is a film – and I’m being as objective as I can – that audiences react to on so many different levels. Whether it is falling in love with Julius or getting completely turned on to architecture and design and photography or just the spirit of the film itself, it has exceeded my expectations in terms of audience reception.

SSv: Has there been one bit of feedback that’s become most meaningful?

Eric: Yeah, I have a good one for you. I didn’t know how young this film would play. We did a showing in Phoenix and some 12-year-olds reacted to it. But when we were in Denver, we did a preview screening and, believe it or not, a class of third and fourth graders were coming to see it the morning after the preview screening we had.

SSv: Really? [Laughs]

Eric: Yeah. And I thought when we came back for the Q&A, these kids would completely be ripping the seats out of the floor and they would hang me. I thought it would be complete mutiny. Then it turns out, they loved it. It was a group of gifted and talented students and we had a 45-minute Q&A. They wouldn’t stop. I was totally amazed.

If Julius could have heard about that, which I would have called him right afterwards, he would have been elated.

SSv: Do you think that’s a testament to Julius as a person and artist and the power of his work?

Eric: Yeah, I really do. They fell in love with Julius. That was most of the comments on here. That was the way that the film was structured. The kids fell in love with Julius and that’s what everyone is really falling for. I knew if he comes across as a very compelling character – whether you love him or hate him, if you have an emotional reaction to him, he becomes the portal for this larger story of modernist architecture and design.

But without him being successful, the material would have been easily relegated to this academic, institutional type of film. I didn’t want that because I thought there was a broader story here – both with Julius and ultimately the intent of these architects and designers.

SSv: How much of the film did Julius get to see?

Eric: Yeah, he saw the completed film several times. He even went to three different film festivals and participated in four Q&As. He completely embraced the film.

SSv: How is that having the subject of the film walking alongside the film? That has to create a tension because you have a responsibility to present things fairly and yet the subject is right there.

Eric: No, it was never like that. First off, I didn’t show him anything along the way because I was afraid of exactly what you’re describing. I just didn’t know how he would react out of context and didn’t want his pressure what I’m doing with the film. That would have added an unnecessary layer of stress for me. So I didn’t show it to him.

He also trusted me. That helps. We were friends before I made this film, so he knew who I was. With that in place, it was definitely something – and Julius is a collaborator and he loves that aspect of creating – that wasn’t about me and him. It was an us thing. So when you have that support and anticipation, it makes for a much better end result.

SSv: What was the biggest difficulty in working with him or this material?

Eric: The biggest difficulty in working with him personally was the fact that even though he loved to be in front of the camera, he couldn’t let go of being behind the camera. Quite often, we have him yelling at us as to how to shoot it or what to ask him. Then you go back and ask him that very thing and he’d snap at you with ‘I just told you that.’ [Laughs] He wouldn’t want to answer it then. It’s rather comical and we have some pretty funny sayings that I should put together as outtakes on the special features.

And then in terms of the overall difficulties with the film itself, it is trying to put it all together into something that has a chance of breaking out into a larger audience. I think most people in the States at least – and Europe is quite different – in the mainstream, they don’t really know all that much about it or have awareness of it. Or they think of it as something that excludes them and think of it as some kind of artsy thing. But I think it’s the opposite of that. I think it’s something that includes every single person at every moment of their lives.

SSv: How’d you get Dustin Hoffman to narrate?

Eric: Dustin had gotten Julius to shoot the newly built Center for Performing Arts at Santa Monica Community College. I think he might have been on the board. He saw it going up. He saw the steel frame at the building and he wanted to get it photographed. So Julius came and did it for him and they became friends. I was out of town at the time, so I missed all of this.

So he ended up a year and a half later, he became the recipient of the Julius Shulman Excellence in Communications Award at the Julius Shulman Institute at Woodbury University and he went and accepted the award. I was there and the two of them together on stage, I was observing and realized they were cut from the same cloth. They both thrive on an audience and the chemistry between the two, the volley between the two. I just thought they went well together.

Then the final thing and the main reason why I approach him, when I heard him discuss his approach to his craft and the level of authenticity and integrity and the process he goes through and how he treats what he does in acting, I thought this guy is a master craftsman just like Shulman is a master craftsman. So I thought his voice would be relevant and appropriate as the voice of the film.

SSv: I’m wondering about the reverence you have to hold, if that makes sense, when you’re working with such an artist like Shulman and his work. How do you hold those things in tension? How do you handle that pressure, if there is any?

Eric: Yes, I completely get what you’re saying. And you make total sense. I think it goes three layers deep. The first one is, I’m making a film about the photographer and his photographer. So that’s one and two. Then I also have the architecture which is made by these architects. So already the bar is raised pretty high. These are master pieces of architecture along with masterpiece photographs. So whether I was filming the subcontractors or Julius or every bit of energy that went into the materials I’m working with had to be treated with a certain level of reverence.

So I knew I couldn’t cut corners on any level or element – whether it’s the sound mix or cinematography or the animation. There were people saying, ‘Eric, finish the film already.’ I was saying, ‘I can’t. I have an obligation to this material to know that I gave it 100% and to know I did it the best that I could.’ So there was that and the fact that Julius was in his 90’s and we didn’t know how long he would be around. Those two things were driving me and they were goals that I had to meet. So it was finish it so he could see it and yet not compromise on it.

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