Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Ulrich.
Hi Brian, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Making movies was a hobby for me starting in middle school. My brothers and I would just take a camera out and go film stuff.
I never thought I would make a career of it. As I got older and started watching the behind-the-scenes for movies (especially Lord of the Rings and Star Wars), I started to realize you could do something like that for a living.
At first, I thought I wanted to be in front of the camera. I got an agent and started getting onto movie and TV show sets. But the more I was on set, the more I realized I wanted to influence what went on behind the camera.
Once I got to film school at Biola University, I was pretty sure I wanted to direct action-adventure films but took the time to learn all the different roles on set. I took all the classes I could, sound, editing, and even makeup, which gave me a holistic view of what it takes to make a movie and made me even more certain I wanted to direct.
It was at Biola that I met and started working with my, at the time, girlfriend, Julianna. She was a physics major, working at NASA, but loved my creativity and vision for what I wanted to do. She started helping me out on my projects, first as a boom op, then catering and craft services, and eventually, started helping me produce.
We both graduated from Biola in 2012, got married in 2013, and eventually, both ended up working at a production company in Irvine, CA, she as a Producer and me as the Director of Post Production. We had the goal of being a Director/Producer/Writer team like Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas, or Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh.
Over the years that followed, we learned a lot on the job, kept making our own short films, helped my brother, Kevin, with his LEGO YouTube channel, and got to be a part of projects for Disney, Warner Bros, Lucas Film, and even had work featured in The LEGO Movie.
It was a time of building our relationships and skills, but we still hadn’t even come close to achieving our goal. In 2016, we decided that if we were going to structure our lives around being a filmmaking team, we’d better actually do it and see if it’s what we wanted to focus our lives on.
By the next year, we were in production on our first feature, a neo-noir action romance crime thriller with a sci-fi twist. The film, Last Three Days, was a mashup of our own love story, mixed in with real-life stories from an undercover cop we knew, some Nolan-esque non-linear storytelling, and one of our favorite authors, C.S. Lewis.
We used the production of Last Three Days to solidify the relationships and develop the skills we needed to launch our own production company, Brotherhood Studios, owned and operated by Julianna and myself. Up to this point, it had just been a name, a logo, and a YouTube channel for our short films.
But after our feature, we were able to start making documentaries, commercials, and short films while we worked on post on Last Three Days (you can read more details about the production of Last Three Days on NoFilmSchool: https://nofilmschool.com/low-budget-action-movie-look-million-dollar-feature).
2020 was a year of change not just for the world, but also for us and our family. Around the same time we were closing our distribution deal for Last Three Days, Julianna also gave birth to our daughter, Genevieve Joy, and the balance of being business partner filmmaking parents began.
Last Three Days was released Nov 13, 2020, and has now been released in over 30 countries and translated into more than 6 languages. It is currently available on all VOD platforms and streaming on Paramount+.
We continued to make commercials and short films, but also started developing new feature films to follow the success of Last Three Days.
Currently, we have three features in development, with even more being written. Julianna continues to produce and 1st AD features, commercials, and shorts, while I write, produce, direct, and 2nd unit direct action scenes. When we’re not knee-deep in production, Julianna and I also teach film classes at Biola University in order to give back to the community that gave so much to us and share our love of storytelling with the next generation of filmmakers.
We are also both very involved parents with Genevieve and bring her to our film sets and let her travel with us as much as possible. For all the amazing adventures Julianna and I have had, nothing compares to spending time together with Genevieve, and we’re so excited for the adventures we all have ahead.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road has been far from smooth. Multiple times, I thought maybe I just wasn’t cut out for this. But some opportunity or encouragement has always kept me in the game.
A failed production on a short film that put some friendships into a tough place taught me the value of people, the value of friendships, and the importance of proper planning, scheduling, and budgeting (enter Julianna as my producer and 1st AD to keep me on track).
When we left our full-time jobs to start Brotherhood Studios and work for ourselves, work quickly dried up, and we had to take on a couple of part time jobs between gigs to pay the bills. For about a year, we didn’t know if working for ourselves was going to work out.
At the same time, we were in post on our feature, and we didn’t know if we were going to be able to sell it when we finished. A lot of unknowns. A lot of praying for opportunities. A lot of knocking on doors to see what would open. But, here we are, three years, one feature release, one kid, 4 short films, and about 30 commercials later!
In short, the film industry is never a smooth road. But we’ve stuck with it, we’re still making content, still making movies, and we still love doing it together.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in making narrative filmmaking, especially action or stunt-related content. But I also love working with kids and telling fun, whimsical stories. My first film, Last Three Days, is one of my proudest career achievements. The action is intense and compelling and one of the best parts of the film.
When people read the script, they didn’t think we’d be able to pull it off on the budget we had, but because of a strong vision, an amazing team, and thorough pre-production, we were able to pull off some really intense action scenes. The important thing is knowing what something will look like in-camera, and being able to plan something that will work.
With stunts and action, it’s all about faking stuff. It’s all about angles. If you have a good understanding of angles and lenses, and the experience of doing it time and again, you can create a plan so that when you show up on set, you know the action is going to work but your cast and crew and stunt team are going to be safe.
You don’t have to have a huge budget to do action. But you have to have a good plan.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I grew up in a military family, so we moved around a lot. For about four years, we lived in a house on the east coast that was backed up to the woods.
If the weather was good, my four brothers and I would just set off into the woods to go explore and have adventures. This is before the internet was big. You could barely stream a video. So, we would just set off, and make sure to be back in time for dinner.
Oftentimes, we brought our toy lightsabers with us, and we would divide up into teams, two on three, and have battles all through the woods. I guess it isn’t really any wonder why I’m an action-adventure storyteller.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lastthreedays.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bhstudiospro/ https://www.instagram.com/tyrannus/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvLBw2gzbufhNouxg1W8KhQ
Image Credits
Megan Mead, Chris Haggerty, Bara Kim, Nathan Johnson, Daniel Lambert, Nathan Johnson, and Tanner Myatt
